Collaboration In and Out of the Classroom: Clemson University's Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE)

Collaboration In and Out of the Classroom: Clemson University’s Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE)

Every classroom can benefit from greater collaboration. Technology can facilitate this collaboration, even if the technology consists merely of email between professors and students. Clemson University offers its 16,000 students and 1,200 faculty members the benefits of greater collaboration through a wide range of information technology services. This collection of tools and services is known as the Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE). (Since your article is chiefly about collaboration in the classroom, I reworked your intro. a bit to highlight this focus.)

The CLE is designed to make basic technological tools easy to use while at the same time allowing the most sophisticated use of technology in the classroom. The CLE is available with an investment of little or no administration on the part of the faculty or the University’s technology (I'm not sure what "little or no administration on the part of the faculty or the University's technology" means. Do you mean that the CLE requires little training for faculty by the University's administration or its technological services department? Also, I think this paragraph could use some more explanation of what technological tools the CLE makes available, how long the CLE has been in place, how it came about, etc.).

Access to Learning Through CLE (I cut the section of bullets that was listed here—"Architecture, Arts, and Humanities," "Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences, etc."—because most of the descriptions of CLE's classroom applications in various departments are repeated and more detailed later in the article.)

Prior to the start of each semester, 500 megabytes of network server space is automatically created for every class section (approximately 5000 per semester) offered at Clemson. Within that space, each student in the class has access to a consistent suite of course tools and file folders. Such tools include Web page templates, a syllabus builder, a discussion board, a class calendar, and a file manager for uploading and downloading files to and from the class workspace. Folders allow drop-off and retrieval of assigned work and contain class assignments, the course syllabus, class notes provided by the professor, and reserved library materials (How do the folders provide reserved library materials? Do you mean that the folders contain a list of reserved library materials or that they contain links to online library resources?).

Because of its global availability through the Internet, students and faculty can access the CLE from any location. A distinctive authentication product called AuthServ provides access to this learning environment. Developed at Clemson and marketed commercially by Omnibond Systems, AuthServ enables access to all university network resources as specified for individual users through a single userID and password.

The CLE is tightly integrated with the system the Registrar’s Office uses to store information about course offerings, student enrollment, and faculty teaching assignments. When a student logs on to the network, the screen displays a list of all of his/her classes. When a faculty member logs on, the screen displays his/her class assignments. Registration in the system also drives the creation of CLE class workspace and membership. As students add and drop courses and as teaching assignments are updated, course links are automatically added and dropped from the screen. Selecting a course will take the student or professor to the network space set aside for that class.

Collaborative Projects through CLE

Departments within each of the University’s five colleges are using the CLE in various ways that enhance course material and encourage collaboration. CLE automatically generates and maintains a class email list for each class. It also allows professors to set up multiple chat rooms and divide their classes into workgroups with their own spaces and chat rooms. The CLE even accommodates grouping classes together and creating workgroups across the curriculum. In fact, various programs at Clemson feature collaborative projects through CLE class workspace:

CommuniCon. Since the spring of 1998, students from different departments within the university, such as English Composition, Technical Writing, Business Writing, Horticulture, Spanish, Landscape Design, and Engineering, have been collaborating on service learning projects (What exactly is a service learning project?). These projects are displayed at an event called CommuniCon, which is now sponsored by Microsoft. Through the CLE, presenters are organized into teams across curricula, and each team has network space from which to document and present material as well as communicate through a discussion area. According to Bernadette Longo, professor of English and Project Coordinator, evenings of formal presentations by class teams originally lasted up to six hours at times. She explains, “In Spring 1998, I had about 20 projects going in two classes and worked with my students to devise another presentation format. We all liked the trade show/science fair format and named it CommuniCon.” (It might be a good idea to replace "According to Bernadette Longo . . . named it CommuniCon" with an example of one of the projects a cross-curricular team presented).
Abnormal Psychology. For her Abnormal Psychology course, Dr. Patti Connor-Greene, South Carolina Professor of the Year, breaks students into teams and assigns each team a clinical problem to solve. Students visit and evaluate local mental health facilities and compile their findings into a resource guide for the community. Before using CLE, Dr. Conner-Greene found that team coordination was a problem and that the final paper volume for projects was enormous. But now she uses CLE team space to help facilitate the projects. She breaks team assignments into parts, with individual students completing and turning in each part to the CLE team space. Once individual parts are complete, team members edit the sections using the reviewing features of Microsoft Word, which allows them to add commentary directly to documents. Connor-Greene says of the students, “They would not want to go back to doing it on paper. This has improved interaction with the students and given them more responsibility in the learning process.”
General Chemistry. Each semester, over 2,000 Chemistry students use the CLE to work on group projects in laboratories. Each group can use its workspace to interact, prepare for lab, and develop reports and presentations. CLE tools also allow data collected in labs to be stored, manipulated, and made available to all members of the group and their instructor. According to chemistry professor Melanie Cooper (Is Melanie Cooper a Dr.?), class time is becoming more of a question/answer forum through CLE, while course content material is reviewed and learned through web-based materials. "Already I spend much less time lecturing," she reveals.
Management. CLE houses a computer-based simulation of the shoe industry for role-playing in introductory management classes. The CLE has improved the simulation experience by providing 24-hour global access; interactive student-student and student-instructor relationships are no longer restricted by time and place. According to management professor Michael Crino (Is Michael Crino a Dr.?), “The team setup works perfectly for the virtual shoe store, allowing faculty and students to focus on the management side—not the computer administrative side.”

Support for CLE

Since technology without training can be ineffective, comprehensive training programs for CLE are available for students and faculty. These programs target professors through faculty training that includes a variety of workshops, seminars, and consulting sessions. A computer literacy program reaches incoming Freshmen through introductory English and Engineering courses. In-class training options are available to all classes on a request basis.

The CLE is designed to support all students and faculty, regardless of their familiarity with computers or the complexity of their applications. While the CLE is rich in functionality, its widespread acceptance by both faculty and students has been most encouraged by its on-going, comprehensive training programs and its requirement of so little class workspace administration (What exactly does "class workspace administration" mean?). The CLE and AuthServ allow Clemson faculty and students to take advantage of technology in teaching and learning in a cost-effective manner (Thus far, the article has not really contained information about the costs of CLE. How exactly is it cost-effective? How are the costs of comprehensive training programs and more sophisticated technologies justified by their results?).

The Future

The CLE is well on its way to becoming the delivery mechanism for all computing services to students and faculty at Clemson, whether inside or outside of the classroom. New features under development include online testing, an online grade book, and an online planner for students, which will display information such as due dates and assignments from each of the students' courses. (Since this paragraph is the conclusion of your article, it could use some more sentences of summation, evaluation, overall impressions, etc. What are your predictions about how CLE—and greater collaboration—will continue to change the educational environment at Clemson and other universities? Do you think other universities may or should adopt similar programs? What can other universities learn from the program at Clemson? etc. The paragraph should be focused mainly toward the implications of collaboration since it is the main focus of the article.)

The CLE publishes a quarterly faculty newsletter to showcase the innovative work and accomplishments of Clemson faculty. It is available online by selecting the Faculty Directions link at http://cle.clemson.edu. This site also contains further information on the CLE.

The CLE is an online learning environment developed at Clemson by the Division of Computing and Information Technology in collaboration with faculty and students. The CLE is similar to other learning environments being marketed today with the exception of being designed to integrate with the existing Netware infrastructure and the existing registration course management system so that creation of the class workspace is automated and class rolls and teaching assignments are updated as they change in the Registration system.(I'm not sure why this paragraph is here. Is it some kind of disclaimer or product announcement? This information seems to have been covered earlier, making this paragraph unnecessary.)