by Evelyn Beck

Unlike many of us who find it distracting when students whisper to one another during class discussions, Alvin Wang encourages such student-to-student “messaging.” Only he does so on-line during live synchronous communication, or chats, with students sending Instant Messages visible only to one another as the larger class discussion carries on. Wang, a psychology professor and the interim dean of the Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, finds that both the live chat interaction and the student-to-student IM-ing about class-related material helps create a personal environment so often lacking in virtual education.

“When we have synchronous communication, it enhances the social presence of the instructor,” he says. “It elevates interest in the class, encourages better performance, and facilitates learning communities. In asynchronous communication, there is no social presence of the instructor. The student has no idea what the instructor is like. And students are less motivated to want to perform well and ask questions.”

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