With all the exciting handheld technology projects taking place in the world of education, getting the chance to learn more about one is a unique and informative opportunity. pdaED was fortunate enough to come into contact with Dr. Barry DuVall, Co-Director of OWLS, one of the handheld projects going on involving numerous universities across the country.
We had the chance to ask Dr. DuVall some questions about the project and were able to learn quite a bit about how handheld technology is changing the face of education. Read on further to hear what Dr. DuVall has to say.
pdaED: Describe for us the OWLS project and your role in it.
OWLS (Online Wireless Learning Solutions) is a three-year (Sept. 1, 1999 - Aug. 31, 2002) $4.68 million research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Ericsson Inc., East Carolina University, Handspring Inc., and Audio Intelligence, Inc. The goal of the project is to develop and implement a flexible anytime and anyplace course delivery system for mobile professionals, who because of hectic work and travel schedules are unable to rely totally on the wired Internet to access course content. The OWLS philosophy provides an integrated platform of wired and wireless Internet applications, etools, and standalone snap and go solutions for learners with limited time to connect to the wired Internet.
Dr. David Hillis and I co-direct the project and share in all of the goals and adventures. More than 800 students from 24 different states and five continents have participated in courses using OWLS. We provide training and education for faculty interested in trying this out at their own location. We are also involved in designing new technology and strategies for delivering content to mobile professionals. Projects vary from the development of Smart Courses using artificial intelligence software and handheld computers presenting course content, ebooks, and sound files, to intelligent agents (bots) used to answer course related questions, and etools for collaborative learning.
We are always recruiting new sponsors and partners. In addition to the fore mentioned major sponsors and partners we are also collaborating with Bot Knowledge, and OpenMind Publishing Group.
pdaED: What was the course development process like?
The School of Industry and Technology at East Carolina University is one of eight universities in a consortium offering an online PhD in Technology Management. The degree is offered entirely on the Internet. Initially, our approach with OWLS was to provide training workshops at these sponsor locations, and recruit faculty to try OWLS at their colleges and university. We are always looking for new sponsors interested in trying and helping to improve what has been developed. There is no cost for these sponsors to implement OWLS. Due to increased demand, our strategy was modified to invite potential users to campus to attend our training workshops. Now 17 colleges and universities are using OWLS across the United States to offer courses in many disciplines from the associate through doctoral levels.
We provide one-day training workshops on the OWLS course development system, and assign participants to an OWLS mentor. The first half of the day is spent on OWLS and the afternoon spent working with the participant converting their html pages and other files using the OWLS software development kit. The SDK is given to all OWLS participants for use at their own universities, or with their own organizations.
pdaED: How did technology influence course development in relation to regular course development?
At ECU, all of our master's degree courses in Digital Communications and Manufacturing in the School of Industry and Technology are offered online. Most of the courses in the last two years of our undergraduate degree program in Industrial Technology are also offered on the Internet. All of these courses incorporate the use of Internet-based tools accompanying web-based content. One of our objectives with OWLS is to put media-intensive content on course media so the user can decouple from a server, and does not have to maintain a continuous connection to the Internet. This is critical to our anytime and anywhere delivery philosophy, because our students are busy professionals who because of their work schedules or geographic locations, must study at unpredictable times and often in crazy places. They might be waiting for a meeting, in a parking lot watching a son's ball practice, in a laundromat or airport, or on the road. They still need to be able to capture their course content. OWLS unties the user from a constant connection to servers and the wired Internet.
In several ECU OWLS courses, instructors provide weekly lessons on our AvantGo server and student sync to capture the lesson on their PDA. With the ECU HtL (Handsprings to Learning initiative, a project integral with OWLS), PDAs are loaned for use throughout the semester. In other courses students are responsible for purchasing their own PDAs.
Our increased emphasis on the use of PDAs has resulted in more emphasis on the message and less emphasis on animated web pages and fancy graphics. Increased emphasis is also being placed on tutorials and etools for use with PDAs. More time is needed by instructors to help students quickly become operational. Our goal is for everyone to be able to sync and receive their second week's lesson on their handheld.
pdaED: So, how will your class work exactly?
There are three Components to OWLS: (1) media intensive course content, sound files, and artificial intelligence cases normally requiring high bandwidth connectivity to the Internet provided on the OWLS CD; (2) hardware and software enabling both wireless and wired connectivity to the Internet for anytime/anyplace learning, and (3) eTools, a tool chest of Internet Tools and Tutorials for use in collaboration and problem solving between students and instructors.
OWLS is not hardware specific and is available for use with laptops, Windows CE devices, and PDAs. Selection of hardware for mobile professionals depends on the location and degree of mobility desired by the user. One of the most popular platforms for OWLS is a conventional laptop handset enabling wireless and wireline dial-up to a local Internet Service Provider anytime and anyplace. 802.11b wireless Ethernet hubs and wireless LAN cards are also being used on campus to access courseware on PDAs and laptops.
The mobile field-based wireless connection is used primarily to access course e-mail and for minimal browsing. Wireline connectivity is used when available. At this point, few of our students are using wireless access to obtain their courseware to their PDAs or laptops. This is because they are able to get to a wireline connection to access mail and do browsing. This will become more critical when there is a universal standard in the U.S. for digital cellular services, and access speeds follow predictions.
It depends on the instructor how they choose to conduct their own OWLS courses. Some instructors send weekly lesson via email. The emails include content on the lesson, course updates, and a password which the student uses to access lesson content on the CD. At time they also use synchronous and non-synchronous Internet tools to analyze work completed, solve problems, and pursue collaborative learning. Other instructors do not use email to distribute the introduction to the lesson, but send their class directly to their web page for the lesson for the week. CD's are provided to sponsoring bookstores by the OWLS project, or can be produced in-house.
In my classes, students sync to get their weekly lesson on their PDAs. They do not go to my URL, or wait for an email lesson to arrive. They also use handhelds to obtain their electronic journals, access the class grade boards, take examinations, and send and receive mail. The PDA enables mobile professionals to pack information and go, providing a conduit to their instructor and updated information to use while in transit to other events and activities.
pdaED: What will the students be geared with, as far as a device and the software goes?
The basic hardware and software requirements for learning using OWLS are minimal. Most students are working with Pentium level machines, with a 56 Kb modem and a dialup connection. Most are connecting from home, and are located throughout the United States.
In my two classes last night I had students from Alaska, California, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, and Florida. Tomorrow two of my students will meet online with me in their Lvoices room from Germany and Boston. They use their laptop or desktop, with the course media. They also use free and shareware Internet tools (etools). We provide the tutorials and include them on all CD's. They will not be going wireless. These two classes will also be taking my course with them into the field, and will use chunks of time that arise throughout the week to study this material from their PDAs. For both of these classes the students use a Handspring Visor (normally am 8Mb Deluxe). One class is using loaner units, and the other class purchases their own unit. One of the classes also uses an IntelliPac module inserted in the Springboard expansion slot of the Visor to access content from an Audio Intelligence server to their media card held on the IntelliPac. See: http://www.ecu.edu/handheld/IntelliPac.html
The pilot project we are now involved with using the IntelliPac points the direction for the future. I do not think it will be long before we will be able to present a media-intensive course directly to the PDA. We are now delivering 15 MP3 case studies on PDA applications in business and industry, two ebooks, white papers, and course materials to the media card.
Now our students can buy a PDA on an auction site for under $100. This is less than the price of most of their textbooks. When one adds a wireless Ethernet card, and digital cell phone to the device, they have an effective and deadly combination that in my mind will transform the way we work and learn today and tomorrow.
pdaED: What expectations do the students have to meet when they are learning a new technology as well as taking a course?
Our graduate students in the M.S. degree programs in Industrial Technology (Digital Communication and Manufacturing) start off by taking a course called "Internet Research Methods." This course prepares them for using many of the tools which they will experience in their courses. They enjoy the content and methods and are highly motivated to do more than might be expected. At the same time, they have high expectations for their courses and quality of instruction. They expect rapid feedback from their professors, and have little tolerance for errors and poor planning. Since they work in different time zones, they may post emails to a list at all hours of the day or night, and do not want to wait very long for a reply from their course mates or instructor.
pdaED: How have students taken to using PDAs to learn?
We have used PDAs in some of our courses since 1999. Now we have refined the use of tools to those, which are most important, and have redesigned our PDA tutorials. This has resulted in a great reduction in the time necessary from the OWLS help desk and list posting from instructors to get everything operational. For PDA etools, see: www.owls.sit.ecu.edu.
We have conducted surveys of users each semester, and have received an almost overwhelming vote of confidence on the use of PDAs for delivery of course content.
pdaED: What is your perspective on teaching a course assisted by handheld computing?
For me, the learning curve was great to develop a comfort level with our AvantGo server, design web pages that were PDA friendly, develop tutorials, learn new software, and teach active learners how to put this all into practice. I am still learning every day. Every day is a new adventure. I cannot imagine how we can begin to think about delivering anytime and anyplace education and training without using PDAs for snatch and go learning. The day when people travel long distances to a learning center or university, hunt for a parking spot, and then sit together in a crowded classroom to listen to a professor lecture is gone forever.
Today's mobile professionals have hectic work and home lives. For all of us, time is one of our most precious commodities. We all have time to learn but need to use flexible cost effective systems so we can take our learning with us. That's what we are doing with OWLS, and that's why our approach has been effective. The future of learning will not be in the classroom.
pdaED: What are some of the challenges you have faced with the OWLS project and how have you dealt with them?
We have had two major challenges. First, our major partner changed their business strategy and chose to no longer pursue the education and training sector. This forced them to withdraw from the project and award all ownership of OWLS, the software development kit, branding, and other things to the ECU OWLS project. At that time we had 1.5 years left in funding from the U.S. Department of Education and were without a major partner. We kept dreaming, working, pushing, and expanding. Then we joined forces with the ECU Handsprings to Learning Project. New ideas, excitement and synergy resulted in new partners, and nearly doubling the number of universities, colleges, and professional organizations using OWLS. The second constraint that was overcome was the redevelopment and improvement of our OWLS SDK, an essential component of the course conversion system.
pdaED: So, has the project been successful thus far? In what ways?
Yes, by the second year of the project we had nearly doubled our list of sponsoring schools using OWLS, and had offered as many courses on OWLS as projected for the entire project. In addition, we have expanded in new areas not planned in the initial grant, including the use of PDAs in our program, development of smart courses, PDA tutorials, etools, two ebooks, and the Audio Intelligence course pilot.
pdaED: Being that you helped create the project and are teaching with it as well, how has that combination worked and is it useful?
I enjoy teaching with OWLS very much. It has enabled me to evaluate new technology and methods and make improvements, which I feel have been well received by my students. It would be difficult to talk about what it is like to teach with OWLS to students all over the world, without having the opportunity to experience this first hand.
pdaED: What do you see as the major benefits for education professionals who adopt the handheld teaching style? What about for students who take the course?
Of course one of the major benefits for teachers is that they can offer their courses to many new learners who will be attracted to the more flexible and time-efficient delivery technology. There will be early adopters who will try it out, and they will provide more excitement causing others to follow. It is also great to know that people are able to learn just about anywhere, on their own time schedule. It is exciting to know that we serving a need, and creating an exciting new future.
When we first worked with PDAs in our classes, occasionally someone would comment about the size of the screen, not believing that real things could be done in such a confined territory. After the first PDA-based exam, and a few weekly lessons, no more comments were heard. They were sold, and appreciated the flexibility provided by their handheld computer.
pdaED: What does the future look like for the project?
The OWLS project will live on beyond the funding of our project. Many of our sponsors will continue to use the SDK and etools and will continue to improve what has been started. We are now starting to look ahead to new grant initiatives, to new projects with our network of sponsors and partners. The unifying thread that runs across the new ideas and projects is the use of the PDA as the mode of delivery, and for systems which improve our ability to reach learners anytime and anyplace.
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J. Barry DuVall, PhD, CMfgE is Co-Director of OWLS (Online Wireless Learning Solutions), a $4.6 million learning anytime/anywhere project. He previously directed ECU's $1.2 mil ARPA/TRP/NSF project--The Factory as a Learning Laboratory. His current research is based on the OWLS philosophy. DuVall is the author of several textbooks including: Getting the Message-the Technology of Communication; Contemporary Manufacturing Processes; The Internet ToolChest; and an online compendium of several versions of collaborative tools (etools). He has also written two ebooks for delivery to handhelds: Communciation and Information Technology-Getting the Message in a Changing World, J. Barry DuVall, and David R. Hillis, and Wireless and Mobile Communication for Industry, David Barbour, and J. Barry DuVall. Dr. DuVall was recognized by the National Association of Industrial Technology as the Outstanding Professor of the Southeast, 1999, and was the recipient of East Carolina University's Max E. Joyner Faculty Award for Faculty Service to Continuing Education, 2000. Barry DuVall has more than 30 years of teaching and professional experience. He received his undergraduate and master's degrees in Industrial Technology from Indiana State University, and his PhD in Industrial Technology and organizational behavior from the University of Maryland
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