|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||||||
|
2001
Conference Proceedings, June 11-14, 2001
|
 |
|
ONLINE
LEARNING AT MERCER WITH WEBCT
Mike
Drummond, Director of Academic Computing
The Information Technology staff at Mercer had reviewed several online course management tools prior to adoption of WebCT. Faculty had taught one or two courses using Embanet. We had representatives from other vendors who demonstrated their products. In 1999, Mercer selected Campus Pipeline as our Web portal software because of its integration with the SCT administrative software we use. Reviews of software capabilities, ease of use, price, and integration prompted our choice of WebCT. In the spring of 2000, we downloaded the trial version 2.1 to a small server to play with, and one staff member loaded it on her personal server in order to learn how it works. In June, 2000, we contracted with an Instructional Design and Technology Specialist from the University of Georgia to teach a two-day WebCT workshop for the Academic Computing staff, the Director of Web Management, and five select faculty who were expressing an interest in online teaching and learning. That workshop gave us the jumpstart we needed to begin creating our demo courses and training materials. In July, 2000, the Director of Academic Computing submitted a statement of online learning goals to the Office of the Provost and the Associate VP for Technical Services. In that report he outlined a plan for establishing an online learning initiative at Mercer. The following pages represent the thrust of that outline with slight modifications. INTRODUCTION In order for Mercer University to be effective and successful in its approach to Web-based online learning, the University must provide a faculty development program that fosters experiential, collaborative learning. As the University embraces technology mediated learning, it must concentrate on a comprehensive approach to development of Web-based courses. There are several major factors to be considered, such as: (1) level of Web integration, (2) personalized courses, (3) learning strategies, (4) hands-on student experiences, (5) assessment methods and tools, (6) technical support and consultation, (7) selection of course development and management tools, and (8) security and copyright issues. LEVEL OF WEB INTEGRATION Web Enhanced Course In a Web enhanced course, the faculty generally post such course objects as the syllabus, homework assignments, special documents, URLs for research, and similar items on the Web for student access. Completed homework assignments are delivered electronically to a course drop box. Quizzes, exams, surveys, and other forms of assessment can also be handled electronically, and students would be able to view their course progress on a daily basis by logging into their respective course Web sites. Students can view their individual grades online if allowed by the instructor. The course design might also include a list serve through which the faculty and students can post questions, comments, and threaded discussions. Classes continue to meet at the prescribed time and place, based on the regular or modified class schedule, and the Web is used to support the learning process. Fully Integrated Online Course. In a fully integrated online course, all course related activities are delivered and accessed via the Web. In addition to those items described in a Web enhanced course, the entire body of course materials, activities, contacts and communications are handled through Web access. Quizzes, exams, surveys, and other forms of assessment are delivered and completed electronically, and students are able to view their course progress on a daily basis by logging into their respective course Web sites. There are no class meetings for faculty and students to attend. Instructor Led Course The instructor manages the course entirely online with minimal or no face-to-face contact with the students. Discussion groups, chat rooms, group and individual projects are all be handled electronically. Some of the course activities might be accessed synchronously by use of a chat room, but the majority of the activities are most likely accessed asynchronously. The asynchronous method allows students to access the learning materials at their convenience rather than on a specified time schedule. By using a course management tool such as WebCT, the instructor is able to require assignments to be submitted on or by specific dates and can also make activities and exams available only on specified dates and times. Learner Led Course PERSONALIZED COURSES Since students taking fully online courses are not likely to meet face to face with each other or the instructor during the semester, it is important for the instructor to provide alternative ways for such personal factors to influence the learning process. Several tools are available for the instructor to personalize or customize the course. Home Pages Many instructors provide a personal Home Page within the course content area and also encourage students to develop Home Pages as well. These pages might include a brief biographical sketch, e-mail address and even pictures of the students and instructor. Threaded Discussions Threaded discussions are quite popular with Web based courses. For each unit of study the instructor posts reading assignments, discussion questions, and recommends other resources for learners to review. Students interact online with the instructor and other students. Chat Groups Use of live chat groups is a popular method for interactive discussions and personalization of the online course. Chat groups can lead to threaded discussions of pertinent topics with the instructor as well as provide a means for student interaction with each other online. Electronic mail is used frequently as a means for the instructor to communicate with the students, students with the instructor, and students with each other. E-mail, like the chat group, is especially useful for students working on small group projects. It allows the instructor to provide directions to and feedback from each group of students as well as with the entire class. Within the online course management tools, e-mail can be limited to just the students enrolled in a particular course. It is best not to integrate course e-mail with the university e-mail system. LEARNING STRATEGIES HANDS-ON STUDENT EXPERIENCES In courses requiring hands-on experiences, Web-based simulations are often used to meet this requirement. For some science courses that may not be plausible, in which case arrangements can be made for that portion of the course to be performed by students in a lab setting on campus or contractually with other appropriate organizations. For those courses which require students to perform tasks that produce a deliverable product such as computer output, those exercises can be performed in the computer lab and either delivered to the instructor via e-mail or via the homework drop box within the online course area. WebCT and other online course delivery tools provide this capability. ASSESSMENT METHODS AND TOOLS Online assessment most likely will be of a different nature from traditional classroom assessment methods. Authentic assessment for the purpose of enhancing learning is a must. Two popular methods of assessment are frequent mastery learning exams and student projects. Several software products are available to produce and deliver online assessment, some of which will integrate directly with WebCT. WebCT also contains a solid online assessment tool. We are currently testing Respondus Lite for test creation. Mastery Learning Exams Many current online
course practitioners recommend utilizing a large number of test items
by dividing course content into segments and developing test items for
each segment. The idea is that frequent assessment tends to keep the student
on track and current with the course material. Some book publishers permit
faculty to use pre-developed test items for this purpose. Students take
the tests online. The tests questions are usually generated randomly,
and students can take the tests as many times as necessary to master the
material. Through repetitive taking of the exam, the student should learn
and retain the required information. Some schools even allow students
to take the final exam multiple times without penalty. The nature and
frequency of exams should be entirely at the discretion of the faculty
and can be modified as desired. Student projects can be performed either individually or within a group. Both methods work well with online courses. Many faculty prefer the group method because of the collaborative or cooperative learning that takes place. In either case, the faculty serves as a mentor to the students, and the students submit their completed products online in the form of reports to their colleagues and/or the instructor. A more detailed discussion of these assessment tools is provided by Carter & Lewis (1998). TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND CONSULTATION The Academic Computing Center has been assigned the primary role of support and consultation for the University regarding use of WebCT for course development and delivery and management. Our staff have all attended a two-day "Train the Trainer" WebCT workshop and have developed training materials that we use to train Mercer faculty. Two staff members, one of whom is currently serving as the WebCT Server Administrator, and the other of whom is a Software Training and Support Specialist, attended the annual WebCT 2000 Conference and will attend the WebCT2001 Conference. Our Software Support and Training Specialists have modified their software training schedule to allow them to incorporate WebCT 3.0 into the curriculum. We believe that by also utilizing faculty who are early adopters of WebCT, and by delivering timely training for faculty, we can provide adequate support for the early stages of online learning at Mercer. As other faculty adopt the new technology and begin to develop courses, we will definitely need to acquire additional staff. The team approach to course development is the norm and by all current research provides the most effective online courses. SELECTION OF COURSE DEVELOPMENT AND DELIVERY TOOLS Staff of Technical Services, Technology Support, and Academic Computing as well as some faculty had reviewed several of the popular online course development and delivery software tools. WebCT was selected as the tool of choice for Mercer, and it will be fully supported by our staff. Faculty may use other tools at their discretion, but we will not have expertise available for support. POLICIES AND PROCEDURES As we began planning strategies for our pilot project, we immediately recognized the need for some procedures to keep us from getting lost. We created an Online Request for WebCT Course Creation form for faculty to submit their requests for course shells. We also created a procedure by which faculty would be allowed to utilize WebCT for online courses. Both of these forms are available on the Academic Computing Web at http://www.mercer.edu/acadcomp under the WebCT drop down menu
OUR FIRST YEAR We began a pilot WebCT project with 7 faculty and 14 courses in the fall of 2000. Emphasis was on the term pilot. The Academic Computing staff developed an outline of training for faculty and began developing the workshop content during the summer of 2000. The initial training outline consisted of a series of 6 modules. Module 1 - Introduction to WebCT In this module, the trainer uses a demo course that she has created to introduce the faculty to WebCT from the student perspective. Policies and procedures for requesting and maintaining courses are also discussed. This course is approximately 1 ½ hours in duration. Module 2 - Getting Started with WebCT This module is a hands-on workshop. Faculty learn how to access the WebCT login screen, create a syllabus, add entries to a calendar, create a welcome page, use the chat, e-mail, and threaded discussion features. This course is approximately 1 ½ hours in duration. Module 3 - Create Course Content In this module, the faculty learn to use the File Manager to load files to their course area, create single web pages of content, create content modules, create links, and backup course content to a local hard drive. This course is approximately 2 hours in duration. Module 4 - Evaluation Tools In this module, faculty learn to create questions and add them to a question bank, create quizzes and surveys, create self-tests, use the grades tool, and add student assignments. This course is approximately 3 hours in duration. Module 5 - Advanced Tools In this module, faculty
learn to use the Whiteboard, create the Image Database, add the Glossary
tool, Search tool, and Compile tool. This course is approximately 1 ½
-2 hours in duration. In this course, faculty learn how to use the Gradebook, Student Tracking, add teaching assistants, add shared designers, and reset the course at the end of a term. This course is approximately 1 ½-2 hours in duration. ONLINE LEARNING AT MERCER FROM A STUDENT PERSPECTIVE Sheila Newman, Academic Computing Specialist on Mercer's Atlanta campus, is also a student in the Technology Management MBA program at Mercer. She has taken several courses at Mercer that were delivered with WebCT. Sheila shares her experience and perspectives as a learner in two online WebCT courses. Technology & Information Management WebCT was introduced at the graduate level through the Master of Science in Technology Program with the "Technology & Information Management" course. Dr. Linda L. Brennan, Program Director, Master of Science in Technology Management, taught the course. The course is required for all technology management majors. TGM 600 was offered during the fall of 2000 for eight weekly sessions that run four hours and 15 minutes per session. Learner course work in this class traditionally consists of two assignments that require learners to read articles from Harvard Business School Press cases and respond to threaded discussions in WebCT. Because of the pedagogical approach to active learning, the online chat feature was used for electronic interaction in three of the eight sessions. Online chat was especially beneficial to one of the learners residing in Columbia, South Carolina (about 200+ miles from Atlanta, Georgia) and other learners whose jobs required extensive traveling. These learners did not encounter any WebCT login problems during the course as they interacted in the online sessions. Learners were introduced to WebCT during the first class meeting. This introduction involved logging on and reviewing the course content. Learners were given their user names and were introduced to the Technology & Information Management WebCT site. As a representative from the Academic Computing Department, I administered handouts to the learners with illustrations and examples. The professor emphasized the use of a separate class Web site as a backup to WebCT throughout the course. WebCT's discussion tool was used to add an active learning element to the Technology and Information Management course structure. Learners attended weekly lectures and used the threaded discussions to interact with peers and the instructor outside the traditional class time. Failure to interact using his tool affected the learner's participation in the class, and this requirement was explained in the first session. Learners were encouraged to respond to the assigned topics as well as to other peer responses. Several assignments were done using the discussion tool with a hard copy turned in to the professor for grading. TGM 600 learners often used this tool for interaction. In fact, some learners started discussing other topics of interest in addition to the assigned topics. Another tool used in this Technology and Information Management class was the synchronous chat tool feature in WebCT. Since the class size was approximately 25-28 learners, it was appropriate to use this tool throughout the course. In fact, the chat feature enabled the class to be conducted electronically on several occasions. On the first scheduled chat session, however, we experienced a problem with the server and had to resort to the class web site. The server had to be rebuilt and WebCT was unavailable for about a week. This chat feature presented some concerns since a few of the learners relied on computers used for work. In each situation, there were fire walls preventing them from participating in chat sessions. Since this problem does exist when there is a firewall, it is necessary that learners physically attend the class during these electronic sessions. Although electronic sessions were scheduled, the professor remained in the computer lab during the class hours scheduled for situations described above. The professor used the mail feature to report individual learner progress. She sent these progress reports through WebCT to let learners know how well they were participating in the class. Other learners tended not to use this tool but relied mainly on their regular e-mail instead. The mail tool is confined to the WebCT course, so learners would have to be connected to the course in order to read messages. The professor had created other activities that consisted of a virtual lesson. This session was presented using PowerPoint and Word as she chose to download the guest speaker's notes. The professor included questions regarding the use of this online tool in the regular course evaluation form presented to learners at the completion of the courses. The learner responses indicated that WebCT did enhance the course. Strategic Management in the Technology Intensive Firm The professor utilized the same tools for the Technology Management capstone course as were used in the previous course. In addition, she added the grade tool so learners could check their individual progress. A course syllabus tool was used, and she has downloaded the syllabus used on her web page. A course schedule link was added to our TGM 698 page for learners to know when written assignments were due. For the electronic or virtual lessons, there were instructional overviews and interactive assignments for each lesson. This course was offered during Spring 2001 (March 10 - May 12). There were twelve learners enrolled in this capstone course. No formal introduction to WebCT was necessary, although the professor allotted class time for learners during the first session to explore the class WebCT site. Prior to the next class meeting the professor posted a transcript of the electronic chat session for learners to read responses. At the next class session conducted on March 31, the professor questioned learners on the effectiveness of this chat session. Learners felt that the chat session was effective and thorough in covering the discussion of the book we were assigned to read and review. Learners expressed concern about not being able to respond fast enough due to limited typing speed. Learners also felt that the professor's response in recognizing learners in chat was overlooked. This problem was probably due to the loss of Internet connections. There was a suggestion that the professor post several questions either on the list serve or in WebCT's discussion tool for learners to review before the next chat session scheduled for April 7, 2001. Learners felt that discussion could be more effective if they were given the opportunity to have some responses already typed in a word processor that they could post in the chat feature more quickly. Since the first WebCT graduate level course, Technical Support Services has worked diligently to solve the connection problems between the two campuses. Also, additional T1 lines were installed to making WebCT access more reliable. However, the firewall problem still exists, causing learners to have to get other access to the Internet when chat sessions are used. Academic Computing implemented a WebCT support system through which all WebCT users are informed daily on the status of WebCT at Mercer. Staff members are required to report problems encountered with WebCT to users and inform them when these problems have been resolved. FAILURES AND SUCCESSES Fortunately, our successes have outweighed our failures. There are, however, some failures that are significant. Probably our most significant failure was not including more faculty in the initial review and study of course management tools and not including any faculty in the final software selection. That choice was deliberate on the part of higher management and has come back to haunt us several times. We had a couple of faculty who were already using another tool and didn't want to switch. They have been quite vocal about the lack of faculty input into the decision. Our third major failure was not staffing appropriately for this new venture. Mercer did not form a team that included the six specialist outlined above. As is often the case in education, we were directed to make do with current staff. We assigned WebCT responsibilities to staff who were already working close to maximum productivity. Mercer did not have a person designated as a server administrator. This task was handled by a myriad of people in the Technical Support Services department. Not having a Linux operating system administrator at the beginning caused some nightmares. About a third of the way through fall semester, 2000, our WebCT server was comprised by a hacker who had entered through a server at another college in a western state. That school was unaware that their server had been compromised until we notified them. Our WebCT server was off-line for 6 days before we had it wiped clean and completely rebuilt. We had no Plan B. Fortunately, we had adequate backup copies of all the course content. We then installed some security software we had not previously installed. We have had some successes. We managed to complete fall semester with only the one major failure with the system. Our faculty training proceeded on schedule, and several faculty requested courses for spring 2001 semester. We began Spring 2001 with 14 faculty, 29 courses, and 525 students in WebCT courses. By mid-term, we had increased to 21 faculty, 41 courses, and approximately 745 students. By mid-term we had also trained 86 faculty or other designers from 30 different departments. We also worked with the campus libraries to post electronic reserves to WebCT. We created a series of course shells that represent the various schools, colleges, and programs which utilize the e-reserves. All of our libraries can post electronic reserve documents to WebCT. Our coding scheme is such that only students within a discipline area have access to specific reserves. Probably our greatest success is that both faculty and students are excited about the online course enhancements. The number of faculty enrolling in WebCT training and requesting course shells is growing as fast as our current staff can handle them. Faculty who previously posted course materials to their individual Web pages are moving their course content to WebCT because of its features and ease of use. We have received permission to hire additional staff in July to work with our WebCT online learning project. This position will be an Online Course Administrator who will work closely with faculty in establishing course functionality and reliability. SUMMARY REFERENCES Chambers, J., & Carter, M., (2000). Comprehensive Web-based Course Development. Combs, L. (2000). The Design, Assessment, and Implementation of a Web-Based Course. McMahon, M., & Luca, J. (2000). Courseware Management Tools and Customised Web Pages: Rationale, Comparisons and Evaluation. Paquette, G. (2000). Keynote address to the AACE ED-MEDIA 2000 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications. WebCT, (2001), personal communication. The software names, Embanet, WebCT, PowerPoint, Respondus Lite, Linux, and Word are copyrighted by their respective publishers. |
 |
||
| ©2001-2002 ASCUE, Inc. |
email:
clsmith@depauw.edu
http://www.ascue.org |
Latest
update: 3-nov-01
|