Who Is Teaching Online Courses?: A Preliminary Review

Many research papers have explored the classic curriculum questions of what we are teaching and how we are teaching. The development of the World Wide Web in the early 1990’s has extended the issue one step further to include the concern of where we are teaching. The Web has indeed allowed the forum for teaching to move beyond the traditional face-to-face (F2F) classroom to online or “virtual” classrooms. This non-traditional forum has indeed become popular, but the researchers of this paper would like to know exactly how popular it has become? Is this just a novelty forum that is being used by a select few on campus, or is being used by many across campus? Is it really “replacing” the traditional classrooms altogether, as some would like to suggest, or is just a small percentage of faculty who are using it? In particular, it would be interesting to know if this forum is being used more by one particular group of faculty on campus, such as technology professors, than by others. Is the web being used to teach proportionally more undergraduate or graduate courses? Who is benefiting the most by technology? This research-in-progress will attempt to answer some of these questions by exploring one regional university’s use of WebCT, a web-based tool that allows academics to teach online classes. In particular, the researchers are currently in the process of collecting data about the number of classes being taught using WebCT, the number of faculty using WebCT, and categorizing the information by discipline, college, and classification level (undergraduate or graduate). This data will then be compared to the summary of class listings overall for the campus to see what percentage of faculty and discipline areas are represented in the web-based courses. Future research will include a comparative analysis with other universities

Faculty and Student Perceptions of Technology Integration in Teaching

This journal article discusses a study examining the perceptions of faculty and students on the topic of technology integration in the teaching of courses at a Midwestern College of Education. The purposes of this study are to collect baseline data to identify the current extent of technology integration, to inform the strategic planning process, and for accreditation purposes. The article from "The Journal of Interactive Online Learning," describes faculty comfort levels and proficiency with technology, faculty perceptions and frequency with which they use technology, and student perceptions of technology use and impact on their learning. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

How do you spell 'support'? Multiple methods of library support to distributed education programs

This paper consists of librarians from two universities, one in the US and one in Canada, discussing and demonstrating the various ways they offer support to multiple distributed education programs. Because different programs on the same campus often offer distributed courses in different formats, libraries are required to become expert in all formats offered. This presentation will discuss library support via WebCT, Blackboard, FirstClass, proprietary courseware, email, the web, and Conferencing software. Where appropriate, differences between library support in the US and Canada will be noted and examined

Electronic Collaboration Across Cultures in a Web-based Project for English Writing Instruction

The paper highlights the importance of experimentation and an innovative approach to English language writing instruction with the help of information communication technology (ICT or IT). First, it describes the local situation of English language teaching at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Then, it summarizes the development of IT proficiency and student-led collaborative learning groups at CUHK. Third, it reports on an International Web-based writing project involving six collaborating schools in different parts of the world including China, the United States, Indonesia, and Hong Kong in the year 1999-2000. In the report, the author-presenter will share with the audience a new ELT course development titled "English Online: Writing on the Web." He will explain the course objectives, the background of participating classes, the Web Course Tools (WebCT), the design of the project, the evaluation of course effectiveness and the outcome of the new curricular initiative. Finally, the paper presents a summary of a practical guide to electronic collaboration and some of the lessons the writer has learnt in five years\u27 experience of participant-observation in English teaching practice using the Web

Teacher Education Futures: Developing learning and teaching in ITE across the UK

A selection of papers from the Teacher Education Futures conference 2006

Getting Help from Course Management Software to Teach a Large-enrollment Introductory Geology Class

This article deals with utilizing the Internet as a medium for empowering learning and course management of on-campus classes using the enterprise-wide software system WebCT, which has proven to be very useful in managing a large introductory geology class. The author presents the results of her students' learning experience with WebCT. The article also provides a simple tutorial on how to create an Internet-enhanced course in less than a day using WebCT and with no prior knowledge of HTML language or FTP procedures. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Blended learning for project management

Students studying at postgraduate level should engage in learning on higher cognitive levels such as evaluation and creation. The notion of effective learning at this level is characterised by the student’s ability to use acquired knowledge and principles to solve complex problems. Learning theories advocate maximising student engagement with the learning resources in order to facilitate such effective learning. This can be achieved by addressing the following factors in curriculum design: accessibility, variety, formative assessment and the development of learning communities. This paper presents work done on a postgraduate level Project Management course to maximise the factors mentioned above, for example, with the introduction of automatically marked quizzes and the re-structuring of the course content. The content and delivery of the course was changed from weekly lectures and tutorial sessions (old system) to a web-based blended learning system (new system). Evaluation of the old and new systems was undertaken using questionnaires. The student evaluation suggests that the new system led to more effective learning. It is suggested that effective learning can be facilitated by a blended learning system

Implementing a university e‐learning strategy: levers for change within academic schools

This paper describes the implementation of an e‐learning strategy at a single higher education institution in terms of the levers used to promote effective uptake and ensure sustainable embedding. The focus of this work was at the level of the academic school using a range of change practices including the appointment of school‐based learning technologists and e‐learning champions, supporting schools to write their own strategies, a pedagogical framework of engaging with e‐learning, and curriculum development and evaluation of school‐supported projects. It is clear that the implementation of the e‐learning strategy has led to a large and increasing proportion of our students experiencing blended learning. In addition, there are initial indications that this has enhanced some learning and teaching processes. Where there has been sustainable embedding of effective e‐learning, the following levers were identified as particularly important: flexibility in practices that allow schools to contextualise their plans for change, the facilitation of communities of key staff and creating opportunities for staff to voice and challenge their beliefs about e‐learning