Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc.: Lunch with Fred Hofstetter

In another post in his series of eye-witness accounts of the trial, Jim Farmer provides us with an interview of a fact witness who also happens to be one of the early pioneers in online learning.

– Michael

Fred Hofstetter was a fact witness in the recent Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn trial. In a break, we had two-hour lunch at the local Red Lobster. Immediately I asked Fred about his development and implementation of learning systems.

Professor Fred Hofstetter is known for his development of the GUIDO and Serf learning systems. As Professor of Education, Fred coordinates the master’s and doctoral programs in educational technology at the University of Delaware. His courses include: Internet Literacy, Multimedia Literacy, Internet Technologies, Educational Technology Foundations, Advanced Multimedia Web Design, Web-based Learning Environments, and Data Driven Web Design. Fred received his PhD in Music Theory from Ohio State University.

 I first heard of his work on the GUIDO music learning system. The ERIC abstract of the January 1983 Music Educators Journal describes the system:

The GUIDO system offers programing in ear training and theory for kindergarten through college levels, using high-resolution graphics, touch input, and a sound synthesizer. Ear training includes intervals, melodies, chord qualities, harmonies, and rhythm. Theory covers octave designation, beat units, scales, intervals, diatonic chords, transposition, and partials. (KC)

Development began in 1974. Clearly innovative use of the available technology. His focus on teaching can be seen in GUIDO’s feature “A comprehensive set of instructor options indicate student progress in the curriculum.”

An article in College & University Media Review (Fall, 1999), 99-123 describes Serf.

Serf was invented at the University of Delaware during the summer of 1997.  Initially used to deliver the nation’s first PBS TeleWEBcourse on the topic of Internet Literacy, Serf is now delivering hundreds of courses across the curriculum.  As the content areas diversified, faculty and students requested new features, which have been added to Serf to broaden and enrich the teaching and learning environment.  … It describes how Serf began as a self-paced multimedia learning environment that enabled students to navigate a syllabus, access instructional resources, communicate, and submit assignments over the Web.  At the request of many faculty, version 2 added to Serf a testing system that can administer and grade objective test questions in a traditional exam style, or present competency-based tests according to Bloom’s mastery learning model [emphasis added].  Version 3, released in the summer of 1999, added support for surveys, diagnostic assessments, and tutorial strands of instruction.  Version 3 also made it possible for the author to go beyond the default look-and-feel of a traditional course and, without needing to know any HTML codes, create screens with any conceivable combination of text, graphics, links, and branching.

Serf was an innovative learning system and exploited the technology. But the focus on Serf was a design of effective learning. Fred referred to the work of Lev Vygotsky and his “zone of proximal development (ZPD).” Wikipedia describes the operationalization of ZPD:

ZPD has been implemented as a measurable concept [emphasis added] in the reading software Accelerated Reader. The developers of Accelerated Reader describe it as “the level of difficulty [of a book] that is neither too hard nor too easy, and is the level at which optimal learning takes place (Renaissance Learning, 2007). The STAR Reading software suggests a ZPD level, or it can be determined from other standardized tests. The company claims that students need to read books that are not too easy, so as to avoid boredom, and not too hard, so as to avoid frustration. This range of book difficulty, so claimed, helps to improve vocabulary and other reading skills.

Fred uses the diagnostic assessment capabilities of Serf to identify the student’s “zone.” At this point Serf—based on the construction of the course—begins instruction for this specific student at his “zone.” The instructor becomes a “coach who assists the student as needed to master the material”—often referred to as “a process of ‘scaffolding’ a learner”—and move to the next “zone” and higher level of learning. This approach avoids the two primary limitations of both traditional lectures and most on-line courses—boredom because the course repeats materials the students know, but which others may not yet know, or frustration because the student does not yet have prerequisite knowledge to learn effectively.

Fred has developed a set of supplementary instructional materials, as he says similar to FAQs, that he provides students based on their progress or their requests for “coaching.” As the course is taught the number of these “FAQs”—dare I say “learning objects”?—instruction constantly is improved and becomes more effective. Fred said he had two hundred students this semester, something he could not do without Serf. Since students will need different lengths of time to master the course material, one of my colleagues said “this really messes with semesters.” Rio Salado College has an effective way of dealing with this difference—a student who needs additional time is re-registered into a term that began a few weeks earlier. Rio Salado College has 26 terms per year. At any time there will be nine terms.

A review of Fred’s resume shows he has the requisite number of publications and keynote presentations to earn tenure he was awarded. With tenure he could be free to teach a course or two, advise a few graduate students, and enjoy campus life. Instead, he said tenure has given him the opportunity to write four books that explore new ways of teaching, and to develop Serf and the associated startup company Serfsoft, without feeling the pressures of publishing the refereed journal articles he was formerly required to achieve tenure. He said this feeling of academic freedom is important since he can pursue different research and development without concern of the subject, the time it takes, or whether it produces “success” as contrasted to generating new knowledge publishable in research journals. He feels it important to be able to collaborate with others and believes overemphasis on copyright and patents may prevent full collaboration or building upon the work of others.

Although people think of Fred as a developer, his most important contribution has been in the application of technology. Students benefit, the university benefits, the State of Delaware and the nation as a whole benefits. Few appreciate Fred’s most important contribution. We should.