contributing factors to experience of mediated environment

relevance to Clavier and EWC activity

characteristics of participant

degree of naturalisation

especially difficult for Clermont students, but also unfamiliarity with VLE use at Warwick

tendancy (narrative,immersive etc)

individual difference

roles and conventions

maximising copresense

synchronous tools and activities available to reduce this, used mainly by staff.

relationship to environment

access locations differed French students had access during class time, English students had limited class time and were expected to engage during their own time.

relationship to technology

technology choices appropriate, no significant technological restraints and support was available. (eg. video clip tutorials)

learning activity

teaching approach

greater diversity as team increases, tasks well designed.

teaching technique

greater diversity as team increases, staff familiarity with the purpose of the exchange has evolved over time.

stage in presence development

this was considered in task sequence design, graduating tasks in complexity over time.

community

trajectory

launch event at warwick to raise awareness, institutional publicity in Clermont

boundaries

open and fluid, this was a fundamental premis.

presence (situated experience)

mediated presence

the sense of being somewhere else

open - synchronous and asynchronous, language use (French/English) not stipulated, students free to communicate however they felt appropriate and to use media such as images and video.

social presence

ability to project oneself

lots of opportunities for informal connections eg. Twitter, FB, FIFA tournament, initial activity centres on creation of a profile.

copresence

sense of being together

availability of Instant Messenger and online classroom to increase this, sharing of external activity back into EWC builds visibility of interaction.

embodiment

profile creation activity, students not restricted in choice of avatar, supported to reflect on appropriacy.

characteristics of environment

realness

institutional platform but with holes in the walls, accpetance that students may prefer their own tools.

interactivity

tasks designed to promote both formal and informal learning.

unobtrusiveness

french students had to email in english to get technical support.

persistence

increased by using communication channels such as Facebook and Twitter

communication channels

most effective when communcation moves into students' own channels

navigation

most challenging for french students but also warwick students had to access mahara through Languages@Warwick and cope with a new navigation.

narrative

aggregation tools (storify, RSS feeds) used to emphasise this in EWC.

identity

concept of self

students were encouraged to discuss as part of setting up profile.

representation of self

most engaged to some extent and had well developed profiles across networks, reports of continued interaction beyond the end of the course.

aspects of self

individual difference