Resources and support for the design and delivery of on-line courses are in the works and will be available in time for the On-line Teaching and Learning Summer School to be held the first week of June. What follows is a summary of hardware, software and support tools.
HARDWARE
• A dedicated academic web server has been ordered and will be installed before the end of April. This server will be able to accommodate between 300 to 500 concurrent users.
• A second smaller server for backup and experimental use will also be installed to serve faculty needs.SOFTWARE
1. WebCT (World Wide Web Course Tools)
In order to get Cambrian on-line as quickly and as painlessly as possible, WebCT has been selected as the instrument of choice. WebCT is a Canadian product (University of British Columbia), developed by instructors for instructors, and is presently being used by two million students in 33 countries.
“WebCT not only produces courses for the WWW, but also uses WWW browsers* as the interface for the course-building environment. Aside from facilitating the organization of course material on the web, WebCT also provides a wide variety of tools and features that can be added to a course. Examples of tools include a conferencing system, on-line chat, student progress tracking, group project organization, student self-evaluation, grade maintenance and distribution, access control, navigation tools, auto-marked quizzes, electronic mail, automatic index generation, course calendar, student home pages, course content searches and much more.”
*This means that you can do this in your office, in a campus lab, or if you have internet acces, at home.
To learn more about WebCT, or see what a WebCT course looks like, point your browser to: http://www.webct.com/webct/
2. Microsoft FrontPage and templates
FrontPage is a Web authoring and management tool for those wishing to build advanced Web pages without programming. Pages constructed with FrontPage (with or without templates) are easily poured into WebCT course sites.
For an example of a course designed with FrontPage, visit Dave Cushing’s excellent resource at : http://courseweb.cambriancollege.ca/zzz6757/
SUPPORT
• A Web Master;
• A WebCT administrator;
• An On-line Teaching and Learning Institute and Resource Centre (more information will be made available soon);
• A Web Courseware Development Summer School (first week of June);
• On-line Teaching and Learning Conference and Resource Sharing site (see URL below).INTERESTED?
Faculty who are interested in designing a module or a full course on the Web in September (or just want to find out more) are invited to join the Cambrian College On-line Teaching and Learning Group at:
http://www.nicenet.org (See short description* below)
Use the following class key to create an account and logon: [MZ0Z89W97] or use the following Username: [on-line] and Password: [guest] to take a peek and to remain anonymous.We encouraged you to register for the Web Courseware Development Summer school as soon as possible. Logon to nicenet and click on Conferencing -> On-line Teaching and Leaning Summer School -> Registration form.
*Nicenet’s Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) is a free web-based learning environment for classrooms, distance learning programs and collaborative academic projects. This groupware site is an example of learner directed investigation, learning and collaboration. It provides quick access to a variety of resources such as on-line instructional design information, tutorials, templates, guidelines, and discussions. It allows colleagues with knowledge and experience to share what they have learned and to help out those who want to know more.
CONTACTS
For more information, please contact:
Claude Belcourt ( belcourt.fraser@sympatico.ca )
Greg Cooper ( gbcooper@cambrianc.on.ca )
Mary Blanchard ( mpblanchard@cambrianc.on.ca )