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Issue 29: November 1, 2001 | « previous issue | next issue »

In this Issue: Todd Harper shares tips on "Surviving the Internet Outback."

Contents:

Surviving the Internet Outback: Refining Your Use of Web Resources - Todd Harper
Teaching Skills 101: Mastering the Online Environment
CTA Workshops
FCRC Workshops
Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera
Thought for November

Surviving the Internet Outback: Refining Your Use of Web Resources
by Todd Harper

Our age is undeniably the Information Age. Educators have the mixed blessing of the Web sprawling before them as a teaching tool and resource. The term "sprawling" is not used loosely in this instance; the vastness of information available on the Web is not a thing to be underestimated. Thus, it must be with a considerable amount of care that instructors enter into using the Web as an educational tool and informational resource.

In layman's terms, the Web is a bit like fishing. If you know where to look, you can bag something quality, but if you just toss in your line and see what happens, you will invariably pull back a boot.

This is not to say that providing Web resources for students is a bad idea. It isn't. However, hand-in-hand with the effort of providing resources to students comes the task of presenting the information in a way that makes sense. Simply taking links to various Web sites and tossing them on a class page, or giving students a syllabus full of links on paper, is a surefire recipe for disaster, especially if the information provided is secondary rather than primary material. Having only recently finished my bachelor's degree, I can say with unequivocal honesty that "secondary" or "supplemental" all too often hit the student ear as "optional."

Enough doomsaying. The Web can be and often is used to full effect by an increasing number of instructors nationwide. The key is careful organization and, in reality, marketing of your Web resource.

Successfully using Web resources is a matter of taking care with what you provide, and then making the usefulness of it apparent to your learners. For starters, consider the following suggestions.

Don't Overdo It: Quality over quantity is the key. Better to have fewer, quality resources than to have "link upon link" with questionable use.

Provide Structure: Providing links is not enough. Links must be put inside a course material structure. Arrange your links by topic, by assignment to which they are relevant, or by some other unifying factor. Simply putting up "Recommended Links" or something similar may work for you; you know what's on the site. However, your students will take one look at the jumbled mass of links and not particularly feel up to visiting them all to find out why the material is relevant. This brings us to the next guideline.

Explain Why: If you provide a link, explain why the link is there. A short, two-sentence blurb is incredibly useful to a student. For example: "This site has extensive research about stars going nova as well as astronomical data going back to 1975. You may find it useful for our lab assignment in chapter twelve."

Diversify: Try to include a variety of sites, not just general sites in the discipline or on the course topic. Links to sites on specific topics have merit - even for a survey or general course.

Know Your Material: This guideline is particularly important. Visit every link you pass on to your learners. Explore the site; make sure you know it well. Then, you can field any questions about the site.

Text Is Boring, But Content Is Important: Make sure you provide some links that are not just massive amounts of text. Find a Web site with a new and interesting twist that is still rich in content. Examples of this might be Flash-based games dealing with the topic, a photo gallery, an equation tool, or something similar.

These are just a few guidelines to consider. Many perfectly good Web resource sites do not follow them all.

The most important thing to remember about Web resources is to provide students with well-organized, content-rich sites. It may seem like a terrible amount of work. However, if you want students to use the Web resources as you think they should (or could), you should present the links in a way that makes it easy and convenient for students.

For example, Brian Farmer, a senior at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, noted that he had a particularly good experience with Web resources in Professor Mark Sebern's courses. Farmer mentioned that the best part of Sebern's organization of resources was "[h]aving all the resources we needed available in the labs, in one place that was easy to remember."

"He also used it in class, as reference material for when people ask questions," Farmer said. "I still go to his page sometimes, to find information that I've forgotten or never needed before."

Sebern's site includes pages not only for his current courses, but also for all past courses up to the 1996-1997 school year. Instead of listing the resources on each course website/syllabus, he has created one page containing all his collected resources. When Sebern meets with the class in face-to-face lecture/lab, he indicates which are appropriate for the current coursework.

You can visit Dr. Mark Sebern's MSOE homepage at http://people.msoe.edu/~sebern

Todd Harper is the Web Content Editor for the Virtual Instructional Designer (VID), the $1.5 M LAAP grant project awarded to Indiana State University and its DegreeLink partners: Ivy Tech State College and Vincennes University. He can be contacted at extharp@ruby.indstate.edu or 812.237.9653.

Teaching Skills 101: Mastering the Online Environment
by Faye Bradshaw, ISU Instructional Designer

It had been sometime since I had taught an introductory course in Sociology. Even more so, it would be my first time in creating an online component to a college course within a very limited period of time.

Despite the short production schedule, I was spurred on by the vision of students using learning materials developed for an online environment that would allow them to learn course content while developing their critical thinking skills.

However, a reality check was in order. The reality was that students had to learn the technology of the online learning environment in conjunction with learning content. For the first-timers out there, the road to technological competence for your students may be long and bumpy if this issue is not addressed early on.

Expect glitches. Students may find that their passwords and/or user ids do not work. Some students may not have had the experience of uploading and downloading documents. Other students may experience glitches in sending email messages to the instructor or their fellow classmates.

I have discovered that in order to keep technology learning from overshadowing the learning of content, a few steps must be taken in order to avoid this problem.

Build some time into your course schedule to allow students to become acclimated to their new learning environment.

Use the first few weeks of class to give students time to get acquainted with one another by introducing themselves through email or by using the course discussion board.

Provide students with participation points for accessing and reviewing online course material.

Have students send an email to you or members of the class to introduce themselves.

All of these suggested activities can be used to get students acclimated to their learning environment without the added pressure of trying to obtain a good grade on an assignment. Also, it is a good idea to provide students with a tutorial, actual practice time in a lab, or a video that will demonstrate these functions.

If you have questions on creating note-taking guides or any instructional design topic, contact Faye Bradshaw at extbrads@ruby.indstate.edu or 812.237.2346.

CTA Workshops

Course Transformation Academy (CTA)
A workshop design for faculty members who are preparing to use technology in their teaching. The goal is provide faculty members with the time and resources to investigate, create, and utilize alternative instructional strategies by exploring ideas about teaching, learning, course design, and educational technologies. Faculty are encouraged to attend the CTA one year in advance of their plans to use technology in their courses.

Dates:
February 15 - April 5, 2002
1:00 - 4:00 pm
(Meet face-to-face on alternate Fridays)

WebCT Institute
An intensive three-day introductory workshop on WebCT for advanced graduates of the CTA. This workshop is for faculty who are familiar with the pedagogy and design of distance and online learning but who want to learn WebCT or who wish to begin migrating their courses from CourseInfo to WebCT.

Dates:
January 2-4, 2002
9:00 am - 4:00 pm

For more information or to register, contact Melissa Hughes at ext 2027 or m-hughes@indstate.edu Or, complete our online form at: http://indstate.edu/lifelong/workshops.html

FCRC Workshops

The FCRC is offering the following workshops:

JavaScript
Date: Nov 29
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Student Computing Complex, room 126
Presenter: Swati Puranik

To register for these free workshops, contact Julie Lee at extension 2603 or julia@fcrc.indstate.edu

If a scheduling conflict prevents you from attending a session, or if you prefer more individualized training, contact Julie Lee to arrange a one-on-one session with the presenter.

Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera: ISU News, Interesting Links and So Forth

The following sites (arranged by topic) may be helpful to you - and your students.

Language/Grammar/Punctuation Sites:

YourDictionary.com is a portal to more than 1,800 dictionaries in 250 languages. The site allows for searches in over 80 types of dictionaries, including speciality areas such as business, computing, finance, medicine, and sports. You can even sign up for a free "Word of the Day" delivered via email.
URL: YourDictionary.com

Roget's online thesaurus not only features the standard synonyms and antonyms but also "Cool Tools" such as free dictionary and thesaurus buttons for your browser.
URL: thesaurus.com

Have a question on grammar or punctuation? Visit Grammar Slammer.
URL: http://englishplus.com/grammar/contents

Here's a great site for ESL students: The online Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary includes audio files that pronounce each word - including varying pronunciations. A great tool for ESL students!
URL: www.m-w.com

Need a special insult for a special someone? Visit Chris Seidel's site that features randomly generated taunts and insults from Shakespeare. Just click the button "Insult Me Again."
URL: www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/

Resource for Career/Graduate Study

The College Journal (created by the Wall Street Journal), is a great site for students searching for graduate schools, jobs, or careers in business or vocational education. Perks include a "practice" GRE, networking tips for job-hunting grads, and email alerts on new features.
URL: www.collegejournal.com

News/Information Sites

The Wire, the news web site of the Associated Press, offers links to its member newspapers which are searchable by state.
URL: wire.ap.org