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Computer-mediated communication (CMC) promotes a type of
interaction that is often lacking in the traditional teacher-
based classroom. It allows learners the freedom to explore
alternative pathways-to find and develop their own style of
learning. What if content could be delivered in the form of
graphics, text, and/or full-motion video, whenever and wherever
in the world it is requested? How do we, as teachers and
educators, responsibly participate in and make use of the
inevitable technological changes at hand?

Computers are not a threat to the teacher (although the role
of the teacher must change when using them), but computers may
threaten the chalkboard. Computer technologies allow
professionals to share with students tools that we use daily.
Further, as educators, we can provide guidance to help students
develop meaningful ways to construct their own knowledge, much as
we ourselves do.

Rae Wahl Rohfeld and Roger Hiemstra (Chapter 5) draw on their
experience teaching in the Syracuse University Distance Education
Program to examine the experiences of both course facilitators
and students in courses delivered via CMC. They found that
effective courses via CMC are based on a learner-centered
approach to education in which facilitators and students share
responsibility and participation in learning and teaching. To
initiate such a process, facilitators must make sure they and
their students have adequate training and support on the
electronic system. They must also do a great deal of advance
planning to teach a course via the new medium. By initiating a
variety of activities, both on and off-line, facilitators can
encourage an active, challenging learning environment. As the
class conference progressed, Rohfeld and Hiemstra found that
different strategies were necessary to keep energy high.

Those involved in the Syracuse University Distance Education
Program were highly satisfied with this mode of learning once
they got past initial difficulties with technology. Because the
courses were delivered by CMC, students were able to take
considerable control over their learning in terms of how they
scheduled both personal study time and group-interaction time,
how much personal contact they had with the instructor and other
learners, and how they contributed to the class. Rohfeld and
Hiemstra are confident that courses delivered via CMC can meet
immediate learning needs as well as help learners increase self-
direction in their ongoing learning.

Scholars from a variety of fields study phenomena that can be described under the umbrella term of CMC (see also Internet studies). For example, many take a sociopsychological approach to CMC by examining how humans use "computers" (or digital media) to form, support and maintain relationships with others (social uses), regulate information flow (instructional uses), and make decisions (including major financial and political ones).

Researchers in communication studies, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and similar fields look at CMC to observe how language is used in computer-mediated contexts (online discourse environments). These studies have often focused on the distinct differences that exist between online and offline interactions, though contemporary research is moving towards the view that CMC should be studied as a unique interactive medium in its own right. The focus of this research includes the use of paralinguistic features such as emoticons; pragmatic rules such as turn-taking and the sequential organization of talk; and the various sociolects, styles, registers or sets of terminology specific to these environments (see Leet). The study of language in these contexts is typically based on text-based forms of CMC, and is often referred to as "computer-mediated discourse analysis" by many contemporary researchers.

The way humans communicate in professional, social, and educational settings varies widely, depending upon not only the environment but also the method of communication in which the communication occurs (which, in this case, is through computers or other ICTs). The study of communication to achieve collaboration - common work products - is termed computer-supported collaboration and includes only some of the concerns of other forms of CMC research.

Popular forms of CMC include e-mail, video, audio or text chat (text conferencing including "instant messaging"), bulletin boards, list-servs and MMOs. These settings are changing rapidly with the development of new technologies. Weblogs (blogs) have also become popular, and the exchange of RSS data has better enabled users to each "become their own publisher." Additionally, the wiki has come to provide interesting alternatives for communication.

Communication occurring within a computer-mediated format has an effect on many different aspects of an interaction. Some of these that have received attention in the scholarly literature include impression formation, deception and lying behavior, group dynamics, disinhibition and especially relationship formation.

CMC is examined and compared to other communication media through a number of aspects thought to be universal to all forms of communication, including (but not limited to) synchronicity, persistence or "recordability", and anonymity. The association of these aspects with different forms of communication varies widely. For example, instant messaging is prototypically synchronous, but rarely persistent since one loses all the content when one closes the dialog box unless one has a message log set up or has manually copy-pasted the conversation. E-mail and message boards are similar; both are prototypically low in synchronicity since response time varies, but high in persistence since messages sent and received are saved.

Anonymity and in part privacy and security depends more on the context and particular program being used or web page being visited. However, most researchers in the field acknowledge the importance of considering the psychological and social implications of these factors alongside the technical "limitations."

Managing Time and Technique
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. Of all the issues surrounding Internet-based instruction, the one that usually rises to the top of faculty concerns is the amount of time these courses require. The time required for reading and responding to individual responses to discussion forums and to private e-mail is piled on top of the time required to read and respond to written assignments and class projects that are part of both on-line and face-to-face instruction. Additionally, many faculty find that the lack of an assigned time and place for class time creates a structural void in their schedules that is too easily filled by other work. For those who prefer to shun formal structure, this can mean that meeting an on-line course falls into a sporadic, helter-skelter pattern that may leave students feeling abandoned and discouraged. If faculty understand their preferred informal interaction styles, they can plan for providing some necessary structure by formally placing a specific time for meeting their classes on line and posting it along with their office hours and face-to-face schedules. They can close their office doors and hang a sign that says "In Class. Do Not Disturb." These schedules can quickly become as inviolable as traditional classroom meeting times.
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In regard to the many faculty who find all of their time eaten away by the seemingly endless stream of student e-mail, we offer one final example of how knowledge of preferred interaction and work styles can be the springboard to a solution. When one of our on-line teachers complained about the amount of time required to answer each e-mail or bulletin board question, he was asked how he normally tackled his student feedback. Being a strongly sequential person, he would open each e-mail, read it and answer it, file it, then move on to the next. Upon further questioning, he revealed that it never occurred to him to review the entire list of e-mails before answering any; he said that was too disorderly. Knowing his need for order and sequential activity, the instructional designer worked with him to find an alternative approach that provided a new sequential structure that was more efficient for the task. Rather than answering each e-mail, he read all e-mails and sorted them according to type of response needed. Then he provided comprehensive responses that answered all similar questions once. Then he addressed those single questions that required a more individual response last. Finally, he re-examined his assumption that all e-mails must be answered immediately and provided his students with a specific time schedule of when he would read his e-mail each day and when they could expect feedback. The time spent reading student contributions remained the same, but the time spent in responding was reduced significantly, and by providing a clear time structure for responding, he was able to free himself to complete other duties and still meet his students' need for timely feedback.

Establishing the Learning Community.The challenge of teaching an on-line course is to find a way of maintaining the feelings of collegiality and community with the students that are part of the pleasure of teaching a face-to-face course. Most faculty are accustomed to taking cues from students' facial expressions, body language, and extemporaneous questions to help the teacher know how the students are progressing with the material to be learned. Suggestions for creating this learning community in the virtural classroom include the following:

• Practice writing rich statements to the students in the Internet delivered course. This interactive strategy can make the instructor feel that the student-teacher interaction is going on even though you are not in the same classroom.


• Ask the students for feedback several times while the course is in session to keep that contact, now in virtual form, alive and well.


• Send virtual greeting cards or virtual bouquets of balloons to let the students know that they were important to the instructor. This tactic produced pleased comments from several on-line learners. This seemed to be a successful way to keep the teacher-student interaction lively and personal.

Contrary to intuition, the brunt of the impact of a speaker's presentation is through nonverbal communication; it has been estimated that the meaning received by the audience is derived from approximately 1/3 verbal reception and 2/3 nonverbal reception. When the verbal and nonverbal messages are contradictory, most people will believe the nonverbal message they are receiving, not the verbal one. Hence, the nonverbal messages, conscious or unconscious, that are being sent by the speaker through appearance, attitude, gesture, and dress, are crucial to the communication of ideas. In addition, the speaker's ability to read the audience and change speaking strategies accordingly will also impact the effectiveness of the transmission of the message.