Claire is the Coordinator of Off Campus Studies at Wodonga Institute of TAFE, Victoria. As well as coordinating the tutor and learner support systems for conventional distance delivery she is responsible for developing alternative delivery options which increase access and options for learners. She convened the (Wodonga TAFE)Flexible Learning Action Group- a cross organisational interest group looking at technology and education and organisational change. This involvement continued in the strategic planning group addressing Innovation, Online education and associated Professional Development issues. Claire has a long involvement in online education and training and has developed materials, taught and promoted teaching and learning online programs. She is one of 23 inaugural ANTA Flexible Learning Leaders (http://flexiblelearningleaders.webtrax.com.au)

Carole has worked as a secondary college teacher, a TAFE teacher and co-ordinator, a workplace trainer and an instructional designer and writer of educational materials. Some of the online versions of these materials can be viewed at the Wodonga TAFE or at the TAFE VC (Version 2)

Carole lives and works in Baranduda, a small rural community close to Wodoonga, a town on the border of Victoria and New South Wales in Australia.

Description

This presentation will discuss the role of avatars fictional personalities as teaching aides during a statewide professional development program for Victorian (Australian) vocational educational personnel during 1999.

We developed and presented a training program for teachers and administrators of a Virtual Campus - a centralised communication delivery online platform - for the post-secondary education sector in Victoria. Part of that development lead to the creation of two avatars as guides, mentors and practitioners of online teaching and learning.

The discussion will cover the development of the avatars, commentary about the uses of avatars, and ideas and strategies for improving use of the technique in other online course creation. Descriptions of the use of narratives and storytelling as teaching/learning devices and issues around surrounding fictionalising and creating alternative personas by teachers will be raised.

This presentation is about the use of created identities for teaching and learning, not necessarily about high tech, high graphic 3D representations that might be encountered in MOOs.

Presentation

Introduction

The Professional Development for Online Education program brought together four different competitive organisations (the consortium) to collaborate in providing five online modules for teaching in an online environment, for 150 staff members of Vocational Educational and Training organisations, across the state of Victoria in 1999.

The consortium worked as a 'virtual team' using communication technology to stay in touch with one another as the project evolved. We used 'First Class' for internal project communications and the TAFE Virtual Campus (TAFE VC) as the delivery platform. The TAFE VC is a purpose built delivery platform that consists mainly of a Learning Centre that provides Lessons, Assessments, Resources and Learner Records, as well as a Communication Centre that provides discussions and chat utilising the WebBoard 4.0 program. Learner Records are stored in a database for each learning unit for each provider.

The consortium developed a web site called the Teaching Online Training Institute (TOTI - a fictional place or virtual environment) separate from the TAFE VC, containing pages of content, information and supportive materials.

Part of the supportive materials included stories based on our own and others experiences of teaching and learning online. These were built from a previously used 'virtual' dialogue technique called 'Dear Tutor/Dear Me'. This 'story telling strategy' has been used at a variety of Professional Development conferences in Australia during 1998 and 1999. It demonstrates a way of describing what support is required by teachers and learners alike in the online environment, through the use of dialogue between a tutor and their mentor using email.

This paper has previously been published for the Queensland Open Learning Network and for the Victorian Open Training Services organisation now called TAFE Frontiers and can be seen at the following locations:

QOLN

Development of this idea then lead to the creation of two fictional characters Nettie Quette and Wyatt Url, who are the avatars in the Professional Development for Online Education program.

Their creation became a 'virtual game' for the development team and eventually an opportunity to explore how they might assist learners in this program and subsequently enabled us to follow 'flights of fantasy' which we otherwise could not have done. These avatars became virtual extensions of the actual mentors who were the major contributors to the program.

Avatar's Role

What is an avatar? What do WE mean when we use the term?

"The word 'avatar' means 'incarnation' or 'manifestation.' It is an appropriate choice to describe the icons people use to visually represent the facets of their identity. A more specific definition, from Hindu mythology, is the incarnation of a god. Perhaps, unconsciously, people take their 'avs' seriously because it indeed feels like a divine product. To place oneself into a form created from one's own imagination is the essence of creativity. It's God-like."

We didn't quite go that far in our use of Nettie and Wyatt, but our avatars certainly enabled us to explore our creativity and share the mentoring tasks amongst the team of teachers.

Avatars' description

The characters of Nettie and Wyatt were created by the combined efforts of instructional designers and graphic artists. The first steps began as the metaphor for 'getting ready for online learning' and was likened to the fear factor involved in learning to swim. Descriptions of the feeling of 'being thrown in at the deep end', of 'drowning online' and 'preparing for the high dive' and the various states of readiness of teachers, were captured in the following graphic image designed around the swimming pool metaphor.

The small figure poised on the diving board above the pool, was nicknamed WIOT, short for Wodonga Institute of TAFE, and the name Wyatt Url grew from there. He needed a female partner so Nettie Quette was created, building on a well known phrase used in online chat rooms, netiquette.

TOTI

Avatars' image

As we progressed in our development and the stories of the avatars grew, tensions arose amongst members of the team. The graphic designer for example created an image of Nettie which did not fit with the image some of us had in mind. Some preferred to think of her as older, more like themselves, rather than the sturdy, pony-tailed youngster portrayed by the graphic image. This became even more of an issue when the web designer (who is male) created a beautiful, slim, blonde sylph as his representation of Nettie. Not quite what the original artist had in mind either.

The aim of one team member was to have these characters act as role models and examples for the people undergoing the training. It was not certain that it could be done effectively if their image and identity was too far removed from that of the 'average' TAFE teacher. In this instance many felt that the characters were too young in appearance and should age throughout the program. On the other hand, others felt that they should remain ageless. Not a grey hair or a wrinkle in sight. (They didn't think it mattered that Wyatt was always drawn without hair and most often wearing a cap.)

However, these discordances did not seem to affect any of the students. Perhaps having the variety of looks, enabled them to identify with whichever Nettie or Wyatt they felt most comfortable with.

Most learners came to accept the presence of Nettie and Wyatt throughout their learning experiences and became quite used to 'speaking' with both on the discussion boards and in the chat rooms. In fact, some learners so clearly identified Nettie and Wyatt with their own mentors, that they sometimes called them by these names when talking to them in person.

Some learners, however, found the avatars distracting and couldn't quite work out what they were for. This seems, anecdotally, to be the response of the male participants.

Avatars' duties

We felt that the use of avatars reinforced our plan to create diversity for the learner in the online environment. Nettie and Wyatt enabled us to bring in other viewpoints, sometimes politically incorrect viewpoints, without being personally identified with them.

Nettie and Wyatt enabled us to address some of the gender issues which became apparent throughout the program. Almost all of the development team and the overwhelming majority of the implementation team, were female. We can postulate theories of why that is... but will not go into it here, preferring to leaver it for some further research on the gender of online teachers and learners.

Having two additional people to take part in the threaded discussions and especially in the chat sessions was a bonus. Sometimes an interesting thread would begin and then peter out. The lifetime and relevance of the thread was often extended by one or more of the teachers using the Nettie and Wyatt personas to bring in other viewpoints and perspectives. This certainly looked better than a WebBoard dominated by the teachers postings, and created a much more dynamic and up-to-date discussion board.

Benefits of avatars

a) Communications

Feedback indicated that students were quite happy to have communication with Nettie and Wyatt in the WebBoard - where each person could choose to identify themselves, or not.

However they were not so keen to engage in a chat tutorial with Nettie and Wyatt. They indicated that they would rather know who they were talking to. There have been many scare stories of 'chat room' and dangers of the Internet and as many of our students were very raw beginners they wanted some security of knowing exactly who was present online with them. We believe these attitudes will change as the teachers become more familiar with online environments. These feelings of fear, shyness are also useful learning as examples of how it is likely their students may feel initially.

Some of the distrust was overcome by using Nettie and Wyatt as guest interviewees in the chat sessions. This also helped flesh out their identity, illustrated the learning they had undertaken to become online teachers and encouraged greater risk taking in a safe environment.

b) Problem solving

As part of the learning strategy for the program we used a problem-solving approach in some online activities. Essentially this meant that individuals took on roles and corresponded by email about an issue.

For example, a scenario focussing on the various opinions about Genetically Modified Food was used as a learning activity to engage the learners in role play while using electronic communication facilities such as discussion boards, e-mail and chat rooms. Each participant was asked to take on the role of representative from either the farmers groups, scientists, environmentalists or consumers. The purpose of this strategy was to explore the success rate of role playing as an alternative teaching technique for teachers to use in online delivery.

By using the avatars' presence in the WebBoard, various teachers were able to communicate with a wide range of learners. They could also distance themselves from the assessment role and act as mentors and coaches whilst in that role.

We developed the materials in teams, and therefore it made sense to continue to share expertise with the learners without holding onto the 'authorship' of the message.

Some issues in online teaching e.g. political factors, budgets and so on, benefit from an impartial or even deliberately provocative point of view. This stance could be taken by an av to avoid compromising the teacher/mentors.

c) Team teaching

By using the avatars' presence in the WebBoard, various teachers were able to communicate with a wide range of learners. They could also distance themselves from the assessment role and act as mentors and coaches whilst in that role.

We developed the materials in teams, and therefore it made sense to continue to share expertise with the learners without holding onto the 'authorship' of the message.

Avatars for the future

We anticipate using this technique in a more focussed example in the next delivery of the program. The trainee online teachers will be asked to take on roles outside their normal day-to-day roles such as managers, students, or administrators. This will give them an opportunity to explore a wider range of issues relating to implementing online teaching in their own organisations.

In the extension of the delivery in 2000, we anticipate a larger number of the teaching team taking on the personas of Nettie and Wyatt, as they continue to teach the five modules in the Professional Development for Online Education program.

While we recognise that using theatre and role playing can be very powerful techniques in teaching, no single strategy is right for everybody. In the future we will be more explicit about the use of created characters, and encourage our learners to take on different personas of their own creation.

Why did we use avatars?

We were able to:

• Speak in a different voice

• Model alternative behaviours

• Introduce variety in email postings

• Include 'more' people in chat sessions

• Demonstrate the value and uses of role play

• Distance ourselves from a teaching role at times

• Differentiate between teaching and assessment roles

• Explore the comments from learners in an objective manner

• Provide meaningful scenarios and examples to create realism

• Use avatars as representatives of good practice online and role models

• Use their experiences, good and bad, to guide new learners

• Create a theme for the graphic illustrations in materials

• Provide the consistency of 'voice' and style' in the learning activities, and

• most of all it was fun!

Our intentions are now to:

• Extend the use of avatars throughout the online experiences in the program for 2000

• Increase the use of the narratives on the WebBoard

• Restructure the use of story telling at the website

• Encourage greater use of virtual persona's by teachers on the WebBoard

• Enhance the benefits of mentoring for participants, especially as they begin developing their own online learning units

• Encourage flexibility in the delivery of vocational courseware by the use of role play

• Model for the participants 'good practice' of online teaching with further examples presented by the avatars Nettie and Wyatt.

Conclusion

Our experiences in the six month project for the delivery of the Professional Development for Online Education for Vocational, Educational and Training organisation (VET) personnel, have provided an excellent basis for the re-development of new online materials, delivery strategies and avatar mentoring. The project has been extended for a further 12 months and we will have an opportunity to explore the use of avatars and perhaps more interactive versions of them, in the new development.

As an organisation, we have benefitted enormously from the experiences of the project and can now explore the use of similar strategies in the development of a growing range of vocational courses being offered online by our organisation. A number of them are currently being implemented.