Home Contents Syllabus Intro 1 2 3 4 5 6 Group Summary Assignments WebCT Instructors

Introduction

Orientation to the Course

 Course Participants

welcome

Assignments

WebCT (Web Course Tools) is the course delivery system that we'll use in this course to send and receive course-related email, to post assignments, and to discuss with each other.

  • Register in WebCT
  • Send me an email message in WebCT, just to let me know you know how it works.
  • Post a message in the WebCT forum for Course Introduction ("Expectations").
    In that message, tell us what you expect to get out of this course. Be as specific as you can. ..."After this course, I plan to do X." This is also a good place to talk about any concerns or worries that you might have about the course or about taking it.
     
  • In the same forum, comment on the following monograph:
To whet your appetite: The fourth monograph from the Pew Symposia on Learning and Technology,  Innovations in Online Learning: Moving Beyond No Significant Difference [Pew Symposia in Learning and Technology: http://www.center.rpi.edu/PewSym1.html], is now available (including a downloadable PDF version) at http://www.center.rpi.edu/PewSym/mono4.html (If this link doesn't work, click here.)
 

Notice: The above links to the Pew Symposia seems to work intermittently. If you can't make connection with Pew, take a look instead at:

Student Satisfaction and Perceived Learning with On-line Courses: Principles and Examples from the SUNY Learning Network: http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol4_issue2/le/Fredericksen/LE-fredericksen.htm
 
The monograph captures the results of an invitational symposium on this topic held on December 8-9, 2000, in Phoenix, Arizona.  Participants included both faculty and administrators who have designed or are designing alternatives to the instructor-led, semester-bound "traditional" approach to putting courses online. The premise of the symposium was that if we merely replicate traditional instructional approaches online, we will once again get "no significant difference" vis-a-vis quality, and we will make only a minimal dent in increasing access and reducing costs. Through a series of case studies, the monograph introduces new approaches to online teaching and learning that build on the strengths of the Internet in order to surpass traditional modes of instruction.
 
Use the forum for Course Introduction in WebCT to comment on the article:
 
What questions does the article raise for you?
Does it raise any concerns?
Does it stimulate any "ah ha's"?
 

Don't forget to go back to this forum several times this week to read what others have said and to discuss.
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Home Contents Syllabus Intro 1 2 3 4 5 6 Group Summary Assignments WebCT Instructors