Teaching and Learning Through Online Collaboration
Since 1998, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has integrated
collaboration software based on Documentum’s eRoom into the school’s
learning environment. Faculty members in all 11 Wharton academic departments
utilized Wharton’s collaborative courseware environment in over 400 courses
each year, teaching more than 6,900 students across all of the school’s
curricula.
Keeping Focused
A major revamp of Wharton’s MBA curriculum emphasized collaboration and
teamwork as a key component of the learning process. Wharton’s IT staff
selected its course support software strategy to reinforce that aim. With tools
to do project work asynchronously—from anywhere at any time—each
group’s face time could focus on brainstorming and other interpersonal
learning activities.
The Wharton School built a custom learning environment based on eRoom. It offered
easy adoption by faculty, strong collaboration tools, and the ability to integrate
with the school’s existing authentication system—so students could
use the usernames and passwords they use for other online services at the school.
Having observed students commandeering tables in the school’s cafés
and lounges for group meetings, Wharton chose the name webCafé as the
internal “brand name” for this Web-based collaborative environment.
An instructor can get started quickly by uploading syllabi or readings prepared
as PDF or Word documents. As the semester proceeds, lecture slides and supplemental
files added by the instructor are automatically indexed for searching and are
summarized in a nightly e-mail and sent to the members of that class. Discussions,
used heavily in courses with problem sets, allow questions from individual students
to be answered for the whole class.
Wharton’s webCafé support team established a practice of creating
“electronic rooms” (eRooms for courses) based on a common template
with designated areas for discussions, links to other sites, and folders for
individual or group projects. Within the project folders, students post and
review drafts of papers or presentations, make comments on works-in-process,
and use eRoom’s native versioning and progress tracking capabilities.
Students can use the access-control feature to make project folders private;
an additional private folder, visible only to the teaching team, provides a
staging area for new content.
Supporting Learning Needs
Other key features emerged through subsequent development efforts. eRoom’s
API (application program interface) allows the team to develop custom capabilities
through Windows Scripting, Active Server Pages, and Component Object Model-based
applications. The team’s first API project automatically synchronized
course eRoom membership with class enrollment. The custom enrollment program
also allowed instructors who teach the same class several times a day (in related
sections in different departments or programs) to use a single shared room—a
feature lacking in many course management software applications.
Wharton soon began using the API not just for administrative tools but also
to add new features for learning support. A Team Signup tool helps students
quickly assemble into teams and gain access to automatically created private
team folders. A custom-developed Grade Book tool allows faculty to use eRoom’s
Database feature (for displaying information in rows and columns) to enter grades
for students securely within a private folder. A student-accessible My Grades
link allows each student to see only his or her grades. Additional teaching
tools, such as quizzes and evaluation forms, have been added to the environment
by using eRoom’s API to integrate third-party tools such as Cogix ViewsFlash
survey software.
Driving Success
A key to the success of Wharton’s webCafé platform has been the
willingness of faculty to incorporate collaboration-based learning tools into
their courses. Through a related initiative called the Alfred P. West, Jr. Learning
Lab, Wharton developers work with faculty to create experiential-based collaborative
learning exercises that incorporate real-world scenarios. At Wharton, the faculty,
students, and IT staff are prepared to meet the collision course of collaboration
and learning head-on.