Announcement: $1.15 LAAP Grant Awarded to Indiana State University,
Vincennes University and Ivy Tech State College
Contents:
- Welcome! - Nancy Franklin
- $1.15 LAAP Grant Awarded to ISU, VU, and Ivy Tech
- The Virtual Instructional Designer (VID) -- Paula Vincini
- DegreeLink - An Update
- Chat's Room: News from the FCRC
- Information Technology Offers Computer Training Opportunities
for Faculty, Staff, and Students! - Teresa Crafton
- CTA Workshops & Faculty Support Services for 1999-2000
- What's New with ISU Faculty?
- Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera
- Thought for September
Welcome to Interaction, ISU's monthly electronic newsletter for people
interested in developing and teaching distance education courses. The
purpose of Interaction is to provide you with information on course
development and design, new technologies, and teaching distance
courses. As the name implies, we hope to make this electronic
newsletter "interactive," its contents reflecting current issues,
challenges, and innovations in teaching. Your part is simple-just tell
us what you want. Send us your questions, frustrations, and topics of
interest, and we will include information on that topic in a future
issue. In addition, we invite you to share your experiences and tips
on teaching distance courses, and to send us announcements of upcoming
events. Please submit your comments and requests to
interact@web.indstate.edu, a secured access e-mail account. Your
contributions will not be posted as a "global" message to subscribers
of Interaction. The staffs of Continuing Education/Instructional Services,
the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Library, ACNS, and other
ISU offices are eager to answer your questions and offer you assistance
as you develop and teach your distance education courses.
Welcome
Nancy Franklin
Welcome back to veteran faculty members, and a special welcome to new
ISU faculty members! During the Summer, Continuing Education has
consolidated its support for distance education and is pleased to offer a
single channel for providing faculty development, course development,
course delivery, and "collateral" supports, such as this newsletter to you.
The Distance Education staff plans to offer several faculty development
programs this year, including a Course Transformation Academy Follow-Up
Workshop for those of you experienced with teaching via distance education.
Teams of instructional designers and developers are ready to assist you with
course development. Various sources of mini-grant assistance are available
for course development. We are initiating a first phase of full course
delivery support for asynchronous courses this Fall and look forward to the
first full semester of two-way video classes.
An overview of our faculty development programs is included in this issue of
Interaction. For a complete schedule of faculty development programs and
information about our support services, please call Mary Luz Petrowski at
8639 and ask her to send you a copy of our publication, "Distance Education
and Faculty Computing Resources Faculty Support Services for 1999-2000."
We hope to have an opportunity to work with you.
$1.15 LAAP Grant Awarded to ISU, VU, and Ivy Tech
Indiana State University and our partners Vincennes University and
Ivy Tech State College were awarded a 3-year LAAP grant totaling
$1,152,788. Monies will be used to develop a Virtual Instructional
Designer (VID), an electronic performance support system for
designing online courses for higher education. 653 preliminary
proposals for LAAP grants were submitted, from which 122 were
invited to the final round. Of these, only 29 received awards for projects.
For information on the other 28 grantees, visit the LAAP web site at:
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/FIPSE/LAAP
To read about the VID Project, see Paula Vincini's article in this
issue of Interaction.
The Virtual Instructional Designer (VID)
Paula Vincini
For this issue of Interaction, I was asked to provide a context and
background for the $1.15 million award of a three-year Learning Anytime
Anywhere Partnerships (LAAP) grant from The Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to the DegreeLink Partnership of Indiana
State University, Vincennes University, and Ivy Tech State College. The
grant, one of only 29 awarded throughout the country, is for the design and
development of an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) called the
Virtual Instructional Designer (VID) that will provide the kind of
comprehensive, cost-effective, replicable quality faculty training and
development that can be offered to faculty anywhere, anytime via the
Internet.
ISU is serving as the primary fiscal agent for the grant and site for the
initial design and development of the VID. Nancy Franklin, Director,
Faculty Development/Planning in Continuing Education/Instructional Services
will act as Principal Investigator and Project Director. I will be acting
as Associate Project Director and VID Development Team Leader with a team
composed of a computer programmer, web graphic designer, and computer editor
and documentation analyst.
The LAAP program is a new grant competition with ten million dollars in
grants awarded in 1999. According to the LAAP literature, "The purpose of
the grant is to broaden access to technology-mediated education that is not
limited by time or place. LAAP will support partnerships that may include
universities, colleges, businesses, community organizations, and other
entities to use technology to address the biggest challenges and
opportunities in postsecondary education and lifelong learning. Ideally,
LAAP projects should make possible resource sharing and activities that
would not occur were any of the participating partners to act on their own.
These projects should be bold and coherent demonstrations of new ideas that
are national or regional in scope."
"As educational institutions currently operate, however, the goal of
learning anytime anywhere cannot easily be accomplished. Putting a course
on the web does not necessarily mean that it will be interactive. Learning
should connect students with instructors, with communities of other
learners, and with first-rate scholarship. It should be guided and
monitored, with plenty of feedback, and with opportunities for investigation
and practice."
When I first read this description, I felt the grant was a natural for the
DegreeLink partnership to pursue. ISU, Vincennes University, and Ivy Tech
State College had been working together for the last 3 years to make access
to distance degrees and programs a reality for hundreds of Indiana adults.
However, with the advent of online, asynchronous Internet courses, this
dream became even more accessible for students and more difficult for
instructors and faculty development staff to make possible.
In my experience as an instructional designer at ISU and at Indiana
University, I have found that online, asynchronous courses demand a
significant level of technology expertise unfamiliar to most higher
education faculty, and they also demand knowledge and experience in the
kinds of pedagogy necessary to take advantage of this dynamic, flexible
learning environment. Most faculty are unprepared to design the kinds of
dynamic, interactive, problem and competency-based instruction that the new
world of anyplace anytime learning demands. Unfortunately, most
post-secondary institutions, whether four year Research 1 universities or
two-year technical colleges, have neither the resources nor perhaps the
expertise to initiate the kind of faculty development and training programs
necessary to adequately prepare instructors for this sea change in teaching,
learning, and media technologies. Like those institutions just described,
the DegreeLink Partnership is facing a similar dilemma: How to scale up
cost-effective, quality course development support for online courses
associated with distance education degree programs.
Our project the Virtual Instructional Designer is basically a dynamic,
interactive web site that will provide just-in-time desktop assistance to
faculty developing and designing online asynchronous courses. Although a
sophisticated web site, the VID more closely resembles an Electronic
Performance Support System, a tool more often seen in business and industry.
An EPSS is a computerized system designed to support the actual performance
of workers at the time of need with a minimum of support and intervention
from others. This support is available on demand as the job is done and
results in completed work.
The VID will provide a comprehensive, customized learning plan to help
faculty with the process of thinking through the learning needs of their
students, the best uses of media technologies to support that learning,
how to set priorities and benchmarks for completing the course development,
and what kinds of examples and models of best practices in the online world
exist. Through a combination of content, multimedia, interactive tutorials,
and case studies, the VID will provide a rich, complex environment for
faculty and faculty development teams to draw from during the process of
course development.
Although the VID is not meant to replace all faculty development activities
or instructional design assistance, it will help extend and focus the
limited resources available to faculty, while providing valuable training
and resources to all faculty at all times. It may eventually be available
to all institutions of higher education in Indiana, the Midwest, and beyond.
But for the next three years, the grant will fund the design and development
of the VID at ISU before full implementation in Fall 2002.
Those of us at ISU, Vincennes University, and Ivy Tech who worked on the
grant from February through July, through both the successful preproposal
and final proposal, are very excited about this opportunity to develop a
tool that may affect the design and development of thousands of online,
asynchronous courses by higher education faculty in the next century.
DegreeLink - An Update
On August 13, The Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE)
approved statewide delivery of three new bachelor degree-completion
programs offered through ISU's DegreeLink Program. These new
programs include: Criminology, Insurance, and Nursing. Courses in
these new programs will be offered via distance education technologies
beginning Fall Semester 1999.
In addition to these three new programs, six other DegreeLink bachelor
degree-completion programs are available statewide including: Business
Administration, Electronics Technology, Human Resource Development,
Industrial Supervision, General Industrial Technology, and Vocational
Trade-Industrial-Technical Area. Currently, 294 students are completing
their bachelor's degree via distance education through the DegreeLink
Program.
In addition to these DegreeLink programs, ISU offers numerous statewide
programs that can be completed entirely via distance education and
other "distance friendly" programs that can be completed with minimal
visits to the ISU campus. These distance opportunities include:
Undergraduate Programs
* General Aviation Flight Technology (A.S.)
Graduate Programs
* Human Resource Development (M.S.)
* Health and Safety (with specializaton in Occupational
Safety Management (M.S.)
* Student Affairs Administration (MA./M.S.)
* Technology Management (Ph.D.)
Endorsement/Certificate/Licensure Programs
* Corrections
* Private Security
* Law Enforcement
* Educational Administration
* Driver Education
Chat's Room: News from the FCRC
Chat Chatterji
Transferring Large Files between Computers - An Easier Way
Have you ever been frustrated by the fact that you need to get a large
file, or files, from one computer to another, but there was no practical
way to do this? You're not fortunate enough to work or go to school on a
campus where a LAN system provides jacks for access to servers on
which you have privileges to store large files. Using a floppy is out of
the question. (Many files are just too big to fit on the floppy these
days!)
Or, though you might have a Zip drive, the other computer doesn't. And
even though both computers have email access, your mail servers and/or
Internet Service Providers don't allow for, or have the capacity to store
and pass large attachments. Hooking the two computers together is possible,
but it may as well be voodoo science for all the software configuring and
fiddling you will have to do to make the two computers talk to each other.
There is an easy solution to all this. All you need is the ability
to connect both computers to the Internet -- and they don't have to be
simultaneously connected. Just use a free service called My Docs Online!
Simply go to http://www.mydocsonline.com and sign up for an account. You get
20 megabytes for free, with the possibility of more, presumably if you are
willing to pay for it. Remember that 20 mb is about fifteen floppies' worth
of data, or a fifth of a Zip disk. Plenty of room for large data files,
pictures, or even songs.
My Docs Online! provides this "cyberlocker" for you to upload and download
your large files for transfer between computers. You can do this
asynchronously. Just upload and disconnect. Then connect the other computer
to the Internet and simply download the files you put up there earlier.
However, if your intention is to make large files available to friends, you
simply "permit" those selected files to designated recipients. By doing so,
an automatic email message is generated and sent to the recipient (with
room for notes from you). The recipient reads this message and is directed
to a web address or they simply click on the address if their email
program lets them. Once they arrive at this site they will see the files
intended for them and they simply click to download those files totheir own
hard disk.
Another technique for sharing files might be to give out your own password
and allow the other person into your account. However giving out your
password is rarely a good approach. Instead, you could persuade your
friends to become My Docs Online! subscribers. In doing so, you form your
own "clique" and you can take advantage of other features available to the
group, such as making files "public" and tracking your files as they are
handed from user to user.
That's it. Happy file transfers! -Chat
Computer Training Opportunities
Teresa Crafton
Information Technology (IT) offers a variety of services to enhance the
computer knowledge of ISU faculty and staff. Among these services is
the Instructor-Led Training Program. Geared toward the novice, these
skills-based courses focus on productivity applications and operating
systems. Information about upcoming courses will be posted on global
email within the next few weeks.
In addition, training is currently being offered on Novell GroupWise, a
fully integrated, easy-to-use messaging system that offers a wide range
of powerful communication and collaboration capabilities. GroupWise
provides integrated e-mail, document management, calendaring,
scheduling, task management, workflow, imaging, and much more. If your
department would like to find out more about migrating to GroupWise,
please contact Teresa Crafton, IT Training/Documentation, at
tec@indstate.edu or x4140.
Your students can also take advantage of computer training opportunities.
Student Crash Courses are free, noncredit, hands-on, single-session
computing workshops for students. Taught by students for students,
Student Crash Courses provide an introduction to popular applications.
For more information on these and other training options, please visit the
IT Training web page at: http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/training
CTA Workshops & Faculty Support Services for 1999-2000
The following is an overview of workshops and orientations to be
offered in the upcoming year. For details on these and other workshops
and faculty support services, please contact Mary Luz Petrowski at
extension 8689 or aafpetro@amber.indstate.edu
The Course Transformation Academy is a faculty development program
designed for faculty members preparing to use technology in their teaching.
Contact: Nancy Franklin at ext 8639 or extfrank@ruby.indstate.edu
- Fall CTA: September 14 - November 23 (1:00 - 3:00 pm)
- Spring CTA: January 28 - April 14 (1:00 - 3:00 pm)
- Summer (Intensive) CTA: May 15 - 19 (9:00 a.m. - 4:00 pm)
Course Transformation Academy Follow-Up
This new 3-day summer workshop is designed for faculty members who have
experience teaching in the distance education environment. Participants
will have opportunities to share successes and concerns, to choose from
among several topic sessions focused on teaching learning issues in the
distance education environment, and on advanced application of instructional
technologies. Contact: Nancy Franklin at ext 8639 or extfrank@ruby.indstate.edu
- June 20 - 22 (9:00 a.m. - 4:00 pm)
Teaching on Television Orientations
Designed for faculty members scheduled to teach on television, these
orientations offer an overview of the television teaching environment,
including tips and techniques for maximizing the use of the technology,
information on videoconferencing, the classroom equipment, and support
provided to instructors during their televised classes.
Contact: Bob DeFrance at ext 8698 or mtrdefr@amber.indstate.edu
- August 23 (1 - 2:00 pm)
- August 24 (1 - 2:00 pm)
- January 6 (1 - 2:00 pm)
- January 7 (1 - 2:00 pm)
What's New with ISU Faculty?
* Yet Another New ISU On-Line Course!
Maury Miller (Department of Communication Disorders and Special
Education) has developed a totally on-line, internet delivery course Ð
SPED 601 Education of Exceptional Children. The course was first
offered Summer Session I 1999.
* International Online Conference on Teaching Online in Higher Education
A proposal submitted by Steve Gabany (Department of Health and Safety)
has been accepted for presentation at the International Online Conference on
Teaching Online in Higher Education. The conference will be held on
November 8-9. A list of presenters is available at: http://www.ipfw.edu/as/99tohe/presenters.htm
Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera
* http://www.lecturesonline.org/
This new non-profit site, created 22 July 99, offers you an opportunity to
preview and download "academically focussed digital products" such as
PowerPoint lectures, demonstrations, figures, charts, graphs, and HTML
pages. Joshua M. Kim, the site's creator, says his goal is to,
".... build a giant, searchable database of thousands of digitized
academic lectures, educational pages, graphs, figures, charts, and
research papers. Educators in all disciplines are invited to submit their
own lectures, demonstrations, and course-based web pages, and to utilize
the materials contributed by others, including faculty from Georgia State,
Dartmouth, University of Chicago, and Brown University.
* http://fairuse.stanford.edu
Visit this site for information on copyright law, fair use, current
legislation, cases and issues, and related resources on the Internet.
The site is sponsored by the Council on Library Resources, FindLaw
Internet Legal Resources, and the Stanford University Libraries and
Academic Information Resources.
* http://www.osu.edu/education/ftad/Publications/elecdisc/pages/netiq.htm
This Ohio State site is one of many that offer simple, concise guidelines
for courteous communicating via e-mail, listservs, and chatrooms.
Why netiquette? If you think that "inappropriate" remarks or misbehavior
are only possible in the classroom, think again. In a recent DEOS listserv
discussion, faculty members shared ways to solve "online" misbehavior
including (1) posting photos to humanize the group; and (2) sending a
chat log to the students so everyone can see how badly their remarks
appear in print. Perhaps the best cure is a pound of prevention.
Set the standards - at the beginning of your course - with a link to this
or another good netiquette site.
* http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Thinktank/8900
Visit this site to find out what a group of online educators report
regarding: their workload, the effectiveness of online teaching, the
quality of online versus on-campus instruction, and 24 other
topics related to teaching on-line. This online survey and findings
are the work of Emily Lin, who is preparing her thesis for the Shenandoah
University Summer Computer Institute.
* Teaching at a Distance: A Handbook for Instructors
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, this new publication,
from the League for Innovation in Community College, offers a "...concise,
straightforward, non-commerical introduction to distance education, complete
with how-to suggestions and a glossary. The book consists of seven chapters
written by different authors; the goal is to offer common sense,
step-by-step suggestions for courses offered via television or the Web.
The book is available for $15 through the League's online bookstore at
http://www.league.org/
* http://interact.indstate.edu
Don't forget to tell your students about the new ISU Interactive Services
web site that offers access to general information and some personal
information.
Public access information (no student ID or PIN** required) includes:
- Schedule of classes
- Application for admission
- Office of Student Financial Aid (general information)
- Office of Registration and Records (general information)
- School of Graduate Studies (general information)
Secured information (student ID and PIN** required) includes:
- Personal information: change PIN, view addresses and
phone numbers, and update addresses and phone numbers
- Financial aid information: view financial aid status, award
information, eligibility information, and receive or send messages to
the Office of Student Financial Aid
- Student record information: view grades, academic transcript,
account information, and holds
** The PIN (personal identification number) students use for secured
login is the access PIN (not the advisement PIN) they use to access
the touchtone scheduling system. The PIN is the student's birthdate
in MMDDYY format unless the student has previously changed it. The
first time the PIN is used for secured access to records on the WEB,
the student will be required to change it.
Thought for September:
"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who survive;
the 'learned' find themselves fully equipped to live in a
world that no longer exists."
- Eric Hoffer
Interaction is an electronic newsletter delivered on the first day of
the month via electronic mail. Each issue offers information on
teaching, learning, course design and educational technologies, and
events pertaining to distance education at Indiana State University.
We invite your comments, articles, and suggestions. Please contact
Interaction at interact@web.indstate.edu
Interaction is published by the Office of Continuing
Education/Instructional Services.
