Benefits
The MOO environment provided some clear benefits over the traditional classroom.
- Re-thinking pedagogy.
Provides opportunity for instructors to re-examine teaching methods.
- A textual space.
Students are immersed in written language (particular benefit to literature and writing classes).
- Interactivity.
- More students active in discussion.
- More considered responses.
- More direct interaction between students, rather than through instructor.
- Archiving.
- Permanent record of all classroom activity.
- Allows teacher and student to review discussions.
- Encourages student responsibility for their utterances.
Problems
On the other hand, the MOO environment brought with it several new problems and challenges.
- The Lack of Presence.
Students miss face-to-face contact, feel something is "missing" from virtual interaction. (See Carney, "Classroom Dynamics")
- Spam and Flames.
The same factors that improve discussion and interaction also encourage irrelevent or acrimonious discussions. Instructors must establish and reinforce codes of conduct.
- Training and Hardware.
- Time spent on technical training subtracts from students' exposure to primary content. (Particularly a problem in quarter system).
- Students often connect using older hardware and software. Must keep in mind backward compatibility in designing course tools and planning activities.
- Lecturing Difficult.
Despite tools for the purpose, lecturing is still awkward in MOO. Suggests the need to use variety of media (including, perhaps, "real-life" contact).
Proceed to Future