Telidon: Its Potential and Problems for Traditional and Distance Education VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1, 1985 external options on the microcomputer to complement its local record keeping and financial analysis functions. At the end of the trial in October 1983 and through all 1984 the absence of a rea- sonable rural telecommunication service for Ontario presented a major block in fur- ther acceptance of this or any other Teli- don service. While access costs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were reason- able at five and eight cents per minute respectively, Datapac in Ontario at 15 cents per minute was not available outside larger cities. The cost of a long distance call of 35 to 70 cents to reach a Datapac port or the University of Guelph network was seen by our participants as prohibitive. The pro- mise for 1985 is that an INET trial in zone 519 of Southwestern Ontario will be avail- able at 25 cents per minute. 11 II. The Instructional Applications and findings Telidon's tree structure and menu ap- proach makes it extremely easy for first time users. However, this structure was not found to be suitable for instructional purposes. Special action task software was written by Infomart to University of Guelph specifications. This enabled several interactive approaches to be taken in de- signing instructional sequences. The ma- jor emphasis in this first instructional trial was for testing and feedback modules to support PSI or other mastery type courses. Ten to twenty minute test modules were created in the Zoology, Ornithology, Neuroanatomy and Psychology courses. These were optional for students and were presented as opportunities for them to test themselves against the course material. The modules were tests of learning rather than as tests for mark accumulation. They did have the features of immediate feed- back to the student, suggestions for study following an incorrect response, randomi- zation of test items allowing multiple at- tempts until the achievement criteria was reached and feedback to the instructor in the form of printed reports of student per- formance. These modules were created by the Guelph Page Creation Centre in close consultation with the participating mem- bers of faculty. The materials were then uploaded from Guelph into Infomart's Winnipeg computer in similar manner to the provison of the agricultural content for GRASSROOTS. While the latter task was performed directly from Guelph, the inter- active nature of the instructional materials required software engineering intervention Continued on page 23. of the service, and maintenance on the equipment. With the system installed, the project team undertook to recruit several members of faculty to explore instructional applications of the medium for on-campus instruction and for possible distance education applica- tion. Four courses were selected with high visual content or the need for frequent and immediate feedback to students. These were a first year introductory course in Zoology, a first year Neuroanatomy course in Veterinary Medicine, a third year couse in Psychology and a fourth year course in Ornithology. A course in Extension Educa- tion used the Telidon systems test and feed- back capacity for a computer literacy quiz related to TV Ontario's "Bits and Bytes" series. GRASSROOTS Findings There was general agreement among par- ticipants that this farm information service was easy to use and provided valuable in- formation on weather and commodity mar- kets. It was also found that expectations of detailed information on such topics as her- bicides, feed ration balancing formulas and local market quotations were not as well met. The delemma of Telidon or videotex as a single service entity, as it was originally conceived, or as an extension of the micro- computer, emerged early in the trial. When the trial ended participants were invited to continue the service by acquiring a termi- nal through lease or purchase and paying ten cents per minute telecommunications charge to use the network. Eight trial par- ticipants elected to lease a terminal and no one bought since they indicated a desire for an integrated service with a microcompu- ter. During the trial a software decoder from Microstar, in Ottawa, became avail- able for the IBM PC. Several participants already owned Apple II plus micros; how- ever, no completely satisfactory decoder for the Apple was available and their owners elected to keep their options open by leasing a terminal. The participants in the trial covered a wide age spectrum from young to well established farm operators. The majority reported gross annual sales of agricultural products in excess of $200,000. This sug- gests that an economic threshold may well exist below which this videotex service is too costly to be justified. While the majority of respondents indi- cated they were seriously considering ac- quiring a microcomputer they were still looking. They were inclined to see the GRASSROOTS type of service as one of the figured to provide: 8 Guelph local phone dial-up access ports 3 University of Guelph campus access ports 3 In-watts access ports 1 Program port, Westex News, University of Western Ontario 1 Program port, Page Creation, University of Guelph. It was found that Bell's Datapac was not available outside of the larger urban cen- tres which rendered it inaccessible to the large rural areas. Access was possible to Datapac but incurred a 35 to 70 cents per minute long distance charge. A further complication was that Telidon terminals were equipped with split speed 1200/150 bps modems which were unsuitable on Bell's Datapac service although they could be made to work over the voice network. Modems at 1200 bps and compatible with Datapac cost approximately $1,000 at the time of the trial which rendered this op- tion unattractive. The third objective was to test the ser- vice on selected Ontario farms. The telecommunications problems have been identified and these placed serious finan- cial constraints on the project's ability to encompass a geographically dispersed farm audience which would be representative of Ontario agriculture. Through the participa- tion of several commercial agri-business firms 1 funds were made available to pro- cure additional terminals and to add a se- cond trail area. Chatham in the heart of Southwestern Ontario's cash crop region was selected as the second trial site and a four-port "mini-mux" line extension was installed reducing Guelph's local dial-ups to four. Terminals were installed on forty farms, thirty in the Guelph area in two waves of fifteen each and ten around Chatham. Farmers were selected by a committee of Guelph faculty and were offered the ser- vice on a no-charge basis for two months in return for agreeing to complete a de- tailed written questionnaire prior to termi- nal installation and a second questionnaire at the end of the period. 2 In addition on- liJ.le responses were solicited during the tnal. The offer of service included an inte- grated Telidon terminal (decoder, monitor and modeml, free telecommunication over the installed network, training in the use CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATION I.These companies were Chipman Inc., ciba- Geigy, Cyanamid, Pioneer Hybrid and Shurgain. 2 Deloitte, Haskins and Sells, Management Consu!tants contributed the Market Research analySIS. Media Producer Graphic artist/exhibit designer Database Manager Research Assistant Writer Writer An initial target of 300 pages of Ontario content for the field trial was more than doubled with 688 pages being created. This included a market summary of Ontario farm prices supplied by the Ontario Minis- try of Food and Agriculture and updated daily. A Calendar of Events for the Ontario agricultural community listed events by region, by date and by subject. A user was able to scan the information available by using anyone of the three search modes. Agricultural extension courses in the Inde- pendent Study program were included in the database with an on-line course regis- tering system available. Several interactive farm management programs were pro- duced including a Crop Budgeting Aid and a demonstration Sire Selector program. Research reports and summaries of Animal Health Care seminars were included from the Ontario Veterinary College as well as an on-line ordering system for audio cas- settes of the Health Care sessions. Infomart undertook to expand its 24 hour weather forecasts to include Central and Western Ontario for the regions of Wind- sor, London, Owen Sound and Toronto. In addition several agribusiness companies contributed product information of interest to the Ontario farm community and trading information from the Toronto Stock Ex- change was made available. The second project objective was to make the GRASSROOTS database avail- able to Ontario farmers. To achieve this and to enable the Guelph Page Creation Centre to load the Ontario content into the Winnipeg computer, a dedicated 4,800 bps dataroute line was leased from Bell Canada. A sixteen port concentrator was installed at Guelph which provided two program ports on the Winnipeg computer for the Page Creation units and 14 simul- taneous user access ports. These were con- responsibilites) and the Manager of the "Page Creation Centre". Infomart provided training to the Page Creation staff on site at Guelph enabling staff to become competent with the two Norpak Information Provider Terminals. Two years later these staff report that the most valuable activity for them was the one week training at the beginning of the field trial which enabled them to achieve the re- quired standard. These staff members were all seasoned in their fields and had assign- ments as follows: Telidon Responsibility Previous experience Manager. Page Creation Centre Page Designers (3) GRASSROOTS Field Trial The first major project grew out of an in- vitation from Infomart, Winnipeg, to con- duct a joint six month field trial in introduc- ing its agricultural information service GRASSROOTS into Ontario. This project had three specific objectives: 11 to create a commercial class "Telidon Page Creation Centre" operating at in- dustry standard. 21 to create agricultural content of rele- vance to Ontario agriculture to be avail- able to Ontario farmers from the GRASSROOTS database in Winnipeg. 31 to test this Telidon service with as many representative Ontario farmers as facili- ties would permit. The agreement between the University of Guelph and Infomart was signed December 23, 1982 and preparatory work began immediately for the field trail which operated from April to October of 1983. Guelph appointed a three person project management team and assigned three regu- lar media production staff to the "Page Creation Centre". This was augmented by three temporary staff. In addition electron- ic staff were given fractional assignments on an "as required" basis. The manage- ment team comprised the project director, The Coordinator of Agriculture Extension, (both of whom had existing full-time 1982 the University of Guelph, along with several other educational institutions, was awarded a Telidon equipment grant from the Department of Communication under its Industrial Investment Stimulation Pro- gram (IISP). The proposal listed three areas of study and application. The first was an agricultural information service. The se- cond was an on-campus electronic infor- mation service for students and staff and the third was the use of Telidon in teach- ing. I. From Farms to Classrooms with Telidon as an agricultural extension medium as well as an instructional med- ium. From this experience several conclu- sions are drawn about the potential of videotex, to use the more generic term for Telidon, for traditional and distance educa- tion. Introduction Computers once meant "number proces- sing machines" and if we were not in- volved in teaching a subject with some mathematics we could conveniently leave the computer to the math and physics departments. The notion of computers as "logic machines" moved us a bit closer to considering their place more widely in the curriculum but for many of us the com- puter was a foreign object and too confus- ing with which to become involved. In the past couple of years the microcomputer has emerged, not only as a number processor but also as a processor of words and im- ages which places it at the heart of educa- tional work. One development of potential value to both traditional and distance education is the merging of Telidon technology 'Nith the microcomputer. Telidon in 1985 is quite a different crea- ture from Telidon of 1981 when the Canad- ian Department of Communication laun- ched its $27.5 million program to support Telidon's development. While the basic Telidon approach remains, that of a system of computer codes to produce colour graphic images, the early Telidon standard has given way to the North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax (NAPLPSI. Low cost adaptors for the home TV set supposed to be here by 1983 are still not here. There are adaptors or decoders but they are not low cost. What has hap- pened is that several microcomputers can now be outfitted with a software decoder from $99 to $199, depending on the micro, which give the computer the capability to function like a terminal. Predictions made by the University of Guelph in 1983 that Telidon would emerge as an enhanced capability of the microcomputer rather than as an "add on" to the TV set seem more likely of fulfilment than the reverse. This paper will report on work at the University of Guelph beginning in 1982 G. A. B. Moore is Associate Professor of Extension Education and Director of the Office for Educational Practice at the Uni- versity of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, NIG 2Wl. 10 by G.A.B. Moore CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATION ed to deliver television signals over a large geographical area with signals to be re- ceived by small dishes and retransmitted to cable television. Presently 140 com- munities in British Columbia are able to receive Knowledge Network programming. In November 1982, there were 375,000 regular viewers throughout the province. In addition, some communities in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, Alber- ta and the northwestern section of the United States are able to tune in to Knowledge Network transmissions. The Knowledge Network provides edu- cational and general interest programming for children and adults, telecourses and live interactive educational broadcasts, consti- tuting a total of 98 broadcasting hours per week. Fifty-nine percent of the programm- ing is produced in British Columbia, the majority of which originates with educa- tional institutions responsible for post secondary and continuing adult education. The number of educational institutions, government ministries and agencies which provided and supported educational pro- gramming on the Knowledge Network in 1983 totaled 33 and include the Universi- ty of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, 15 two- year colleges, and several learning insti- tutes. The Knowledge Network is thus not a separate Distance Education institution, but rather one working part of the total commitment to "Distance Education" in British Columbia. The term "Learning System" is used to describe what happens when the existing educational structure in- cluding government plus universities, com- munity colleges and provincial institutes strive to cooperate to expand educational opportunity through the use of a variety of technological efforts, chiefly the telecom- munications satellite (Forsythe and Collin, 1983). Integral in the organizing principle of the "Learning System" are the Learning Sys- tem Working Groups, consisting of repre- sentatives from the participating educa- tional institutions. The Knowledge Net- work assists the members by providing the opportunity for the cooperation and pro- blem solving necessary to further devel- opment of the educational network. At the community level, Learning Cen- tres, part of local colleges when possible, have been established in 67 locations throughout the province. The Centres of- fer local residents a variety of services relating to Knowledge Network courses as well as other "Distance Education" efforts. Such services include audio conferencing opportunities to facilitate interaction with instructors and other students, special library services for degree students, etc. During 1982-83, 8,000 students enrolled in various degree and continuing education courses offered through the Knowledge Network by cooperating educational insti- 22 tutions. Analysis of student enrollments in- dicate that students residing in the more sparsely populated areas of the province and thus beyond physical accessibility to the three Universities located in the southern part of the province are partici- pating "Distance Education" students tend to be approximately 10 years older than full-time on-campus students, are em- ployed full-time and have families. Educa- tional opportunities are therefore being provided and more importantly accepted and used by those who otherwise might not be served. A new phase of development has been completed by a subsidiary corporation, the Knowledge-West Communications Cor- poration. It now operates as a broadband closed circuit service which links five teaching hospitals and the universities with two-way video, audio and data units. The Knowledge-West also acts as a Develop- mental Directorate for new ventures in closed-circuit satellite video conferencing, data network and electronic publishing (Forsythe and Collins, 19821. The implica- tions of this work are interesting and pro- mise future development. CONCLUSIONS As can be readily noted from this brief overview, the primary uses thus far for satellite communications have primarily been in areas of extending preparatory and first year university courses (USP, UWI, Knowledge Network) in-service teacher training (USP, UWI, KNI. continuing edu- cation (USP, KN) and in-service profes- sional training (e.g. agriculture, health; UWI, Indonesia, KNI. Non-formal educa- tion at all levels was attempted in both the Canadian and Indonesian projects. The on- ly country to attempt formal instruction at the primary level was India (SITE project as a prelude to INSAT I-B). Another parti- cularly beneficial use of satellite technol- ogy was in the use of audio teleconferenc- ing systems for direct instruction, tutorial counselling and project administration (USP, UWI, KN, and to be included in In- donesia). In the case of the IEC, this sys- tem (video transmission from central site and audio feedback) also proved useful as a decision making forum for adults con- cerned with mutual regional problems. While effective at the adult level, however, the literature suggests that teleconferenc- ing systems may not be viable for larger- scale education endeavours such as sup- port for in-school primary education (Casey-Stahmer and Lauffer, 1982). Thus while the current use of satellite technology for distance education is rela- tively limited, the literature is almost uni- form in suggesting two major trends within the next twenty years: 1) The expansion and use of satellite technology will render the accessibility to television and radio al- most universal within the next twenty years but the major trend for applying in- formation and educational services in the third world will remain with radio (Block, 19831. and 21 the nations that could profit most from satellite technology for both for- mal and non-formal educational devel- opment are those that can least afford them, because they lack the finances, in- dustrial base and technical infra-structure to maintain a comprehensive system (Polcyn, 19811. Small-scale terrestrial bas- ed projects will remain the norm for most of the developing world for some time. But for those countries currently on the edge of exploiting satellite television tech- nology such as China, Brazil, Mexico, In- donesia, Saudi Arabia and India, the fore- seeable prospects are encouraging. The ma- jor challenges to be faced by these nations are those of software development, or- chestration of human resources, and ac- tivities at the receiving end (feedback and motivation factors). whether it be school, home or village community centre based. These are precisely the problems faced by the major developed nations and there is little reason to expect that developing coun- tries will be different although the circum- stances may warrant different solutions. Canada, for example, is able to supply its own technology, has adequate financial resources, and target audiences which are relatively small from an international pro- spective. It is therefore free from many of the overwhelming concerns facing devel- oping nations and able to explore a varie- ty of issues which will refine the use of satellite technology for education. Satellites can provide the technical means to distribute educational material over large distances at increasingly afford- able costs but harnessing the technology to equalize educational opportunity will re- quire careful planning if this potentially major innovation is to be successfully exploited. References Academy for Educational Development. (1983a). Planning telecommunication applications in the West Indies. Uplink, March, 3. Academy for Education Development. (1983bl. Waves of information: using radio and communication satellite technologies for rural development. Paper presented at the Development Forum's Tenth Anniversary Col- loquium, Paris, February. Alfian, & Chu, G. (1981). Satellite televi- sion in Indonesia. Honolulu: East- West Center. Balderston, M. (1979). Satellite communi- cation for education in the South Pacific. Educational Technology, April, 26-30. Block, C. (1983). Communications and rural development. In I. Singh (Ed.). Telecommunications in the Year VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1, 1985 2000 (pp. 127-134). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Casey-Sathmer, A., & Lauffer, S. (1982). A new era of satellite communica- tion: Can education benefit from it? Paper presented at the Internation- al Council for Educational Media Con- ference, Mexico City, October. Coldevin, G. (19771. Anik I and isolation: Television in the lives of Canadian Eskimos, Journal of Communica- tion, 27, 14). 145-153. Coldevin, G., & Wilson, T. (19821. Educa- tion, television par satellite et impuis- sance chez des adoescents Inuit du Canada. Etudes Inuit, 6, (I). 29-37. Forsythe, K., & Collin, V. (19831. British Columbia - case study: Higher Education and the integration of a TELIDON Continued from page 11. to load the Telidon created pages to the ac- tion task software. Student access to the instructional ma- terials was provided through Telidon ter- minals located in the Library and in the Audio-Tutorial Laboratory of the Ontario Veterinary College. Students were issued with a course identification number and a personal password and signed on the sys- tem initially like a regular GRASSROOTS subscriber. The course IDs, however, were set up as a closed-user group and the students by-passed the standard menus to be taken directly to the appropriate materi- als for the assigned course. Telecommuni- cation between the terminals at Guelph and the Winnipeg database was achieved through the University's computer net· work to which the dataroute concentrator ports were linked. The instructional materials took two basic forms. The course in Zoology used a resource reference approach. Here many of the overhead visual materials used in class were available for reference and review on the terminal. Interactive features were introduced so that the student could contrast and compare different cell struc- tures or order the way in which an illustra- tion was presented. In the other courses in Neuroanatomy, Ornithology and Psychol- ogy a test and feedback approach was us- ed. Here students were presented with multiple choice or short answer questions. In some tests a second try was allowed after an incorrect response while in others the next item was presented immediately. The system described worked reasonably well but there were problems. Operating on a large database with a fluctuating user demand caused the system to have a vari- able response time. During periods when the 1500 GRASSROOTS subscribers ac- cessed the Chicago Board of Trade com- modity prices, a noticeable slowdown in the response time of the system provided new technology, Vancouver: Know- ledge Network. Hudson, H. (19811. A satellite network in the South Pacific. Uplink, June, 5. Lalor, G.(1984). Project report: University of the West Indies distance teaching experiment. Uplink, February, 6. Mody, B. (19791. Programming for SITE. Journal of Communication, 29, (4). 90-98. Polcyn, K. A. (1981). The role of communi- cation satellites in education and train- ing: The 1990s. Programmed Learn- ing and Educational Technology, 18, (4). 230-244. Shukla, S. (1979). The impact of SITE on primary school children. Journal of Communication, 29, (4). 99-105. UNESCO, (1981). Draft project docu- an aggravation to a student who had to wait up to 30 seconds (sometimes longer) for recognition and feedback to an entered response. The University's computer net- work was being expanded during the time of the trial and this led to occasional fail- ures in gaining access or being "dumped" during a session. Similarly, occasional in- terruptions of the GRASSROOTS system led to the same result. A frequent problem was the volume of traffic on the three University access ports which led at times to delays of up to 45 minutes in signing on. While this instructional system was be- ing used for on-campus students it was emulating a distance education mode. Any terminal on the GRASSROOTS system, with the appropriate ID and password, could access the instructional materials. When it is considered that the system ser- vices users in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, as well as those in GRASSROOTS America, the potential for a serious distance educational application can be appreciated. Student Reaction Surveys were conducted in the Winter Semester of 1984 among students using the system and a second survey was taken of students at the end of the first module in the Fall Semester of 1984. They reported the system as basically easy to use, the col- our graphics of value and expressed a desire for continued use. In the following tables the results of the Winter and Fall Semester surveys are shown. The above results come from two differ- ent types of student. The Neuroanatomy course is a fourth year Biological Science course which enrolled majors and the high level of positive response may be associat- ed with this group's broad exposure to a variety of methods over its academic career and its members' relative maturity. The Telidon materials used were designed for the first year Veterinary Medical students and were used by them in the previous ment, "INSAT for education", Paris: Author. UNESCO, (19721. A guide to satellite communication, Paris: Author. Valakakis, G., & Wilson, T. (19841. The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation: A survey of viewing behavior and audience preferences among Inuit of ten communities in the Baffin and Keewatin region of the North- west Territories. Concordia Univers- ity. Wigand, R. T. (1980). Selected social implications of direct satellite broadcasting. Paper presented at the International Communication Associa- tion Conference, Acapulco, Mexico. o TABLE 1 STUDENT RESPONSES TO TELIDON USE IN COURSES IN NEUROANATOMY AND INTRODUCTORY ZOOLOGY Neuroanatomy Zoology Number of enrolled students 20 600 Response rate 95% 33% Previous awareness of Telidon 65% 22% Previous use of Telidon 20% 6% Number of sessions used 1·3 Nominal duration of sessions 3D min. 30-45 min. Found system easy to use 92% 78% Value of colour graphics 100% 86% Accuracy of colour graphics 92% 68% Would you like to see the system used for marked examinations Yes - 77% 58% No- 23% 27% undecided· 15% semester. This course was not offered in the Winter Semester and the students were not available at the time of the survey. The content of the Biological Sciences' course in neuroanatomy was similar to the Veteri- nary course. The use of the Telidon test materials by a different instructor and the positive acceptance by the students suggest an interesting example of sharing and ex- change of costly resources. The Introductory Zoology course pre- sented a different student group. Here first year students generally are regarded as less flexible and more dualistic in their think- ing (perry, 19701. They do not have the degree of experience with a variety of methods as upper class students. As a group they were much less aware of the Telidon medium than the fourth year students and were generally less secure with its educational value. While those ex- pressing negative views of its use in mark- ed examination are approximately the 23 24 25 -- .., AMTEC Leadership Award The premier award given by AMTEC is the Leadership Award, a handsome engraved gold medallion. There may be no more than two recipients in anyone year, and it is given in recognition of outstanding service in the field of educational media. Following are the general criteria for the award: 1. The nominee must have been active in the educational media field for 10 years or more. 2. The nominee may have been active at either local, regional, national or international level. 3. The award may be presented to one who is active, retired or deceased. 4. Nominations may be made by any member of AMTEC. 5. The nomination must include a brief biographical sketch of the nominee as well as any other information which will be useful to the selection committee in making their decision. This should include the educational background and the reasons why the nominator feels the award should be made. Presentation of the award(s) will be made at the AMTEC Annual Con- ference Awards Function. This will be part of the annual conference in Calgary in June 1985. Nominations should be submitted to the Awards Chairman as soon as possible. Address all nominations to: David MacDougall Director of AV and TV Services Sheridan College of AA & T 1430 Trafalgar Rd. Oakville, Ontario L6H 1L1 .... -- ... CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATION in the PSI plus Telidon sections reported a significantly greater satisfaction with the course than those in either the lec- ture/seminar or PSI plus VAX sections. Table 3 presents model responses obtain- ed from at least 66 per cent of the students. The student expectations for grade per- formance were achieved on the final exam- ination results. Section average for the lec- ture/seminar mode was 66.3% while in the PSI plus Computer Text (VAXI and PSI plus Telidon the average was 74.2% and 75.1 % respectively. While both PSI treatments yielded enhanced academic performance as measured by the common final exami- nation students in the PSI with Telidon sec- tions reported greater satisfaction with the course than students in either the lec- ture/seminar or PSI plus computer text sec- tions. Hermann also found less study time and greater satisfaction by students using Telidon than by other PSI students. In ex- amining student responses between the two groups using computer displayed test items, it was found that Telidon presented questions were perceived as "fair" while the same question asked in computer text on a regular CRT was seen as "difficult". In addition the same feedback given via Telidon was viewed as being "more helpful" than that given via the monochrome CRT. A third survey was conducted among Or- nithology students at the completion of the first test module in the Fall Semester, 1984. Similar methods of designing and deliver- ing the visual test items were employed as in the courses reported thus far. Table 4 presents the initial reaction of students to this use of Telidon enhanced instruction. Students were asked to compare this sys- tem with the traditional testing system. Among the responses three patterns emerg- ed, those favourable, those critical and those offering suggestions for improve- ment. Favourable comments were "easier to use, less work", "OK for self-testing", "OK but I'm not familiar with reading from a screen", "OK, but disheartening when you choose a wrong answer", "definite im- provement". Among the critical reactions were "impersonal", "limited range of responses", "prefer traditional, no al- lowance for ambiguity", "problem in get- ting the exact wording", "too inflexible with spelling", "puts more pressure on the individual with errors in key punching not noticed right away". The most frequent comment for im- provement was the request by nearly half of the respondents for the correct answer to be displayed. While this raises the ques- tion of the instructional intent it does pro- vide some indication of student unease with an automated system. Attempts were made in the design of some modules in other courses to relieve this tension by giv- ing a second try on multiple choice or short answer items. VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1, 1985 as much yes text/lecture text/lecture more little little nolno difference yes Model Response by >66% Lecture/Seminar PSIIVAX PSlfrelidon 1. Time and ef- fort com- pared to other cours- es same more as much 2. Amount of effort com- pared with other Lec- ture/Seminar methods as much 4. Help needed for organiz- ing a course need help 5. Exam mater- ial prefer- ence text/lecture courses 3. Apply this method to other 6. Exam type preference multiple choice multiple short choice answer 7. Preparation for modules- /seminars cram systematic systematic 8. Opinion about mo- dule method N/A like like 9. Module tests N/A difficult fair 10. Value of feedback N/A little help helpful 11. Mechanical details N/A easily under-easily under- stood/simple standable 12. Expected grade same higher higher "Behavioral Aspects of Drug Abuse" course, while the introduction of the PSI option resulted in a one letter grade aver- age improvement of student performance, it did not increase satisfaction with the course. A consistent flaw reported by stud- ents was an unrealized expectation that the contents of the course would be vividly and dynamically demonstrable. The actions of drug agents are frequently not ethically demonstrable and according to students were rarely clearly portrayed but wre high- ly boring. Attempts were made over a two year period to address the problem by introduc- ing fIlm and graphic material and the inclu- sion of the PSI option. In this study two sec- tions of the course were taught using tradi- tionallecture and seminar methods. Two sections offered a PSI format with module quizzes presented as computer text via a VAX computer system. Two other sections used the PSI format with student quizzes presented via Telidon using highly graphic and colourful material. All students wrote a common examination prepared and grad- ed independently of the course instructor. They also completed a questionnaire which surveyed study habits and attitudes (Herr- mann 1983). Herrmann (1984) found that the students TABLE 3 STUDENT RESPONSE PATTERNS TO THREE TREATMENTS IN A COURSE IN BEHAVIORAL ASPECTS OF DRUG ACTION Disadvantages • slow response time • impersonal • tested on material before studied in class • limited variety • access difficult • too trivial • wrong answers not cor- rected • spelling counts same as in the fourth year group a signifi- cant minority were uncertain. This sug- gests some caution in using "high tech" systems with students who may be general- ly insecure in a new environment. This has implications for distance education where the human factor is even more remote than in an anonymous class of 600. These student responses show a recogni- tion of positive attributes in the human learning domain for this type of automated study system. The items on the "disadvan- tage" side are thoe which fortunately are addressable. Some of these are technical and relate to the choice of equipment, e.g. slow response time, difficult access. The majority of negative points relate to mat- ters of instructional design such as the se- quence of tests related to the course sylla- bus, the triviality of limited variety of test items or the question of spelling and the handling of wrong answers. In free form comment students remarked upon its "ex- cellent aspects of colours and visual ac- curacy", "most impressive motivating fac- tor", "good visual representations" and "the graphics are great especially for neuroanatomy" . A second study was conducted by Herr- mann (1984) among 303 students in a course in "Behavioral Aspects of Drug Ac- tion". This course treats information from the fields of pharmacology, psychiatry and psychology. Its students come from a varie- ty of backgrounds and include a number of continuing adult students. The course is offered in the evenings which makes it the type of course eligible for consideration in a distance education mode. Recent approaches in the Department of Psychology have focussed on the learner rather than on the teacher. It has empha- sized methods applied to produce measur- able improvements in student retention and attainments. Among the methods us- ed has been the Personalized System of In- struction (PSI) developed by Keller (19681. This approach has been found to show im- proved student performance and increas- ed student satisfaction (Leppmann and Herrmann, 1982). However, in the Advantages • immediate feedback • emphasizes student learn· iog • self-pacing • goad practice questions • variety of questions • allows indiviuaL or group study • more objective • stimulates recall • opportunity for review TABLE 2 STUDENT PERCEIVED ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TELIDON AS AN INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIUM CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATION TABLE 4 STUDENT RESPONSE TO THE USE OF TELIDON DELIVERED TESTS IN COURSE IN ORNOTHOLOGY N = 15 1. Is this the first time Moderately easy to use 100% you have taken a Yes 100% test using Telidon? No 2. Did you have any problems with the Yes 53% system? No 47% 3. What was your Very easy to use 40% reaction to this Moderately easy to use 60% technology? Difficult to use Very difficult to use 4. Was the test... too long? 20% too short? 27% right length? 33% no answer? 20% 5. What was your im· added significantly? 33% pression of the useful 60% graphics used? not very useful 7% 6. Was the display much too slow? time ... too slow 20% acceptable 73% very good 7% 7. How did you find inaccurate 7% the graphic depic- some uncertainty 33% tion of content? acceptable 47% accurate 13% 8. Was the wording of Yes, very 27% question easy to Yes, fairly 60% understand? No, confusing 7% uncertain 7% 9. Would you like to have access to this materRil during the semester as a self· Yes 93% testing aid? No 7% III. Discussion and Implications While the two uses of the Telidon system reported here (agricultural extension and instructionI may appear unrelated to dis- tance education, it is in combining the find- ings of both studies that some guidance may be offered for distance education plan- ners. The agricultural extension field trial with GRASSROOTS revealed that it is possible for a university to collaborate with a com- mercial electronic publisher to their mutual advantage. The University was able to get up to spped in a very short period of time without the capital and operating expense associated with a major database delivery system and network. The system operator gained access to a region otherwise difficult to enter. It also gained experience in the design of action task software not then in use by the company. Ongoing working relationships were established which make it possible, subject to agreement on specific applications, for the GRASSROOTS system to serve a number of distance education projects. The existence of the GRASS- ROOTS network, relative ease of access, and economy of use should not be over- looked by other institutions interested in this technology for distance education, The analogy here is using the railway company to transport goods rather than building your own railroad or highway system. Secondly, from the agricultural field trial 26 emerged confirming evidence that Telidon is an easy-to-use home service for other- wise inexperienced computer users. This confirmation was also received from the specific on campus instructional applica- tions. Furthermore, while there were tech- nical reliability problems, they are of suf- ficiently short duration or limited fre- quency as not to man the general accepta- bility of this service for home based infor- mation access to extension and distance education resources. Two major hurdles, however, were iden- tified in the agricultural field trial which are of intense importance for distance edu- cation. The first is the entry cost of the ter- minal. A Telidon dedicated terminal with decoder, monitor and 1200 bps modem costs in the vicinity of $2,000 and is a single purpose device, An IBM PC type microcomputer with the necessary soft- ware decoder, colour board and modem will cost in the vicinity of $5,000 although the educationally priced IBM PC Jr can be put in service with a Telidon configuration for less than $2,000. The microcomputer decision will, for many potential distance education users, be based on more broad- ly defined needs than for the use of Telidon access. With costs of this magnitude and the elusive low cost TV Telidon adaptor not yet in sight one is led to conclude that the population of home access terminals is not yet sufficient to warrant major investments in creating Telidon materials for distance education. "How will the students access the data?" The second major hurdle is regional in significance and has to do with the availa- bility and cost of telecommunication ser- vices. In parts of Western Canada tele- phone line charges established for Telidon by the Government operated telephone companies are extremely reasonable at 5 cents per minute in Manitoba and 6-8 cents per minute in Saskatchewan. In contrast, Eastern Canada has no such provision with regular voice tariffs costing at least 50 cents per minute. In addition rural phone lines are frequently party lines and the attach- ment of data terminals to such lines is not permitted. The arrangement Infomart has made with Bell Canada for a special INET rate of 25 cents per minute in dialing area 519 is a move in the right direction but its cost structure will inhibit all but short ac- cess sessions by the majority of individual users. The recent breakup of AT & T in the United States is resulting in rate increases for some institutionally provided distance education services which threaten the con- tinuance of these services at least in pre- sent form. Since Canada is moving in a similar direction with telecommunications policy, potential applications of Telidon to distance education should examine this dimension carefully and then proceed with caution. From the instructional applications reported it can be seen that there is poten- tial for Telidon as an effective, user friendly and student accepted system. If the termi- nal problem and the costs of telecommuni- cation can be resolved within a specific dis- tance education project than our evidence suggests that Telidon is the only presently available practical method of displaying de- tailed graphic and textual information us- ing a range of colour. It appears to provide intrinsic motivation to students when pro- perly used. The Guelph trials, unlike the educational television panacea projects of the 1960s, undertook to limit the scope of the applica- tion of Telidon to one or two specific as- pects of the course. The project team work- ed with an educational philosophy which sought to emphasize student performance and output rather than teacher input, Most earlier media approaches have concen- trated on information input, i.e. the more senses you use the more you can share in. Knowledge of what is expected, student practice and awareness of achievement through feedback on performance seem to the author to be the most fruitful areas for improving student learning. The Keller PSI method and other approaches which em- phasize learner responsibility, especially in post secondary and distance education, have demonstrated that such improvement is achievable. These methods, however, are costly in providing intensive and fre- quent feedback and often result in com- promises which reduce the immediacy of the feedback and hence much of its educa- tional power. It is in this era where the Guelph trial concentrated its study of Telidon and where its initial success occurred. Conclusion The potential for Telidon in distance education lies more in the quality of th~ in- structional design decisions than in the technology. This has always been the case with educational media but the novelty of another system can blue one's vision of what comes first, purpose and plan or tool. There are many existing forms in which course content for distance education can be delivered. The test, the audiocassette, printed or film slide illustrations, all can deliver content at a fraction of the cost of Telidon or other computer based systems. What they cannot do as effectively nor as effeciently is provide students at a distance with frequent short tests of learning achievement and immediate feedback. It . is in identifying similar limited segments of distance education delivery where Telidon can make a useful contribution. NOTE Based on the difficulty of serving larger numbers of students on campus from a distant database, the University of Guelph and Tayson Information Technolgy have developed a standalone IBM PC based system, VITAL IVideotex Integrated Teaching and Learning System for Education and Trainingj. VOLUME 14, NUMBER I, 1985 References Herrmann, T. (19831. Tutoring in PSI... Person vs Computer. ERIC Document No. ED233251. Herrmann, T., & Leppmann, T.(198 11· PSI, Personalized for Whom? ERIC Docu- ment No. ED187765. Herrmann, T. (19841. "Telidon" as an Enhancer of Student Interest and Per- formance. Paper presented to the American Psychological Association, Toronto, August, 1984. Hofstetter, Fred T. (19831. The Cost of PLATO in a University Environment Journal of Computer Based Instruc- tion, 4, 148-155. Keller, F. S. (1968). Goodbye Teacher Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis 1, 79-89. Leppmann, P., & Herrmann, T.(19821. PSI, What are the Critical Elements? ERIC Document No. ED214502. Perry, W. G. Jr. (1970). Forms ofIntellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Tucker, M. S. (1983-84). Computers on Campus: Working Papers Current Is- sues in Higher Education 2, 0 MEDIA NEWS Continued from page 15 theory. As editor of that journal, Winn is certainly in the position to assess trends in content. Perhaps prospective authors/researchers in the field will answer his call for more papers on the topics of analysis and design, as well as the social aspects of educational technology. Copies of this conference paper may be found in the ERIC document collection as ED 243 440, or ordered from the EDRS (ERIC Document Reproduction Servicel. Note that EDRS has a new mailing address: 3900 Wheeler Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22304. The Association for Educational Communication and Technology (and ECTJ) may be contacted at 1126 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. CALL FOR PROPOSALS A major Secretary of State funded project is soliciting proposals from individuals in- terested in contributing secondary curricu- lum materials or research papers on trans- portation and communication. It is expect- ed that, based upon proposals submitted, persons selected to contribute will include teachers, college instructors, university level researchers, and other writers and researchers. Materials to be developed will discuss the social, political, cultural, and/or econo- mic aspects of transportation, resource ex- traction transportation, broadcasting and new communication technologies. Much, although not all, of the work commission- ed is expected to be regionally informed, nationally significant case studies. Small research grants ($500-1000) will be available to selected individuals. Oppor- tunities will be available for contributors to attend coordination meetings and/or workshops/symposiums in August, 1986, Expo year in Vancouver. The project will publish selected materials in either one of four teacher/learning booklets or a mono- graph. Selection of contributors will be made in January 1985. For more information contact: Dr. D.C. Wilson, Project Coordinator Department of Social and Educational Studies Faculty of Education University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia V6T lZ5 Dr. R. Lorimer, Project Coordinator Department of Communication Simon Fraser University Burnaby, British Columbia V5A IS6 0 ICEM CONFERENCE Continued from page 18. tain, Nigeria, Switzerland and the U.S.A. The theme of this year's conference was "Educational Technology to Enhance Lear- ning at a Distance". The program for each day consisted of a number of speakers followed by a symposium involving the speakers for that day. All of the program events were plenary session, with simul- taneous translation between English and French being provided over headphones. A wide variety of topics was presented along the theme of Distance Education: Think before you leap: How to reduce pro- blems in Distance Education (Dr. Bill Winn, University of Calgary) Extending opportunity: Telidon technology in Vocational Education (Amelia Turnbull, Alberta Correspondence School) Educational Teleconferencing (Dr. G. Barry Ellis, University of CalgaryI Educational Technology to enhance learn- ing at a distance: a systematic ap- proach (Dr. Ron J. McBeath, San Jose State University) New Realities in Educational Communica- tions (Peter L. Senchuk, ACCESS Alberta) Clearinghouse for Computer Software (Dr. S. Jim Thiessen, General Systems Research Ltd., Edmontonl Technology in Distance Education: Im- proving Man's humanity to Man (Dr. John S. Daniel, Laurentian UniversitYl By Making too many technological turns, one ends up going around in circles (Andre Hebert, University of Quebecl The TV Ontario Academy on Computers in Education - a Canadian distance- learning system: Bits and Bytes (Don Robertson, TV Ontario) Distance Education: the Nigerian experi- ence (Francis Z. Gana, Ministry of Education, Lagos) Format: Canada's National audiovisual information system (Donald Bidd, National Film Board, Montreal) Satellite Communications: Past Present and Future. (W. Terry Kerr, Depart- ment of Communications, Ottawa) Telidon: its use in Distance Education (Dr. Robert A. Abell, Alphatel Systems, Edmonton) Among the many AMTEC members at- tending the 1984 ICEM conference were president Bill Hanson, immediate past- president Barry Brown and president-elect Ed Crisp. President Bill addressed the ses- sion on the morning of the second day of the conference, bringing greetings on be- half of AMTEC and describing its function to the interested delegates. The chairman of the ICEM 1984 Con- ference was Hans Kratz of Alberta Educa- tion. (Many will remember him as chair- man of the highly successful AMTEC Con- ference held in Edmonton in 1979.) Hans took care of every detail including the weather, which was perfect. After this ex- perience let us hope that the Council de- cides to meet again in Canada before too long. ICEM was founded in 1950 under the name of International Council for Educa- tion Films; the name was changed in 1966 to International Council for the Advance- ment of Audiovisual Media, and in 1980 to International Council for Educational Media. ICEM enjoys Consultative Status, type A, from UNESCO, through the Inter- national Film and Television Council, and maintains a secretariat in Paris, France. 0 COMPUTER COMMUNICATION Continued from page 9. Holmberg, B. (1982). Recent research in distance education. Hagen: Zentrales Institut fur Fernstudienforschung. March, J. G., & Olsen, J. (19761· Ambigu- ity and choice in organizations. Bergen: Universitets-forlaget. Rekkedal, T. (19821. The drop-out problem and what to do about it. In J. S. Daniel, M. A. Stroud, &J. R. Thompson (Eds.), Learning at a distance (pp. 118-122). Edmonton: ICEE Publications. Stewart, D. (1982). Counselling in distance education - An overview. In A. Tait, & D. Stewart (Eds.), International Workshop on Counselling and Dis- tance Education lpp. 8-111. Milton Keynes: Open University/I.C.D.E. Thompson, G. (19841. The development of the educational telephone network at the University of Wisconsin. Inter- national Council for Distance Edu- cation Bulletin, 5 (2), 47-52. 0 27