Further to my post last week I wanted to think about how lecturers at HE level could use new technology to host seminars electronically. These e-seminars are often used in the commercial sector and can be referred to as ‘webinars’. In distance learning courses, these sorts of technologies are often used, but standard degree programmes have been slower to adopt them.
Part of the problem with teaching face to face seminars in my institution is that the number of students involved is very large and the room layout is often not flexible. So, how to encourage students to get the most out of the seminar experience?
I need to decide what seminars are for: they complement lectures in that they give students the opportunity to discuss themes and ask questions for themselves. In history, seminars are very useful in that primary documents (i.e. materials written during the time we are studying) can be explored in some detail. Skills can also be taught such as teamwork, research methods, public speaking etc.
Could these functions be easily replaced by an online version of a seminar? There are two ways that an online seminar could be run. One is having students gather online in real time (i.e. everyone is present online in front of their computer at a pre-ordained time). Alternatively, the discussion can take place gradually, evolving whenever students log in.
Both of these methods can be successful, but they require a lot of commitment from the seminar leader/tutor. He or she has to be prepared to be online regularly to ask or answer questions and to moderate or encourage discussion. Many lecturers find that this method of teaching is more time consuming that simply holding a face to face seminar.
Perhaps one of the flaws of e-seminars is that they are not so good for teaching students the transferable skills that they need. Another problem for the tutor is that can be harder to spot if one student is falling behind or has not understood something. So, while webinars are a good idea in some ways, they should not be seen as a direct replacement for face to face contact.
