Use of FirstClass as a Collaborative Learning Environment

Abstract

This paper draws on the authors' experience in using SoftArc Intranet FirstClass TM as a collaborative learning environment and discusses and exemplifies the pros and cons of choosing this system for running online courses. After a short description of FirstClass and its educational uses, the paper focuses on some case studies: two courses developed and run by the Institute for Educational Technology of the Italian Research Council. These are used as a basis for qualitative considerations about the strengths and weaknesses of FirstClass, including occasional comparisons with the performance of similar systems. In the exposition, a distinction is made between the viewpoints of the course student, the course tutor and designer, and the course administrator. The main conclusion is that FirstClass lends itself very well to managing collaborative learning processes at a distance, providing a very simple and easy to understand interface which can be configured by the course designers according to different design principles. As far as the system's weaknesses are concerned, we must mention that it does not offer sufficient support for the web design tasks that course tutors, designers and students sometimes have to carry out. Moreover, it lacks ad hoc functions for the analysis of communication flows, which are very useful for formative evaluation purposes.