Posts
Call for Participation of the Thirteenth Off-Campus Library Services Conference
The Call for Participation of the Thirteenth Off-Campus Library Services Conference is now available on the conference web site at http://ocls.cmich.edu/conference/call.htm. The conference will be held in the Hilton Salt Lake City Center April 23-26, 2008.
Faculty, librarians, administrators, staff and students who have an interest in or are working with students who take classes at a distance from campus are welcome to present a proposal for this conference. The five subject tracks below offer a framework for the conference. Select a track relating to your topic and send in your proposal. The conference offers an audience who understands and responds to your presentation and publication in the Journal of Library Administration.
Research- Surveys, assessment, statistics, theories, overviews
Teaching and learning- Methods, strategies, models, one-on-one, classroom
Electronic information and delivery- E-books, databases, web technology, virtual reference
Collaboration- Librarian, faculty, consortia, or other
Administration and support services- Program development, ILL, document delivery, reference management systems, collection development, budgets, staffing
Additional information about formats, submission requirements, timelines and evaluation criteria are available on the web site
Showing posts with label Distance Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Distance Education. Show all posts
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Internet Resources Wiki
C&RL News has put up a wiki titled Internet Resources Wiki. The index page notes, "Welcome to the C&RL News Internet Resources wiki. Internet Resources articles from the magazine are posted here, so that their authors, as well as the general public, can update them to keep them relevant. When adding your article, please include a reference to the original print version with a link back to the static Web version."
There are only four articles up at the moment but this is new. I just received an invitation to place my extremely dated Distance Education: Delivering instruction in cyberspace from 1998 on the wiki. I will do so and I am sure other authors will as well. I can then go about updating and keeping the article current.
One concern I have is spamming. If these articles get visible on the Web, they will get spammed. I can see dozens of University of Phoenix affiliate site owners adding links to my article. (Hey, they get $500 for everyone who signs up via their link!) And then there are the automated spambots. It takes a lot of effort for a wiki to keep the spam links out. I wonder if ACRL will be able to do this well?
There are only four articles up at the moment but this is new. I just received an invitation to place my extremely dated Distance Education: Delivering instruction in cyberspace from 1998 on the wiki. I will do so and I am sure other authors will as well. I can then go about updating and keeping the article current.
One concern I have is spamming. If these articles get visible on the Web, they will get spammed. I can see dozens of University of Phoenix affiliate site owners adding links to my article. (Hey, they get $500 for everyone who signs up via their link!) And then there are the automated spambots. It takes a lot of effort for a wiki to keep the spam links out. I wonder if ACRL will be able to do this well?
Thursday, December 21, 2006
My Ideas for Active Learning for an Online Course
I have been thinking about how I might apply active learning to an online course. I took two courses entirely online this last semester. I got a 4.0 in each and I believe it was a good introduction to taking a course online. It also clearly gave me some ideas on how I would go about teaching a course online. There are some aspects of the courses I would emulate and some I would avoid. This leads nicely then into a question of how I might design a course to implement some active or collaborative learning ideas.
Bonwell and Eison (1991) argued that strategies that promote active and cooperative learning environments have five commonalities. The students are involved in class beyond listening. Lesser emphasis is placed on transmitting information and more effort is placed in developing the skills of the students. The students are required to participate in higher order thinking such as analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluation. The students are also involved in activities like reading, discussion, and writing. Finally, greater emphasis is placed on the exploration of student values and attitudes.
These five points would appear to be very important to active learning in an online environment. The student must be able to move beyond listening as lecture opportunities are more constrained than in an online course. The student must become engaged in the course or it will not work for him. However, since the students are physically separated from each and the instructor, the students must be able to participate in activities that allow to do things like analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluation without the students ever physically interacting. This brings into play very different course activities that one would use in a physical course. Not surprisingly, most of the activities I participated in the two online courses had active learning written all over them even if they looked very different from active learning activities in more traditional courses.
Another reason for using active learning in an online course is that non-traditional students in higher education (that is those that are older than 18-24) prefer it over lecturing. As most students taking online courses have statistically been non-traditional, this is a good point to remember. Slavin (1991) reported that traditional students have been lectured to their whole lives and expect it. However, older students have had the opportunity to work and have life experiences that have shown them that they can learn things on their own and can participate and interact with both other students and the teacher in the classroom. This would lead me to conclude that most online students are going to be able to adjust to online active learning activities.
Mind you, I am not arguing that traditional aged students are going to have trouble with a virtual course with active learning activities. These 18-14 year old students use Facebook, Ratmyprofessors.com, chat, IM, etc. almost daily. However, I think most non-traditional students will respond well to active learning because they are more oriented to active learning rather than any particular ability to adapt to technology.
Looking at what I did not like from the courses I took online, I would not require discussion board posts. Both courses required students to post weekly and then also make replies to several of the posts made by other students. Can you say contrived discussions? In essence, the teacher made students post a mini-paper each week. This is by itself is not very interactive although the writing itself can be beneficial. However, forcing responses weekly had the predictable consequence of poor discussion threads that were dominated by short obvious statements from students just trying to get the assignment done. Once people had two "response" posts, they were done. There were no lively interactive discussions that would to me mimic a lively in-person class discussion.
I much preferred other attempts at active learning. One of the courses I took required a group paper. I was assigned to a group with four other people and over a period of weeks we collaboratively wrote a paper. One of the people in my group was logging in from Iraq as she was an army supply officer in Baghdad. The group went well and there was tons of interaction even though we lived in different time zones and had radically different lives. Unlike the discussion board, there was a real project to work on and this helped us focus and work together.
I liked this enough that I would use it for an online class. The learning has many of the characteristics described by Bonwell and Eison (1991) for active learning. Frankly, this is very similar to a more traditional course. The students online will use the phone, e-mail, and chat to work out a group paper. Students in a traditional course may meet in person but they will also gravitate towards technology such as e-mail to write the paper. I believe assigning a group a paper online works very similarly to assigning a group a paper in an on campus course.
One approach that was not tried that I think would work for active learning would be to develop a WebQuest to include with the course. Dodge (1995) wrote that a WebQuest was a good method for getting online students to work in an active method albeit one that it is done usually in a solitary mode. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest) notes, “In education, WebQuest is a research activity in which students collect information, where most of the information comes from the World Wide Web. It was first invented by Bernie Dodge and Tom March at San Diego State University in 1995.” Dodge (1997), wrote that a WebQuest is "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing."
I think I would use a WebQuest to encourage active learning in any online course I taught. The actual layout would depend on how the content of the course but I would design an assignment that required a student to have a guided surf of the Web to sites of interest. Through questions, I would require the students to write about what they discovered. In particular, sites and questions in the WebQuest would be coupled together to require the student to critically think and synthesize different concepts together. I would also use some multiple choice questions which would appear at certain points of the WebQuest to make some initial assessments but also to help "clue" the students into what they should be looking for as they are surfing and writing.
I would assess the group writing project for my online class in the same way I would for a more traditional physical course. Is the paper well written with good grammar and spelling? Does it address the assignment and meet all of the assigned criteria for completeness? Are the ideas well articulated? Was the paper turned in on time? Even though the assignment was done by an online group, it can still be graded in a standard format.
One additional step I would use for grading on online group written paper would be to have the group members assign each other grades. Group members who did not contribute or did not contribute well will usually be identified in this way. Courses taught on campus use this method but I think it is particularly important to do this for an online group to identify slackers on a project. Those I believe who did not contribute their fair share to the project would have their grade adjusted downward by me.
The WebQuest active learning assignment would have to be graded differently. Writing is a component of it so I would be able to grade that portion based on the criteria I listed above for the group writing assignment. However, as the writing during a WebQuest is less polished as it is written over a few hours time as the student completes the different steps, I would grade items like grammar and spelling less harshly. Instead, I would be mostly looking to see if the students made acceptable observations and found connections between different points. I would give little weight to the multiple choice questions unless a pattern emerged which showed the student just blew off that portion of the WebQuest.
The assessment of the WebQuest varies from how an assessment would be done in a physical class. The online course assessment is going to have to focus on the written output of the student that was created as the student worked through the various portions of the WebQuest. A similar activity in a physical course would allow the instructor to assess the student not only one written comments but also on items like interactions with others, contributions to group discussion, etc.
In summary, I believe active learning can be done in an online course and I think I have some ideas for doing it. The criteria identified by Bonwell and Eison (1991) are found in online activities even if these activities have a different look and feel to them. The two activities I would like to try (online group writing assignment and WebQuest) have real potential in this are I think. I may feel different after trying them out of course but I think they are worthwhile. In the case of the group writing, I think the assessment is almost identical to a more traditional class assessment. However, the WebQuest would require a different assessment track.
References
Bonwell, C. C. and Eison, J. A. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. Washington, DC: George Washington University.
Dodge, B. J. (1995). WebQuests: A technique for internet-based learning. The Distance educator, 1(2), 10-13.
Dodge, B. J. (1997). Some thoughts about WebQuests. Accessed at http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html on 10 December 2006.
Slavin, R.E. (1991). Group rewards make groupwork work. Educational leadership, 48(5), 89-91.
Wikipedia. WebQuest. Accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest on 10 December 2006.
Bonwell and Eison (1991) argued that strategies that promote active and cooperative learning environments have five commonalities. The students are involved in class beyond listening. Lesser emphasis is placed on transmitting information and more effort is placed in developing the skills of the students. The students are required to participate in higher order thinking such as analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluation. The students are also involved in activities like reading, discussion, and writing. Finally, greater emphasis is placed on the exploration of student values and attitudes.
These five points would appear to be very important to active learning in an online environment. The student must be able to move beyond listening as lecture opportunities are more constrained than in an online course. The student must become engaged in the course or it will not work for him. However, since the students are physically separated from each and the instructor, the students must be able to participate in activities that allow to do things like analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluation without the students ever physically interacting. This brings into play very different course activities that one would use in a physical course. Not surprisingly, most of the activities I participated in the two online courses had active learning written all over them even if they looked very different from active learning activities in more traditional courses.
Another reason for using active learning in an online course is that non-traditional students in higher education (that is those that are older than 18-24) prefer it over lecturing. As most students taking online courses have statistically been non-traditional, this is a good point to remember. Slavin (1991) reported that traditional students have been lectured to their whole lives and expect it. However, older students have had the opportunity to work and have life experiences that have shown them that they can learn things on their own and can participate and interact with both other students and the teacher in the classroom. This would lead me to conclude that most online students are going to be able to adjust to online active learning activities.
Mind you, I am not arguing that traditional aged students are going to have trouble with a virtual course with active learning activities. These 18-14 year old students use Facebook, Ratmyprofessors.com, chat, IM, etc. almost daily. However, I think most non-traditional students will respond well to active learning because they are more oriented to active learning rather than any particular ability to adapt to technology.
Looking at what I did not like from the courses I took online, I would not require discussion board posts. Both courses required students to post weekly and then also make replies to several of the posts made by other students. Can you say contrived discussions? In essence, the teacher made students post a mini-paper each week. This is by itself is not very interactive although the writing itself can be beneficial. However, forcing responses weekly had the predictable consequence of poor discussion threads that were dominated by short obvious statements from students just trying to get the assignment done. Once people had two "response" posts, they were done. There were no lively interactive discussions that would to me mimic a lively in-person class discussion.
I much preferred other attempts at active learning. One of the courses I took required a group paper. I was assigned to a group with four other people and over a period of weeks we collaboratively wrote a paper. One of the people in my group was logging in from Iraq as she was an army supply officer in Baghdad. The group went well and there was tons of interaction even though we lived in different time zones and had radically different lives. Unlike the discussion board, there was a real project to work on and this helped us focus and work together.
I liked this enough that I would use it for an online class. The learning has many of the characteristics described by Bonwell and Eison (1991) for active learning. Frankly, this is very similar to a more traditional course. The students online will use the phone, e-mail, and chat to work out a group paper. Students in a traditional course may meet in person but they will also gravitate towards technology such as e-mail to write the paper. I believe assigning a group a paper online works very similarly to assigning a group a paper in an on campus course.
One approach that was not tried that I think would work for active learning would be to develop a WebQuest to include with the course. Dodge (1995) wrote that a WebQuest was a good method for getting online students to work in an active method albeit one that it is done usually in a solitary mode. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest) notes, “In education, WebQuest is a research activity in which students collect information, where most of the information comes from the World Wide Web. It was first invented by Bernie Dodge and Tom March at San Diego State University in 1995.” Dodge (1997), wrote that a WebQuest is "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing."
I think I would use a WebQuest to encourage active learning in any online course I taught. The actual layout would depend on how the content of the course but I would design an assignment that required a student to have a guided surf of the Web to sites of interest. Through questions, I would require the students to write about what they discovered. In particular, sites and questions in the WebQuest would be coupled together to require the student to critically think and synthesize different concepts together. I would also use some multiple choice questions which would appear at certain points of the WebQuest to make some initial assessments but also to help "clue" the students into what they should be looking for as they are surfing and writing.
I would assess the group writing project for my online class in the same way I would for a more traditional physical course. Is the paper well written with good grammar and spelling? Does it address the assignment and meet all of the assigned criteria for completeness? Are the ideas well articulated? Was the paper turned in on time? Even though the assignment was done by an online group, it can still be graded in a standard format.
One additional step I would use for grading on online group written paper would be to have the group members assign each other grades. Group members who did not contribute or did not contribute well will usually be identified in this way. Courses taught on campus use this method but I think it is particularly important to do this for an online group to identify slackers on a project. Those I believe who did not contribute their fair share to the project would have their grade adjusted downward by me.
The WebQuest active learning assignment would have to be graded differently. Writing is a component of it so I would be able to grade that portion based on the criteria I listed above for the group writing assignment. However, as the writing during a WebQuest is less polished as it is written over a few hours time as the student completes the different steps, I would grade items like grammar and spelling less harshly. Instead, I would be mostly looking to see if the students made acceptable observations and found connections between different points. I would give little weight to the multiple choice questions unless a pattern emerged which showed the student just blew off that portion of the WebQuest.
The assessment of the WebQuest varies from how an assessment would be done in a physical class. The online course assessment is going to have to focus on the written output of the student that was created as the student worked through the various portions of the WebQuest. A similar activity in a physical course would allow the instructor to assess the student not only one written comments but also on items like interactions with others, contributions to group discussion, etc.
In summary, I believe active learning can be done in an online course and I think I have some ideas for doing it. The criteria identified by Bonwell and Eison (1991) are found in online activities even if these activities have a different look and feel to them. The two activities I would like to try (online group writing assignment and WebQuest) have real potential in this are I think. I may feel different after trying them out of course but I think they are worthwhile. In the case of the group writing, I think the assessment is almost identical to a more traditional class assessment. However, the WebQuest would require a different assessment track.
References
Bonwell, C. C. and Eison, J. A. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. Washington, DC: George Washington University.
Dodge, B. J. (1995). WebQuests: A technique for internet-based learning. The Distance educator, 1(2), 10-13.
Dodge, B. J. (1997). Some thoughts about WebQuests. Accessed at http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html on 10 December 2006.
Slavin, R.E. (1991). Group rewards make groupwork work. Educational leadership, 48(5), 89-91.
Wikipedia. WebQuest. Accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest on 10 December 2006.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Collaborative Role of the Academic Librarian in Distance Learning - Analysis on an Information Literacy Tutorial in WebCT
Collaborative Role of the Academic Librarian in Distance Learning - Analysis on an Information Literacy Tutorial in WebCT. A new issue of E-JASL is up. Of the articles, I think this one is the most interesting from an information literacy perspective. It is by Xiaoli Shirley Fang. This is from v.7 no.2 (Summer 2006).
Of note, my article on Collegiality and Libraries is also up in this issue.
From the Fang article:
This article profiles a project to expand our general Information Literacy Tutorial into WebCT for students taking online courses. The Tutorial has provided online learners with a grasp of information competencies. The process of the project has confirmed the importance of academic librarians’ collaborative role in distance learning community. It presents both opportunities and challenges for academic librarians to collaborate with faculty and educational technology specialists in integrating information literacy education into the course management system. More active multi-aspect collaborations are required to ensure effective teaching information literacy via the courseware.
As course management systems have became a popular support to distance learning on campuses, integration of library presence into the courseware “has had a challenging agenda”, citing Campbell’s phrase (2006), to academic librarians. This challenge applies especially to those with related position titles, such as a Distance Learning Librarian. It has been recognized that academic librarians “must seek to integrate their resources into online courses delivered via course management systems, in order to ensure that libraries continue to remain vital to higher education.” Collaborations are crucial to ensure successful integration of the library into the course management system. (Fang & Kortz, 2005) This paper examines our experience in expanding information literacy instruction into WebCT at New Jersey City University, to define academic librarians’ collaborative role in the distance learning environment. Future improvements in teaching information literacy via WebCT will be dependent upon the librarians’ more active collaboration with faculty members, educational technology specialists and librarian colleagues, as well as new information technologies. This analysis will benefit further cooperative ventures among the campus community to advance distance learning students’ information skills in the ever-changing and increasingly prevalent digital world.
Of note, my article on Collegiality and Libraries is also up in this issue.
From the Fang article:
This article profiles a project to expand our general Information Literacy Tutorial into WebCT for students taking online courses. The Tutorial has provided online learners with a grasp of information competencies. The process of the project has confirmed the importance of academic librarians’ collaborative role in distance learning community. It presents both opportunities and challenges for academic librarians to collaborate with faculty and educational technology specialists in integrating information literacy education into the course management system. More active multi-aspect collaborations are required to ensure effective teaching information literacy via the courseware.
As course management systems have became a popular support to distance learning on campuses, integration of library presence into the courseware “has had a challenging agenda”, citing Campbell’s phrase (2006), to academic librarians. This challenge applies especially to those with related position titles, such as a Distance Learning Librarian. It has been recognized that academic librarians “must seek to integrate their resources into online courses delivered via course management systems, in order to ensure that libraries continue to remain vital to higher education.” Collaborations are crucial to ensure successful integration of the library into the course management system. (Fang & Kortz, 2005) This paper examines our experience in expanding information literacy instruction into WebCT at New Jersey City University, to define academic librarians’ collaborative role in the distance learning environment. Future improvements in teaching information literacy via WebCT will be dependent upon the librarians’ more active collaboration with faculty members, educational technology specialists and librarian colleagues, as well as new information technologies. This analysis will benefit further cooperative ventures among the campus community to advance distance learning students’ information skills in the ever-changing and increasingly prevalent digital world.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
More on Podcasting
Lum, L. (2006). The power of podcasting. Diverse issues in higher education, 23(2), 32-35.
Abstract
This article examines podcasting and how it can be used to aid teaching in higher education. The author defines the term podcasting and also gives some statistics showing how the technology has become popular. While podcasting has grown in poplar culture, it has been slow to take root in academia until recently.
Dr. Kevin M. Gaugler used podcasting in his Spanish civilization course last fall. He noted that students took less notes and engaged in conversations and questions making for a better course. He attributed this to the availability of each of his lectures as a podcast that students could listen to whenever they wished to in the future. He feared that students would stop attending class but this did not occur. He plans on using podcasting more in the future.
Duke University has been experimenting with podcasting since 2004 when they gave all new students an iPod. Since then, 47 courses have been developed that center on podcasting lessons. The President of the University of Arizona (Michael M. Crow) is using podcasting to send messages to students about tuition and other matters.
This technology is not without critics. Many are unhappy that the podcasts pick up noises like coughs and air conditioners. Others feel that this is yet another attempt at spoon feeding information to a lazy generation of college students. Despite this, new initiatives are being planned at a variety of schools using podcasting.
Implications
While most of the focus on new technologies has focused on distance education, I think this article accurately shows how a technology like podcasting can be used in the traditional classroom setting. The students have iPods and have shown a willingness and desire to hear lectures in this manner. While podcasting is ideal for distance education, it also clearly is a good fit for more traditional classes.
I predict that podcasting will become a standard teaching tool used by many faculty. I do not think everyone will use it but a large enough number will that this will no longer be such a novelty. Students who like learning in this manner will look to take classes from faculty using it.
One area of concern for faculty could be the growth of a small number of academic stars who are noted internationally for podcasting. Also, who owns a podcast? Is it the institution or the faculty member? Could this tool be used to justify a smaller pool of faculty in the future? Even the dead can still lecture using this technology!
Abstract
This article examines podcasting and how it can be used to aid teaching in higher education. The author defines the term podcasting and also gives some statistics showing how the technology has become popular. While podcasting has grown in poplar culture, it has been slow to take root in academia until recently.
Dr. Kevin M. Gaugler used podcasting in his Spanish civilization course last fall. He noted that students took less notes and engaged in conversations and questions making for a better course. He attributed this to the availability of each of his lectures as a podcast that students could listen to whenever they wished to in the future. He feared that students would stop attending class but this did not occur. He plans on using podcasting more in the future.
Duke University has been experimenting with podcasting since 2004 when they gave all new students an iPod. Since then, 47 courses have been developed that center on podcasting lessons. The President of the University of Arizona (Michael M. Crow) is using podcasting to send messages to students about tuition and other matters.
This technology is not without critics. Many are unhappy that the podcasts pick up noises like coughs and air conditioners. Others feel that this is yet another attempt at spoon feeding information to a lazy generation of college students. Despite this, new initiatives are being planned at a variety of schools using podcasting.
Implications
While most of the focus on new technologies has focused on distance education, I think this article accurately shows how a technology like podcasting can be used in the traditional classroom setting. The students have iPods and have shown a willingness and desire to hear lectures in this manner. While podcasting is ideal for distance education, it also clearly is a good fit for more traditional classes.
I predict that podcasting will become a standard teaching tool used by many faculty. I do not think everyone will use it but a large enough number will that this will no longer be such a novelty. Students who like learning in this manner will look to take classes from faculty using it.
One area of concern for faculty could be the growth of a small number of academic stars who are noted internationally for podcasting. Also, who owns a podcast? Is it the institution or the faculty member? Could this tool be used to justify a smaller pool of faculty in the future? Even the dead can still lecture using this technology!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Podcast lectures for uni students
Podcast lectures for uni students. The BBC has this report of "A lecturer at a West Yorkshire university has abolished traditional lectures in favour of podcasts. "
I know this is not a first (others are podcasting and cutting back on traditional classes) but it seems bold to go entirely to podcasting.
Dr. Bill Ashraf, the instructor, said that students would watch or listen to virtual lectures in their own time. Students will access the podcasts via their MP3 player, phone or computer. This will be followed up with text messaging for questions with answers posted on a class blog.
Dr. Ashraf noted, ""Some lecture classes have 250 students, so I question the effectiveness of a didactic lecture for an hour." That is a good point. I sometimes question the effectiveness of lecturing too. Even with active learning, some students do not get it. But many of these same students will not get it via podcasting either.
I know some libraries are experimenting with podcasting for library instruction. It has real value in working with off-campus students and with other groups who have difficulty visiting the library physically like student-athletes.
I think podcasting is worth exploring and adding to our range of library instruction tools. I doubt most academic libraries will be able to go this route completely though. I do not think this level of boldness as demonstrated by Dr. Ashraf will work with on campus students. They simply will never watch our podcasts. A certain level of instructor driven library instruction is a must. However, podcasts can make a great supplementary learning tool.
I know this is not a first (others are podcasting and cutting back on traditional classes) but it seems bold to go entirely to podcasting.
Dr. Bill Ashraf, the instructor, said that students would watch or listen to virtual lectures in their own time. Students will access the podcasts via their MP3 player, phone or computer. This will be followed up with text messaging for questions with answers posted on a class blog.
Dr. Ashraf noted, ""Some lecture classes have 250 students, so I question the effectiveness of a didactic lecture for an hour." That is a good point. I sometimes question the effectiveness of lecturing too. Even with active learning, some students do not get it. But many of these same students will not get it via podcasting either.
I know some libraries are experimenting with podcasting for library instruction. It has real value in working with off-campus students and with other groups who have difficulty visiting the library physically like student-athletes.
I think podcasting is worth exploring and adding to our range of library instruction tools. I doubt most academic libraries will be able to go this route completely though. I do not think this level of boldness as demonstrated by Dr. Ashraf will work with on campus students. They simply will never watch our podcasts. A certain level of instructor driven library instruction is a must. However, podcasts can make a great supplementary learning tool.
Friday, March 31, 2006
CMU LIBRARIAN WINS AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE
CMU LIBRARIAN WINS AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE. I would like to offer a public hat tip to Monica Craig. She is an off-campus librarian for CMU's Off-Campus Library Services department. And she is the winner of the 2006 ACRL Distance Learning Librarian Award. It is great to have a librarian of this caliber working at Central Michigan University. Nice job Monica!
From the press release:
She's modern, upbeat and jazzy - she doesn't tie her hair back in a bun or wear glasses like the stereotype prescribes. And now, this not-so-typical Central Michigan University librarian has won an award after 28 years of dedicating her time to supporting off-campus students and faculty.
Monica Hines Craig, an off-campus librarian for CMU's Off-Campus Library Services in metro Detroit, recently was named the 2006 recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries Distance Learning Section Haworth Press Distance Learning Librarian Conference Sponsorship Award. ACRL members around the world voted to select Craig, who is only the third recipient of the award.
"I was very surprised to be the one who was named the winner," said Craig, a Lathrup Village resident. "I am truly honored."
Interim Vice President and Executive Director of Off-Campus Programs Terry Rawls said he was not surprised that Craig won the award.
"Monica receiving this award is an honor, but not a surprise. She has been deserving of this for a long time," he said. "Monica (and) the rest of the OCLS staff are the most student-oriented people you'll ever find. This group takes it to another level."
From the press release:
She's modern, upbeat and jazzy - she doesn't tie her hair back in a bun or wear glasses like the stereotype prescribes. And now, this not-so-typical Central Michigan University librarian has won an award after 28 years of dedicating her time to supporting off-campus students and faculty.
Monica Hines Craig, an off-campus librarian for CMU's Off-Campus Library Services in metro Detroit, recently was named the 2006 recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries Distance Learning Section Haworth Press Distance Learning Librarian Conference Sponsorship Award. ACRL members around the world voted to select Craig, who is only the third recipient of the award.
"I was very surprised to be the one who was named the winner," said Craig, a Lathrup Village resident. "I am truly honored."
Interim Vice President and Executive Director of Off-Campus Programs Terry Rawls said he was not surprised that Craig won the award.
"Monica receiving this award is an honor, but not a surprise. She has been deserving of this for a long time," he said. "Monica (and) the rest of the OCLS staff are the most student-oriented people you'll ever find. This group takes it to another level."
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Selecting Media for Distance Education
Selecting Media for Distance Education. This is a short but informative ERIC Digest that was issued in 2003. It notes, "This ERIC Digest will explore media options as they relate to instructional design for distance education, since the function and design of each medium needs to be understood if it is to lead to learning. "
I recently completed a module to deliver information to students who are not taking classes on campus. I am sure I am not the only librarian doing this. (In fact, I know I am not. We have a whole office full of them here at Central Michigan University.) As such, I found this a useful primer.
From the site:
Special considerations for distance learning are as follows: (1) determine your primary delivery approach (online or hybrid); (2) review the course outline to determine where media can be used to facilitate learning; (3) ascertain availability of student access to the media selected; and (4) locate appropriate resources to fit your objectives or plan to create them.
Be sure to consider alternative media that may be less expensive, yet potentially as effective as more expensive media. For example, print, audio and video recordings, and the telephone should be considered in the selection process. The challenge is to select and provide appropriate media that will accomplish learning objectives in the most cost-effective manner. Remember, there are often less expensive alternatives that will accomplish the same objectives.
I recently completed a module to deliver information to students who are not taking classes on campus. I am sure I am not the only librarian doing this. (In fact, I know I am not. We have a whole office full of them here at Central Michigan University.) As such, I found this a useful primer.
From the site:
Special considerations for distance learning are as follows: (1) determine your primary delivery approach (online or hybrid); (2) review the course outline to determine where media can be used to facilitate learning; (3) ascertain availability of student access to the media selected; and (4) locate appropriate resources to fit your objectives or plan to create them.
Be sure to consider alternative media that may be less expensive, yet potentially as effective as more expensive media. For example, print, audio and video recordings, and the telephone should be considered in the selection process. The challenge is to select and provide appropriate media that will accomplish learning objectives in the most cost-effective manner. Remember, there are often less expensive alternatives that will accomplish the same objectives.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Creating An Online Learning Environment That Fosters Information Literacy, Autonomous Learning and Leadership
Creating An Online Learning Environment That Fosters Information Literacy, Autonomous Learning and Leadership: The Hawaii Online Generational Community-Classroom. This essay is by Leon James. It was published in the Second Annual Conference on Teaching in the Community College (Electronic) Journal (TCC-J), Trends and Issues in Online Instruction, Spring 1997 issue.
From the site:
This paper presents the results of analyzing various aspects of an online generational community of students who enroll in an Internet-integrated college course. Students write self-reports on various aspects of their experience as part of their class work. Content analysis of these reports help identify various dimensions of learning in an online environment. Results indicate that students go through 3 phases during the semester: (1) Becoming information literate; (2) Becoming self-directed autonomous learners; (3) Exercising leadership and inventiveness. Within each of these phases, evidence reveals student behaviors in three behavioral areas: affective (e.g., improving self-confidence), cognitive (e.g., acquiring content and vocabulary), and sensorimotor (e.g., acting as a generational participant). The paper details each of these with references to the student reports. All generational student reports are available on the Web. A classified inventory of online student behaviors was prepared with samples of text from the student reports. The online generational approach is suitable for any subject field in any instructional setting. The taxonomy of online educational objectives and skills is usable for planning and assessing online instruction. Several principles of online instruction are identified including how to help students to think creatively and use group forces as a learning resource.
From the site:
This paper presents the results of analyzing various aspects of an online generational community of students who enroll in an Internet-integrated college course. Students write self-reports on various aspects of their experience as part of their class work. Content analysis of these reports help identify various dimensions of learning in an online environment. Results indicate that students go through 3 phases during the semester: (1) Becoming information literate; (2) Becoming self-directed autonomous learners; (3) Exercising leadership and inventiveness. Within each of these phases, evidence reveals student behaviors in three behavioral areas: affective (e.g., improving self-confidence), cognitive (e.g., acquiring content and vocabulary), and sensorimotor (e.g., acting as a generational participant). The paper details each of these with references to the student reports. All generational student reports are available on the Web. A classified inventory of online student behaviors was prepared with samples of text from the student reports. The online generational approach is suitable for any subject field in any instructional setting. The taxonomy of online educational objectives and skills is usable for planning and assessing online instruction. Several principles of online instruction are identified including how to help students to think creatively and use group forces as a learning resource.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Promoting Information Literacy Skills to Distance Learners: The Athabasca University Library’s Digital Reference Centre
Promoting Information Literacy Skills to Distance Learners: The Athabasca University Library’s Digital Reference Centre. This paper is by Kay Johnson and Tony Tin. It was presented at the ICDE/CADE Calgary Conference in 2002.
From the site:
With the arrival of the information superhighway, and with research and learning occurring increasingly at a distance, libraries are positioning themselves to provide service in an electronic environment in which remote users access digital resources. D. Kaye Gapen’s (1993) definition of the virtual library combines the concept of a physical library collection with the concept of the library as “an electronic network which provides access to, and delivery from, external worldwide library and commercial information and knowledge sources” (p. 1). Library users access not only one library, but many; not only library sources, but information of all types. Their reach extends far beyond the traditional library’s limited collection of selected information sources.
Academic librarians can now routinely expect students to bring resources to their attention and to ask for assistance with these resources. With remote access, librarians are faced with new challenges in the delivery of bibliographic instruction and reference services to students who are often “invisible”, silent and, now more than ever, in need of information literacy skills.
From the site:
With the arrival of the information superhighway, and with research and learning occurring increasingly at a distance, libraries are positioning themselves to provide service in an electronic environment in which remote users access digital resources. D. Kaye Gapen’s (1993) definition of the virtual library combines the concept of a physical library collection with the concept of the library as “an electronic network which provides access to, and delivery from, external worldwide library and commercial information and knowledge sources” (p. 1). Library users access not only one library, but many; not only library sources, but information of all types. Their reach extends far beyond the traditional library’s limited collection of selected information sources.
Academic librarians can now routinely expect students to bring resources to their attention and to ask for assistance with these resources. With remote access, librarians are faced with new challenges in the delivery of bibliographic instruction and reference services to students who are often “invisible”, silent and, now more than ever, in need of information literacy skills.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Effective Teaching in Distance Education
Effective Teaching in Distance Education. Many of us involved with library instruction in higher education (and some in the K-12 world too) are being asked to find ways to teach to students not located on campus. When I worked at Michigan State University, I gave several library instruction sessions via television to students located around North America. A lot of the work we do putting library instructional material online aids distance learning efforts as well. This short essay has some ideas for how to be effective in teaching in the distance education setting.
From the site:
For over 100 years, distance education has served as an alternative method for delivering academic course work to students unable to attend traditional campus-based classes. The format of distance education varies from correspondence-style courses to technologically based courses using the Internet. Distance education offers students considerable benefits, including increased access to learning, lifelong learning opportunities, and convenience of time and place (St. Pierre, 1998). Distance education may be essential for learners who are truly place-bound because of factors such as employment, child-care demands, disability, or remoteness of the location where they live (Rintala, 1998). This digest presents information on the many forms distance education can take and keys to successful teaching with distance education.
WHAT IS DISTANCE EDUCATION?
Distance education is a method of education in which the learner is physically separated from the teacher and the institution sponsoring the instruction. It may be used on its own, or in conjunction with other forms of education, including face-to-face instruction. In any distance education process there must be a teacher, one or more students, and a course or curriculum that the teacher is capable of teaching and the student is trying to learn. The contract between teacher and learner, whether in a traditional classroom or distance education, requires that the student be taught, assessed, given guidance and, where appropriate, prepared for examinations that may or may not be conducted by the institution. This must be accomplished by two-way communication. Learning may be undertaken either individually or in groups; in either case, it is accomplished in the physical absence of the teacher in distance education. Where distance teaching materials are provided to learners, they are structured in ways that facilitate learning at a distance.
From the site:
For over 100 years, distance education has served as an alternative method for delivering academic course work to students unable to attend traditional campus-based classes. The format of distance education varies from correspondence-style courses to technologically based courses using the Internet. Distance education offers students considerable benefits, including increased access to learning, lifelong learning opportunities, and convenience of time and place (St. Pierre, 1998). Distance education may be essential for learners who are truly place-bound because of factors such as employment, child-care demands, disability, or remoteness of the location where they live (Rintala, 1998). This digest presents information on the many forms distance education can take and keys to successful teaching with distance education.
WHAT IS DISTANCE EDUCATION?
Distance education is a method of education in which the learner is physically separated from the teacher and the institution sponsoring the instruction. It may be used on its own, or in conjunction with other forms of education, including face-to-face instruction. In any distance education process there must be a teacher, one or more students, and a course or curriculum that the teacher is capable of teaching and the student is trying to learn. The contract between teacher and learner, whether in a traditional classroom or distance education, requires that the student be taught, assessed, given guidance and, where appropriate, prepared for examinations that may or may not be conducted by the institution. This must be accomplished by two-way communication. Learning may be undertaken either individually or in groups; in either case, it is accomplished in the physical absence of the teacher in distance education. Where distance teaching materials are provided to learners, they are structured in ways that facilitate learning at a distance.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning: A Case Study of Singapore Temasek Polytechnic’s Virtual School of Business Project. This essay is by Wee Leng Peh and Schubert Foo. It was published in LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal, 2001 Volume 11 Issue 2; September 30.
From the site:
With the emergence of the Internet and its related technologies, many educators assert that there are substantial benefits to reap from online learning and educational technology. This study examines the effectiveness of online learning and to provide insights into the experiences related by participants in the Virtual School of Business (VBUS), a Temasek Polytechnic’s online project. VBUS is a cluster of newsgroups, databases, File Transfer Protocols (FTP) and RealMedia video servers dedicated to the various diploma courses of the Polytechnic as a repository for lecturers to deliver their teaching materials online.
A total of 657 first-year business students responded to a questionnaire administered as part of this study that examined the issues of the accessibility, usefulness, and effectiveness of online learning and its relation to improvement in subject grades. The findings suggest that the “better” students were more receptive to VBUS, while the “weaker” students found VBUS more of an added burden than an aid to their already heavy workload. There was no clear indication that VBUS played a significant role in improving students’ grades. More positive reactions to VBUS came from students who use VBUS on an average of one to two times a week, with each access lasting between fifteen and thirty minutes, and whose median time spent on studying a subject is around two hours per week.
From the site:
With the emergence of the Internet and its related technologies, many educators assert that there are substantial benefits to reap from online learning and educational technology. This study examines the effectiveness of online learning and to provide insights into the experiences related by participants in the Virtual School of Business (VBUS), a Temasek Polytechnic’s online project. VBUS is a cluster of newsgroups, databases, File Transfer Protocols (FTP) and RealMedia video servers dedicated to the various diploma courses of the Polytechnic as a repository for lecturers to deliver their teaching materials online.
A total of 657 first-year business students responded to a questionnaire administered as part of this study that examined the issues of the accessibility, usefulness, and effectiveness of online learning and its relation to improvement in subject grades. The findings suggest that the “better” students were more receptive to VBUS, while the “weaker” students found VBUS more of an added burden than an aid to their already heavy workload. There was no clear indication that VBUS played a significant role in improving students’ grades. More positive reactions to VBUS came from students who use VBUS on an average of one to two times a week, with each access lasting between fifteen and thirty minutes, and whose median time spent on studying a subject is around two hours per week.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Reflecting on Online Teaching and Learning. The Winter 2004 issue of Academic Exchange Quarterly will soon be out. It has a theme of Information Literacy included. Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay who is the instruction librarian at Washington State University was the feature editor. Several of the article are online. Here is one of them.
From the site:
By 2001, Rural Health had been taught for some years at La Trobe University, Bendigo, in Victoria, Australia. It had, with constant evaluation and monitoring, developed real strengths in the theoretical and practical assessment of health issues for regional, rural and remote areas. In the annual Quality Assurance (QA) subject evaluation students had consistently assessed it as relevant, informative, useful and appropriately taught. In 2001 the subject was selected for online delivery, using WebCT and Dreamweaver, to enable access for rural and remote students unable to attend the physical university (Edwards and Nicoll, 2000).
Evaluating Rural Health Online
The evaluation used qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data consisted of three semi-structured interviews and a focus group with six students, students' online feedback, and answers to the questions “What was the best thing about this subject” and “How could this subject be improved?” on the QA tool used by the University for each year of the course. The quantitative data came from students’ responses to twelve statements on a Likert-type scale on the QA tool and online tracking of the students’ use of the material. All student data was used with the approval of the students involved.
This paper does not present the full results of the evaluation. Rather, we reflect on our online teaching experience, using, where it is relevant, the data from the evaluation.
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Students' Online Learning Experiences This looks like a nice and interesting project from the UK.
From the site:
SOLE is a project to undertake an independent evaluation of students' usage of virtual learning environments (VLEs) in higher and further education and draw out the effectiveness of VLEs in supporting different subject areas, different national agendas (such as that of widening participation) and student learning in general.
Research is being carried out at several UK universities and FE colleges, covering a broad range of subjects with diverse online learning requirements. The collaborating LTSN subject centres involved as research partners are: Economics, Psychology, Education, Information and Computer Sciences, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism. The project began in October 2002 and will run until March 2004. A wide range of dissemination and outreach activities are taking place throughout the life of the project.
SOLE is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) via the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Tranche 2 initiative and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). It is hosted at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol.
From the site:
SOLE is a project to undertake an independent evaluation of students' usage of virtual learning environments (VLEs) in higher and further education and draw out the effectiveness of VLEs in supporting different subject areas, different national agendas (such as that of widening participation) and student learning in general.
Research is being carried out at several UK universities and FE colleges, covering a broad range of subjects with diverse online learning requirements. The collaborating LTSN subject centres involved as research partners are: Economics, Psychology, Education, Information and Computer Sciences, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism. The project began in October 2002 and will run until March 2004. A wide range of dissemination and outreach activities are taking place throughout the life of the project.
SOLE is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) via the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Tranche 2 initiative and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). It is hosted at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol.
Monday, April 19, 2004
Delivering Course Materials to Distance Learners over the World Wide Web: Statistical Data Summary This full-text article is from the Journal of Library Services for Distance Education. (Vol. 1 Issue 2, June 1998). It summarizes the data collected from a year-long library study, conducted at the University at Buffalo, on developing and implementing a web-based support service for distance learning.
From the introduction:
In 1996, the State University of New York (SUNY) Office of Educational Technology (OET) awarded the libraries at SUNY Buffalo, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh an $85,000 grant to conduct a year-long study of the feasibility of delivering library and other resources over the Internet to students in distance education programs. One of the goals of the project, addressed in this article, was to determine the technical requirements for developing and operating a Web-based distance learning support service. A variety of project data was collected to determine such matters as the optimal scanning equipment for this type of work and the optimal file formats, in terms of both efficiency and accessibility. This article summarizes the data that was collected over the course of two semesters at the University at Buffalo (UB). Another goal of the project was to determine if the Internet was the most effective means of delivering instructional materials to students for the purpose of distance learning.
From the introduction:
In 1996, the State University of New York (SUNY) Office of Educational Technology (OET) awarded the libraries at SUNY Buffalo, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh an $85,000 grant to conduct a year-long study of the feasibility of delivering library and other resources over the Internet to students in distance education programs. One of the goals of the project, addressed in this article, was to determine the technical requirements for developing and operating a Web-based distance learning support service. A variety of project data was collected to determine such matters as the optimal scanning equipment for this type of work and the optimal file formats, in terms of both efficiency and accessibility. This article summarizes the data that was collected over the course of two semesters at the University at Buffalo (UB). Another goal of the project was to determine if the Internet was the most effective means of delivering instructional materials to students for the purpose of distance learning.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Usage of Content in Web-Supported Academic Courses Librarians and faculty spend a lot of time (and money) making library resources available to students online. This is particularly true for web supported courses for distance learning students. Do students actually use this content? This is a full-text article from Academic Exchange Quarterly written by Rafi Nachmias and Limor Segev of Tel-Aviv University in Israel which looks at how students use online content placed on the web for their use in a course.
Abstract:
"The use of the Internet as an instructional tool in higher education is rapidly increasing. We are witnessing the development of huge amounts of learning materials for academic web-sites. Still, there is little empirical evidence regarding the actual use of these contents by students. In this study, computer logs are used in order to evaluate how online contents are consumed, the individual differences among students in terms of contents usage are investigated as are the amount of contents that is presented in courses' web-supported sites. Finally, further implications of information related to content usage are discussed, and their relevance for the evaluation of ICT implementation in higher education institutes is shown."
Full article at http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho23003w.htm.
Abstract:
"The use of the Internet as an instructional tool in higher education is rapidly increasing. We are witnessing the development of huge amounts of learning materials for academic web-sites. Still, there is little empirical evidence regarding the actual use of these contents by students. In this study, computer logs are used in order to evaluate how online contents are consumed, the individual differences among students in terms of contents usage are investigated as are the amount of contents that is presented in courses' web-supported sites. Finally, further implications of information related to content usage are discussed, and their relevance for the evaluation of ICT implementation in higher education institutes is shown."
Full article at http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho23003w.htm.
Sunday, January 04, 2004
Factors Affecting Student Adoption of Online Education
Factors Affecting Student Adoption of Online Education Many of us are working with faculty who are putting courses online. Some of use have any done this ourelves. Teaching and learning is different in an online environment. Some students resist the online model are are just not ready for it. This article from Academic Exchange Quarterly looks at this and other issues impacting online education.
From the article:
"Online education is creating excitement among educators in colleges and universities in the United States and further afield. For some it offers a way to reach a wider audience, including those not targeted by traditional higher-education institutions. For others, it offers a new pedagogical tool that has the potential to transform the learning process. And for others, as exhibited through the University of Phoenix Online Education model, it is perceived as an inexpensive way to grow their student population and revenues (Economist, 2002; Olsen, 2002). While the reasons for implementing online courses and programs vary, a few common themes emerge from an examination of the literature: expanding access to under-served populations; alleviating classroom capacity constraints; capitalizing on emerging market opportunities - such as working adults - and, serving as a catalyst for institutional transformation (Aron, 1999; Berger, 1999; Eastman & Swift, 2001; Fornaciari, Forte, & Matthews, 1999; Oliver, 1999; Volery & Lord, 2000; Webster & Hackley, 1997)."
"The use of online education has grown significantly as a result of its real and perceived benefits (McGinn, 2000). Urdan and Weggen (2000) state that revenues from Web-based training for online education are forecasted to climb from $550 million in 1998 to $11.4 billion in 2003. John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, states that “education over the Internet is so big, it is going to make e-mail look like a rounding error” (Chambers, 1999). The number of colleges and universities offering online education has also increased dramatically – from 93 in 1993 to 762 in 1997 (Hankin, 1999), including many established universities such as Duke, University of Baltimore, Colorado State University, University of Florida, New York University, University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio University, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Tennessee (Eastman and Swift, 2001). In 2000, U.S. universities offered over 54,000 courses online with an enrollment of over 1.6 million students (Driver, 2002). A more recent estimate suggests that 2.2 million students enrolled in online courses in 2002 (Sausner, 2003)." Full article at http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho25934w.htm.
From the article:
"Online education is creating excitement among educators in colleges and universities in the United States and further afield. For some it offers a way to reach a wider audience, including those not targeted by traditional higher-education institutions. For others, it offers a new pedagogical tool that has the potential to transform the learning process. And for others, as exhibited through the University of Phoenix Online Education model, it is perceived as an inexpensive way to grow their student population and revenues (Economist, 2002; Olsen, 2002). While the reasons for implementing online courses and programs vary, a few common themes emerge from an examination of the literature: expanding access to under-served populations; alleviating classroom capacity constraints; capitalizing on emerging market opportunities - such as working adults - and, serving as a catalyst for institutional transformation (Aron, 1999; Berger, 1999; Eastman & Swift, 2001; Fornaciari, Forte, & Matthews, 1999; Oliver, 1999; Volery & Lord, 2000; Webster & Hackley, 1997)."
"The use of online education has grown significantly as a result of its real and perceived benefits (McGinn, 2000). Urdan and Weggen (2000) state that revenues from Web-based training for online education are forecasted to climb from $550 million in 1998 to $11.4 billion in 2003. John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, states that “education over the Internet is so big, it is going to make e-mail look like a rounding error” (Chambers, 1999). The number of colleges and universities offering online education has also increased dramatically – from 93 in 1993 to 762 in 1997 (Hankin, 1999), including many established universities such as Duke, University of Baltimore, Colorado State University, University of Florida, New York University, University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio University, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Tennessee (Eastman and Swift, 2001). In 2000, U.S. universities offered over 54,000 courses online with an enrollment of over 1.6 million students (Driver, 2002). A more recent estimate suggests that 2.2 million students enrolled in online courses in 2002 (Sausner, 2003)." Full article at http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho25934w.htm.
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
A Case Evaluation in Internet Assisted Laboratory Teaching
A Case Evaluation in Internet Assisted Laboratory Teaching Here is a full-text article from Academic Exchange Quarterly on using the Interet in teaching a technical subect. Please note the conclusion in the abstract below. Students used the Internet for help but ultimately the preference of the students was to ask actual people for assistance.
Abstract:
"This paper presents the preliminary findings from an evaluation conducted on the implementation of Internet assisted teaching of fluid mechanical engineering laboratory sessions on a university degree programme. It compares the particular merits of laboratory sessions in which students receive instruction from Internet based presentations compared with those who received instruction from 'traditional' tutor led sessions, through a process of questionnaire based surveys and direct observations. The paper concludes that Internet assisted sessions allow students to easily repeat experimental instructions and provide late or absent students the opportunity to easily catch up with missed work. However, students
Abstract:
"This paper presents the preliminary findings from an evaluation conducted on the implementation of Internet assisted teaching of fluid mechanical engineering laboratory sessions on a university degree programme. It compares the particular merits of laboratory sessions in which students receive instruction from Internet based presentations compared with those who received instruction from 'traditional' tutor led sessions, through a process of questionnaire based surveys and direct observations. The paper concludes that Internet assisted sessions allow students to easily repeat experimental instructions and provide late or absent students the opportunity to easily catch up with missed work. However, students