The Electronic Classroom at the Veterinary College
How does the meaning of an electronic classroom differ among and between users (faculty, students and administrators)?
By Joseph Caro
 
 

Introduction

At the college of Veterinary Medicine the administration has gone to great lengths to create a state of the art lecture hall and laboratory. The lecture hall and laboratory, due to the amount of electronic equipment available to the faculty and students, is known to all concerned as the electronic classroom. Since I was working in the information system of the college, I wanted to know how faculty, students and administrators felt about this new electronic classroom.

As part of my project for CEP916 Technology and Education, I wondered whether the electronic classroom was offering a new base for learning and teaching. With the amount of money being invested by the college in this classroom, questions on the conceptual framework of education as it relates to this classroom needed to be looked at. The assumption that knowledge and learning can be enhanced by technology is pivotal in this study. What unique role does technology play in the training of future veterinarians? Does the technology fit with the current curriculum? What demands does the technology place on the faculty, students and administrators? For answers to these questions I prepared to interview faculty, students and administrators of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

 

Theoretical framework

When we look at what constitutes an electronic classroom we have to look at the available research on record. Although what will be presented here is not an exhaustive one it will be sufficient to give you an idea of what research is available on electronic classrooms. Guillot (1995) in her research talks of an electronic classroom as one that is equipped with a CD-ROM to explore the possibilities of exploring didactic materials in computer assisted instruction. The project that was researched showed that the staff became aware of the electronic resources and the potential for teaching and learning, particularly with reference to monolingual dictionaries.

Rezabek-Landra (1993) sees the electronic classroom as one that can be used for distance education. In this case the electronic classroom utilizes videotaped lectures, computer-mediated communication among teacher and student. Even though the student is not visible, since the teacher is directing her instructions to a camera, the researcher points to some important tips. For one, the teacher should overcome the eerie feeling that no one is listening. Other things to consider are; being patient with electronic kinks, staying learner centered; taking advantage of the media; making sure that the needs are addressed and recognizing aspects of one’s educational philosophy that will translate well to the format being used. This gives us another view of an electronic classroom as described by the researcher, Rezabek-Landra. This is important to note for no matter what the teacher is teaching or where the teacher is addressing the students, there are basic tenets that should not be overlooked. These are the same ones that the researcher outlined above.

In the same thread Mc Henry (1995) did a study of an electronic classroom in Iowa. Here again the class studied is one prepared for long distance education via closed circuit television. We now have another point of view of what constitutes an electronic classroom. The mere fact that a television camera is used to lecture via television makes for an electronic classroom.

Looking for other identities of electronic classrooms I came across the following by Norman (1994) which describes an electronic classroom at the University of Maryland. It seems that the University in partnership with AT & T developed a state of the art classroom with high performance workstations at each student desk. The instructor also has a power station at the podium for controlling what the students see at theirs. Not to be outdone the University of Buffalo according to Anderson (1993) have what he calls the most recent Educational Technology Equipped Classroom. In other words this is an electronic classroom. The big difference in this classroom, as Anderson’s study points out, is the involvement of the teachers in the planning and improvements for better use of the technology. It is important to note at this time that Tyack and Cuban (1995) wrote:

"In the top-down process of advocating and implementing technology, teachers were rarely consulted, though it was mainly their job to make it work in the classroom". If you want technology to work then those involved with its use should be consulted.

As I have noted the meaning or description of an electronic classroom varies. The term electronic classroom can be applied to any classroom that is used for the sole purpose of teaching and learning. Thus the electronic classroom at the College of Veterinary Medicine falls within these descriptions.

Methodology

In order for me to answer the questions stated in the introduction, it was necessary to follow a course of action. I interviewed faculty, students, and administrators at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Then I transcribed the interviews so that I could compare answers and make notes where there seem to be differences. The appointments were made at the convenience of the participants. At which time the purpose of the interview was explained and consent forms were signed. The identity of the participants is not divulged at any time in the study. A portable tape recorder was used to make sure that the participants words were not misrepresented or misunderstood. Once all the data was collected, the task of transcribing and analyzing begun. In analyzing the data, I used the questions of a conceptual framework to separate the answers and find a logical sequence which I could use.

Two members from each group, faculty, students and administrators, were interviewed. This sample was chosen to provide a cross section of the college population. The interviews with the six subjects were conducted, lasting from 15 minutes to a half hour, in an attempt to find out their answers to the following questions;

1-What is the role of the electronic classroom?

2-How does the electronic classroom enhance instructional effectiveness?

3-What disadvantages do you see with the electronic classroom?

4-Describe your past experience with technology in the classroom?

5-What class do you have in the electronic classroom?

6-Ideally, what is the purpose of conducting this class in the electronic classroom? 7-In practice does it meet those goals? 8-How could the instructional effectiveness be improved in the electronic classroom?

9-How does the electronic classroom relate to the practice of veterinary medicine?

 The answers which emerged from the interviews showed a positive attitude to the use of the electronic classroom and a consensus among the groups as to the meaning of the electronic classroom.

 

 

 

Results

What unique role does technology play in the training of future veterinarians?

In asking the students what the role of the electronic classroom was I was impressed by the knowledge that they foresaw in its use. As an example the interactive part of this technology was of importance to both students.

"I think it supplements formal lectures, and I especially think it’s a good tool in this room with the histology. I think it’s a great way of seeing slides, seeing additional information. It’s a good added teaching tool, people have used it in our VIPS courses to write things down. We’ve used it to look at blood smears, and having a question answered for me, so it’s more active learning than just sitting there listening to someone lecture to you, and watch slides fairly quickly. In G-150 it’s awesome for taking notes. I type all my notes in most of the time unless they give us a course pack, and even then I still sometimes type my notes in because I find that if I’m actively writing things down, I learn better. It helps me retain things. We’ve used it in a quiz format--a couple of our professors quiz us after each lecture, which is a good incentive to listen to lecture! I think it’s a great benefit. " Perhaps not surprisingly the students brought out the different learning styles of all students and how the lecturer can adjust his teaching to make sure everyone understands. "I would say it just really maximizes the educational opportunity there, because of the quiz program. He can say, well here’s a couple of points. I want to see if they understood the main points that were being put across, and he knows right away that day how are they getting this. So, that’s a tough question to answer. I guess that would be the biggest thing."

"And I’ve really learned my way around computers since I’ve been here. I mean I’m not great, but I know how to use e-mail, I know how to use basic word processing, I know how to store things, I’ve got disks now that I’ve saved things on, so I think there’s been a lot of other benefits besides just education. And I think, especially for our field, once we get out of school, I think computers are going to become more and more important as far as running your businesses, so I think this exposure is going to help a lot."

 At the same time they saw a need that was being met by the school at this time, which was going to help them in their future practices. I would like to point out that both sexes were represented and showed no differences in attitudes towards their answers.

In trying to see what unique role this electronic classroom played in the practice of veterinary medicine the students saw that this classroom was preparing them for the future. Not only were they going to use computers for record keeping, and billing, but they would be able to keep in touch with other practitioners and the latest techniques in their field. They also saw the use of computers as a form of distance diagnostic tool which would save time and energy in helping their clients. As one of them noted:

"I think that would be a very big thing, and also like the telemedicine thing again. The more images we can use in the class, the more real life clinical data we can use in front of us would be helpful. And again, no professors is ever going to be able to get away from just sheer lecturing information--2/3, 80% of it--there’s just a lot of data we have to know." As we have seen the students were almost identical in their responses to the questions posed to them. I now turn my attention to the faculty to see how they view the unique role of the electronic classroom. Their responses to the very same questions posed to the students showed no variation in their responses. They too felt that this classroom afforded the students more options to learn the same material. It gives the instructor immediate feed back so that if a student does not understand a point that he is making, he can go over the material in a different manner. He is able to do this by his being able to query randomly through the special program called Q & A. Students are afforded the opportunity to ask questions anonymously. Here I offer the statement of one of the faculty members to support my statements: "The role of the electronic classroom, I think, allows us to offer students more options than in the past, for means of study on their own for example. Like Powerpoint slides--I make them available to the students so that they can review the material that I present in class on their own. I think that there are a lot of other things that are facilitated by the electronic classroom. The question & answer program, I think a lot of instructors have found useful." Again the faculty’s answers to the question about conducting the class in the electronic classroom was as if they were tuned to each others thoughts. They saw how the interaction of the material made the course more attractive to students and accessible after the lecture was over. This is what one of the faculty said: "Again I guess trying to come up with innovative ideas to get across the material using the classroom. For example, this year I would like to use sound as more a part of the classroom, not only just to keep the interest up and keep the students attentive, but maybe broadcasting some, for example heart sounds or something like that so the students can hear it at the time you’re talking about it. Or what an arrhythmia would sound like..." This is not much different from what the other faculty member also said.

As we moved along with the questioning and answering, the responses to how this classroom related to the practice of veterinary medicine was like hearing the students answer. I have endeavored to include here excerpts from both faculty members because they touch on the same topic and are similar to the students response.

"Well I guess if the students are used to looking at the computer and using the computer, then the programs that the college is trying to set up with distance learning or, what do they call it, where they’re going to try to send digital radiographs back and forth, that type of thing. So if you get them interested in that they’ll be very comfortable with it I think when they’re in practice, and should be willing and able to buy a computer and participate" So far the students and faculty see things in similar terms. Their responses are very similar and if I didn’t have their answers coded I would not be able to tell who said what.

Now we come to the administrators and their answers to the same questions. Although the answers from administrators showed a history and view of the future their answers in essence echoed the same themes expounded by the students and faculty. The use of words such as "utilization of technology" "used in the future" and "one on one teaching" are similar to those that the students and faculty used to describe the role of the electronic classroom.

"I think veterinary education is probably not unique in that it has some very specific objectives that need to be achieved. We need to end up with veterinary students that have the mass of knowledge that they need to be veterinarians. And in the past, teaching that body of knowledge required certain technologies; we went from just lecturing to overheads, and I think in this particular age, new technologies are available to make this learning much more exciting, much more effective, and more cost effective as well. And so, the sorts of modalities that we’ve used in the past, things like lecturing, are suited to certain things like transferring information, maybe organizing information, but not as good at other things such as teaching students to think, teaching students to work with material so they get a more intimate knowledge of that. I think technology can help us with things like that." As one of the administrators indicates, large classrooms can have students getting lost but with the electronic classroom students and lecturers can communicate ananymously and thus avoid loosing student because he was afraid to ask questions.

In so far as why conduct class in the electronic classroom administrators agree that it is more efficient and allows students to grasp the concepts. As one of the administrators put it:

Well, as I mentioned, the veterinary curriculum is one that’s probably much like other curricula, but it more specifically requires students to use the knowledge that they gain. Most of them go out into veterinary practice, so when they go to other settings they really need to be able to use the information. It’s not just there for fun, it’s there for use. So, for us it’s very important that students learn to think and that they not only have a passing understanding of concepts, but they can actually use them. I believe that they also saw the classroom as being cost efficient. In the use of the electronic lab, as compared to the standard lab where the lecturer needed 4 or 5 TA’s, now they can do without the TA’s, due to the computers and camera at the disposal of the lecturer. "I think its very effective, and it allows us to do things more quickly, certainly in the laboratory. I can go through a laboratory session more efficiently, more rapidly without having to depend on 4 or 5 TA’s to assist me. From that standpoint, clearly I think its much more effective and efficient in terms of how that laboratory interaction occurs. " Administrators just like students and faculty see the relation of the electronic classroom to the practice of veterinary medicine in the same light. It is their opinion that in order to be a good practitioner of veterinary medicine you must have knowledge and be able to think. The electronic classroom affords the student an opportunity to explore and develop those techniques that will be needed in his future practice. As one of the administrators states in his interview: "…in doing recordings of electronic impulses with the electrocardiogram, radiology has utilized technology, and now we’re digitizing images with some much more sophisticated computer technology, and so, in that instance, in the actual delivery of veterinary service, technology moves from the classroom to the examination room or the specialty service that utilizes technology to characterize normal versus abnormal; it certainly goes well beyond just the acquisition of basic learning," Administrators, faculty and students thus far have agreed on all of their answers.

 

 

 

Does it fit the curriculum?

It is important to find out if the new technology that is being embraced by schools, and universities fit into the curriculum or is it just a fad. As Cuban and Tyack (1995) illustrated in their book, other technologies promised to revolutionize the educational field, however, due to the influences coming from outside of academia, it never took hold. I am referring here to the radio, movies and television. The reason they were not adopted by academia was that teachers were the last to know about the technology and were never asked to be partners in its implementation.

We now find ourselves with the computer age and its many wonderful uses to enhance teaching. In this train of thought I asked students, faculty and administrators how the electronic classroom enhanced the instructional effectiveness. For the students, they saw it as a means of allowing for greater interaction. As one of them put it:

"I think as well I think that the age-old didactic approach, just lecturing and the student is sitting there and listening, you can just add to it. That gets old after awhile, and even if it’s an interesting topic, after 6, 7, 8 weeks, or in my case 2½ years of listening to stuff that I’m interested in, it gets old after awhile. And if you can throw in that added element of being able to participate somehow in the lectures. I mean, lectures still have to be given, there’s no way around it. But if the student can participate more, like in G-150 through the computers that are there, if there’s a way to participate more like in making clinical decisions on cases that we’re presented with, I think that would be important." The expressions of this student are the same as for the other student, thus showing that indeed they see this as an enhancement in their course instructions.

The faculty on the same question felt that it allowed for a different way of presenting material and having it available for students to review at their own time and pace. They also felt that it created better communication with students. Feedback after an exam could be speeded up. This allowed for students and instructors to see each others point of view and clarify any erroneous points. In no way have the answers, so far being negative, students and faculty do see these classroom as a mean to enhance instruction.

Looking at the administrators answers to this question we see that it mirrored what the students and faculty were saying. Although they have no raw data or even a study to verify that it is more effective there is no doubt that what they have witnessed does show that it is enhancing instructional lectures. An administrator put it this way:

"You really need individual efforts by students, and I think that technology helps you to do exactly those things in a group setting. So, you can give students problems to solve that they can do on their computer individually and you can have the feedback that you need in terms of what the responses are of the class, so you can get that and you can get students also to learn almost instantaneously how they’re doing by having them answer questions and having them know where they are in terms of the response to the class." There is no doubt in my mind that all three groups view the electronic classroom as a tool that is enhancing instructional effectiveness. This they see in the way that students respond and the results of exams.

In so far as the use of the classroom by students, the one’s I interviewed do indeed use it. As one of them said to me; "all of our lectures are in that room now". What I didn’t hear from them was the extent to which the electronics in the classroom was being utilized by all instructors. In so far as the faculty and their use of the classroom, both interviewed used it and its electronic components. They do feel that more of the classrooms should be equipped with this technology. Administrators responded in a positive form for the use of this room. They like to use this room because it allows for an interaction that is not possible without the use of the electronics in the room. Students can ask and answer questions anonymously giving the lecturer a handle on how they are understanding the material being presented. As one of them put it: "it’s really a kind of check on what they’ve absorbed in the first part of the class period, and with an opportunity to correct any misinterpretations".

With the use of the electronic classroom one must verify if the use and purpose of having classes in this room meet the goals set by the administrators, faculty and students. The goals that I am referring to are of giving the students a better grasp of the material and allowing for more interaction with the instructor. The administrators at this point and time believe that it does meet these goals. However, they would like to see a study done to look at outcome assessment. A very important point to make here is the utilization of the technology by all concerned. To this I quote what an administrator said in this regard:

"For those who utilize the technology it certainly does. If their pedogogical goals are same as mine, and I think most of the faculty who use the technology really adhere to the intent of the new curriculum in terms of interactive teaching and learning, and I think it’s important that we use both of those terms, teaching and learning, because there is a responsibility on the instructor, but there also is a similar responsibility on the student in terms of utilizing technology. Another way that I use the technology, not in the classroom, but outside the classroom, is when we assign papers or as there are questions about writing assignments or whatever, the students can use the technology to contact me in my office at any time, and I can respond." The students and faculty both agree that their goals are being met with the use of the electronic classroom. As with what the administrators said the students and faculty feel that this question can best be answered with a study that shows outcome assessment of the electronic classroom versus the traditional lecture hall lectures without the electronics. But suffice to say that all three groups agreed that the goals were being met by this new curriculum, if we can call it that. New curriculum because it uses new tools to teach the same material, however, in an innovative fashion.

What demands are placed on students, faculty and administrators?

According to Sedlak (1987) many people including educators hold a simplistic model of teaching, it being the "bright-person" model. They see the student as being responsible for decoding of the information delivered by instructors. In other words the teachers responsibility basically ends when they have told or instructed the students as to what they must remember to know and do. However, what we are seeing at the College of Veterinary Medicine is just the opposite. Administrators, faculty and students working together so that the transfer of knowledge is a cooperative venture. The electronic classroom is the way that the three groups are using it to facilitate the transfer of knowledge.

Yes, not all the students use the technology in the same way, but they use it. What I mean to say by this is that there are distracting activities taking place, by student peers, during lecture time. As one of the interviewee stated:

"OK, disadvantage number 1, it can be distracting because you want to sit there on the e-mail and e-mail people in your class, or there are games on it that you can play with, so I’ve sat through a couple of lectures and not heard a thing because I was playing with the computer. So that’s one big disadvantage. Also, it can be sometimes distracting when you hear people typing around you a lot, especially if it’s a lecture that you don’t need to use the computer for, you’re not using it, and then you have all these people around that are sending e-mails or typing or doing whatever. So that can be distracting. The light terminals can be distracting sometimes, like if they have turned down the light in the classroom. I think those are the main things I’ve noticed." Both student agreed that the biggest disadvantage was the distraction caused by improper use of the electronic equipment.

In so far as the faculty members they too concede that students don’t pay attention to the lecture because they are otherwise occupied with e-mail, games, surfing the net and other things. Curiously enough one of the faculty members expressed the same sentiments of the administrators in regards to some faculty members not being comfortable with the new technology. In the same vain administrators agreed that equipment acquisition and maintenance is horrendously expensive. The other cost is in faculty retraining and the high risk of failure the first time you apply something in the classroom which you thought was going to work.

Along the same line of thought prior experience with technology in the classroom showed that administrators said that their experience was pretty well limited to an overhead transparency projector and a carousel projector. I want to point out at this point that although there was a great deal of technology available, such as radiology, imaging, endoscopy, nuclear medicine and others, these were not directed at teaching or in a position that made them available in the classroom.

As with the administrators the faculty’s past experience with technology in the classroom was limited to the overhead projector or the carousel projector. Not surprisingly the students answer was the same as the faculty and the administrators. There is no reason to believe that students experience would be any different from their superiors since in education innovation in the classroom travels top down.

Asking the three groups to supply me with what they thought would improve instructional effectiveness in the electronic classroom, was the only question where I received quite different answers. Without identifying who said what, I will list their opinions so that you can get an idea of the complexity that this entails.

It is no wonder that teaching is such a difficult task. Lortie (1975) for example has suggested that many teachers proceed on impulse and intuition to teach. They rely on their personal experience rather than on their professional education. Because of this, trying to implement the suggestions made by the three groups is difficult. Since each instructor is an "individual teacher" his style and techniques are unique to him or her, thus trying to change all of the "individual teachers" to conform to a particular style of teaching becomes an insurmountable task.

Conclusion and Recommendations

This short and qualitative study has shown that having an electronic classroom in the College of Veterinary Medicine meant the same thing to administrators, faculty and the students. In concluding this statement I have looked at the three groups and their responses to the same questions asked of each of them. The responses were all similar and in agreement with each other.

As we saw in the section that answered the question about the unique role that technology played in the training of future veterinarians, all three groups agreed that it was unique and played an important part in the training of future veterinarians. Anonymity being one word that all three groups used in answering this question showed that they were thinking in the same terms. The future of veterinary medicine is going to rely very heavily on the use of technology to allow veterinarians to stay abreast of the latest techniques in veterinary medicine. It will also allow for the vets to communicate using this new technology and share their expertise with one another. Continuing education will be more accessible to all, since they wont have to leave their practices to complete this phase. It can be done at home or in the office at their own pace.

In answering the second question posed in my introduction regarding the fit of technology to the curriculum there was overwhelming agreement by the groups in how this was so. The electronic classroom did enhance the courses being taught since it allowed for interaction between students and lecturers in ways not possible before. At the same time material presented to the students was more interesting and allowed students and lecturers to know if the material was being understood. There was faster feedback between the faculty and the students.

In so far as answering the third question in the introduction regarding the demands that are placed on students, faculty and administrators, I would have to conclude that the three groups were basically in agreement. Although one question gave me different answers from all the interviewees, this was expected. The reason being that not everyone, when given a wish, wishes for the same thing. Apart from this the answers from the groups pointed to the same problems that face them all. For example the distraction that occurs during lecture by those using the technology to do other things and the fact that a greater number of lecturers should be using this technology with their course presentation. The demands, as time passes, becomes greater for all three groups. As students learn to rely on computers to do the major part of their studies, the demand on the faculty will become greater. Faculty will have to learn the new technology and incorporate it into their course. This will lead to having administrators facing the task of acquiring and maintaining up to date equipment and looking for time in which to train the existing staff in its proper use.

Recommendations

Since this study only used a very small sample, I would like to recommend that a study be done that is both quantitative and qualitative. In this way the opinion of all those people at the college can be analyze and computed. There should be some way to quantify the effectiveness of the electronic classroom, which means doing a study over several years.

In order to alleviate the problem of distraction in the electronic classroom by students, there should be an effort made to have an application written so that lecturers can control the computers at the students station, allowing only access to what is being used at the present lecture.

For faculty, since they are doing clinical and educational work at the same time, there is a need to entice them to use and develop teaching applications that can be used in the electronic classroom. This seems to be where faculty and administrators are going to have to meet half way on each others demand for time. Faculty feel that they don’t have the time and administrators feel that they are being paid and have the time given them to prepare for the lectures. Not an easy task for either party but one that has to be met and complied with if the new technology is to survive.
 
 

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