Group Conferencing Options

The group interaction for this online course has been through listservs and email. Software is evolving to post listserv and newsgroup discussions in various web-based formats. If you continue mentoring, new forms of group interaction are likely to be in your future. The differences in the "look and feel" and range of features of these new interactive environments are likely to have an impact on the dynamics of group interaction. This lesson will introduce a number of current state-of-the-art group interaction options.

If teachers have the option to create their own dedicated listservs, or newsgroups, whenever they wish, their communicative flexibility is greatly enhanced. Many Internet service providers will set up listservs for their subscribers for a reasonable fee. There are also public listserv service providers.

Many Internet compatible mailreaders, such as Eudora, have the capability to create a mailing list of email addresses. If each student in an online class has a mailreader with this capability, this can be a very effective means of creating and maintaining your own Internet-based class conference. It would be necessary to thoroughly test that everyone is functionally communicating with the correct email address listings before starting an online class using this method.

If Internet-based interaction methods are not available and a planned online class is local, the option to use a bulletin board system for class interaction might make sense, if one is readily available. If the class is not local, using offline readers to minimize the cost of access to a bulletin board conference, or using distributed conferencing, might be other options to consider.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
If all students have simultaneous Internet access Internet Relay Chat (IRC) might be another option. "Live" online chat has the advantage of allowing all students to read and respond to messages in real time. Many students can be writing their responses simultaneously, and the posted messages can be read at a rate considerably higher than normal verbal discourse. This allows more group interaction per unit time than a traditional verbal discussion, with the added advantage of producing a written transcript of all ideas presented. Everyone's ideas are thus able to be included, unlike a typical verbal discussion where time often doesn't allow for each person to have input.

The disadvantage of IRC is that the postings may appear out of order, particularly if the discussion branches to include more than one topic. IRC is known as being problematic by tieing up numerous access ports on a given system and is specifically not used by smaller systems for this reason.

MUDS, MOOS and MUSE
New forms of group interaction are rapidly evolving. You might conduct Internet searches on the following terms; MUDS, MOOS, MUSE, and IRC to read about how role-playing can create unusually creative interactive worlds based on literary fantasy, and for specific sites to explore.