Concord.org - @CONCORD: The Virtual Meeting

Fall 1998 | Table of Contents | Library Index | CC Home

The Virtual Meeting
Symposium software points to wider communication online
by Raymond Rose

Symposium™, a product of Centra Software, Inc., in 1988 won New Media magazine's Hyper Award for Online Training Software. Symposium was the first software-only system for the integrated delivery and management of live, instructor-led training with self-paced learning and communications across the Internet.

We tried out Symposium on International Waters:LEARN, a technical assistance project implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environmental Facility, to create a shared knowledge base and wider communication between a growing number of international waters projects. The core objective of the project is a three-year plan to test delivery of Internet-based products at 20-25 international sites. The products include audio conferencing, telemeetings, online knowledge bases, online seminars, netcourses, a distance-delivered master's degree program, virtual scientific meetings, and linking of coastal schools.

Teleconferencing

Symposium was a logical product with which to experiment. It combines audio conferencing, live application sharing, a collaborative whiteboard, breakout sessions, computer-based training, web tours, and threaded discussion forums into a comprehensive, content-neutral learning environment. However, we only used a small subset of these features. We focused on the live online conference session.

As a teleconferencing tool, Symposium performed admirably. The participants were able to communicate easily with each other. The audio quality was as good as a telephone conference, and we were able to know that everyone was looking at the same materials at the same time. The critical success factor was the audio capacity of each user's system, which required good quality audio components (audio card, microphone, and preferably a headset). We tuned our audio system with Windows 95 utilities and then, after installation, with Symposium's Audio Wizard. But we found that some systems required no special tuning, while others required extensive tuning.

Midway through the test, we encountered problems when the Symposium client suddenly stopped working on one of our computers. Our Tech Support worked for a long time trying to identify the problem, and it turned out to be the computer's updated the web browser. During its installation a new version of the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) software had been installed which conflicted with our Symposium client. We solved the problem by installing the latest version of Symposium.

Centra has not announced plans for a Macintosh client, so Macintosh users will have to wait. But Windows clients can install Symposium today.

Server Hardware and Software

The Symposium server software runs on a dedicated computer. A dual-processor, high-speed Pentium box with large quantities of memory makes a suitable server. The server software is only available for the NT platform, but a UNIX version may be available in the future.

The server needs to be located on an Internet connection with substantial bandwidth available to support a reasonable number of simultaneous connections. Initial tests during the IW:LEARN meeting happened over our T1 line, a level of bandwidth not necessary for the small number of users in the meeting. But it is clear that a 56 kbs modem connection would have been unacceptable.

The server design proved to be robust. During our teleconference, which included participants from Massachusetts, New York, Washington, D.C., Canada, England and Australia, the leader's computer in Concord, Massachusetts, crashed and had to be rebooted. (The crash had nothing to do with the Symposium client.) But even with the instructor's computer offline, none of the other connections were lost. Participants drew on the shared whiteboard and chatted with each other, just like students do when the teacher leaves the classroom for a while. The teleconference resumed as soon as the leader returned.

User Interface Design

Symposium's instructor interface is different from the student interface. The instructor interface has a number of busy windows to manage, and more than one piece of information can flow within some windows. During our test, the instructor had to periodically check with students to make sure everyone was looking at the same thing. One way to help an inexperienced instructor would be to place a computer displaying the student interface in the same room with the instructor. Having an additional person to assist the instructor provides another set of eyes and ears to help monitor all the various messages and inputs, and can serve as an instructor training strategy.

The student interface is also busy. There are a number of ways for a student to contact the instructor or have private conversations with other participants. This can be confusing. Providing a place where instructions and window management are explained would be useful, if not mandatory, for ensuring a successful online experience.

To our knowledge, there is no manual on how to develop a strong online course or meeting. The technology is so new that the most effective practices are still being created. We found that meeting or course objectives need to be thought out in advance and procedural rules should be developed (e.g., use of yes/no voting and buttons, pacing, and the chat screen). It is important to develop and plan the sequence and structure for any online activity. In this medium, the instructor's directions can make the difference between a successful or a very frustrating experience.

For us, Symposium proved to be a good option for online meetings. We need more experience before we can comment on using it as an instructional tool. One caveat--though it looks like anyone could sit in front of a computer and hold an online meeting, it should not be undertaken casually, no matter what technology is used. Planning and preparation--which are essential to ensuring an effective experience for everyone--are essential to any online activity.

Raymond Rose is the Director of the Educational Technology Lab.

GOOD ADVICE The efficiency and effectiveness of online activities are best when the instructor has taken the time to become thoroughly familiar with the user interface for both the instructor and the student. Given the rich set of options Symposium has, an instructor needs to devote a significant amount of time becoming familiar with the numerous tools and the relative strengths of each tool.

Because audio communication is potentially of such high quality, an instructor can be seduced into using the audio tools without incorporating other aspects of the software that require more involvement from the participants. An online activity that only uses audio could end up being no better than a bad lecture. Event design needs to consider a variety of learning styles, which necessitates the use of more than one Symposium tool.

Good design of the instructor materials is not a trivial consideration. Page length should be restricted to a screen. Confusion can result when the instructor and student are looking at different segments of a long page. Links between pages need to be carefully thought out for both linear and nonlinear presentations.

Each session's objectives should be limited in order to keep the session down to a reasonable time. It is not reasonable to expect that the instructor immediately will have the skills to cover the same amount of materials online as might be covered in the classroom in the equivalent amount of time. But as users become familiar with the whole array of Symposium tools, it is likely that the efficiency of the online medium will exceed the face-to-face meeting. Long online sessions are not a good idea. While there is no technical limitation to the length of a Symposium session, a good rule of thumb would be to keep the time below 90 minutes.

Asynchronous tools such as listservs, threaded discussions, and web pages should be used to support the online activities. Symposium has asynchronous tools for this very purpose. Pre-event readings and post-event discussions are just two simple examples for extending the time devoted to any objective.

The centerpiece of our experiment was the synchronous event. We used asynchronous activities for pre-event preparation. Another approach is to use synchronous activities as the lead-in to an asynchronous event, which could significantly change the nature of the communications.

See also Group Computing (July/Aug 1998) or PC Week (Aug 10, 1998) for a review of Symposium, LearningSpace, and other virtual meeting software.

Fall 1998 | Table of Contents | Library Index | CC Home

Our Newsletter
Our newsletter, @Concord, is published twice annually.