Robots tighten gap in distance learning
08/30/2015
The business community and business schools might learn a thing or two from Christine Greenhow.
The assistant professor of counseling, educational psychology and special education at Michigan State University's College of Education is bringing the concept of telecommuting to the academy using robotic technology.
During a spring course in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology Ph.D. program, 13 of 15 students participated using iPads affixed on top of either a stationary robot that swivels to interact with another student or a robot that moves around the classroom to do the same.
Greenhow, who used the robot technology that was developed by the College of Educational Psychology and Special Education/College of Education Design Studio, said she saw the need for a virtual classroom after Ph.D. students taking most of their classes online "felt a sense of distance" between themselves and the teacher, as well as their fellow students.
"I was especially wanting to improve the quality of the whole-group class discussion. I wanted that to get better," she said.
After the course was over, the result was a group of online students from across the country who felt closer to the in-class goings-on in East Lansing.
"Both online and on-campus students recorded that when their colleagues were in robot form, each group felt more physically there," she said.
A similar class approach will be offered again this spring, she said, adding that the next step is to determine the best ratio of "robot" students to physically present students.
It is projected that the proliferation of technological advances will only increase the number of American workers who telecommute either from home or another location.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans who worked from home at least one day per week rose from 9.5 million (7 percent of all workers) in 1999 to 13.4 million (9.5 percent of all workers) in 2010.
Nicole Winkler, associate director for instructional design at the Wayne State University School of Business Administration, said practical uses of such technology could also be found at the management levels.
"If you have a physical office space but you need to work from home for the day, you still want to be sure that things are operating smoothly and not be that nagging person," she said.
"If that technology is in place, it's kind of like you're doing a walk-through. It allows people to kind of work flex, but not be so physically connected and have to rely on somebody else."
That and other uses are part of the wave of the future where business schools need to get in on the ground level.
"There is a real opportunity, especially for business schools, to really get out there in front of this on how the business environments in the future might operate," Greenhow said.
"If we know that increasingly people are not physically present in their offices and yet collaboration is increasingly more important, what technologies allow them (employees) to feel like they are present in the conversation and that their voices are heard?"
By KIRK PINHO