760/860 Webs

General Sites

All of the following have something to offer.

The Alertbox: Current Issues in Web Usability. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ This site is a biweekly commentary from Dr. Jakob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group.

Distance Learning at a Glance. http://www.uidaho.edu/evo/distglan.html by Barry Willis, Associate Dean of Outreach and Engineering Outreach staff at the University of Idaho present 13 guidelines for distance education. Among them are strategies for teaching and learning at a distance, instructional development tips, and research.

Design Principles for Online Instruction. http://www.fgcu.edu/onlinedesign/index.html

Elearningpost. http://www.elearningpost.com This site provides daily links to articles and news stories about corporate learning, building online learning communities, instructional design, knowledge management, personalization and more.

George Washington University: Survey of Course and Test Delivery / Management Systems for Distance Learning http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~tlooms/assess.html This site created and maintained by: Thelma Looms (tlooms@seas.gwu.edu). The home page is plain, but as title suggests, you will find information on the following:

Illinois Online Network http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu The Illinois Online Network promotes the effective use of networked information technologies to enhance traditional classroom instruction, and to build the foundation for developing, delivering, and supporting courses delivered in a completely online format. There is an extensive database of "must-see" online education resources ( http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/onlineResources/index.html ) including, but not limited to, accessibility, conferencing, evaluating online resources, multimedia, online teaching and learning, instructional design, assessment, intellectual property, tools for online education and web design

Interactive Education: Impact of the Internet on Teaching & Learning http://UBMAIL.ubalt.edu/~harsham/interactive.htm is a site developed by Dr. H. Arsham at the University of Baltimore. His site has excellent resources on how to begin, operate, and make Web-based courses successful. There are numerous links to e-learning resources.

Online Higher Education Notebook http://www.uis.edu/~schroede/sources.htm R. Schroeder of the University of Illinois at Springfield has a meta-site of online resources: latest news in online learning, online consortia and cooperative listings, indexes of online courses, a sampling of virtual universities, online journals and periodicals, selected online research, related links, and more.

Planning and Evaluation Service (PES) http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/index.html This site has relevance for teacher professional development. The mission of the PES is to coordinate strategic and program performance reporting across the Department of Education; to conduct independent evaluations of the major federal education programs; and to coordinate the Department's involvement in international education activities. Critical topics in education, including the state of technology use, are included.

University of Maryland University College-Bell Atlantic Virtual Resource Site for Teaching with Technology http://www.umuc.edu/virtualteaching This site contains two modules, and each explores key issues in developing and teaching online courses with the use of technology. Module 1 provides information about the selection and use of various Web-based media, such as text, audio, video, still images, animated graphics, applets, and scripts, to accomplish a number of different learning strategies. Module 2 focuses on delivery. This module features faculty interviews about realities and successful practices in online course delivery and provides resources for faculty using technology in research assignments, small group projects, and discussions to encourage activity. A must see site!

University of New South Wales: Principles of Instructional Design and Adult Learning: Instructional Design of Learning Materials http://www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/learning/instructionaldesign/materials.htm The ADDIE instructional design method is detailed: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of learning materials and activities.

University of Washington DO-IT Program - Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology http://www.washington.edu/doit/ Site includes, but is not limited to, information on how technology can meet the learning needs of students with disabilities.

University of Wisconsin-Extension Distance Learning Clearinghouse http://uwex.edu/disted/home.html

Web Based Learning Resources Library http://www.outreach.utk.edu/weblearning/ is a comprehensive resource for delivery and management of education via the Internet.

Instruction Delivery Systems

Specific teaching-learning activities for which a course management system might be of value include "accessibility (distance learning); self-paced materials; libraries of student work annotated over time; structured seminars involving students and people outside the institution; online quizzes; and intensive, focused, moderated seminar discussion to help students learn a new way of thinking about the course content" (Ehrmann & Gilbert, July 2003, Syllabus Magazine, p. 38). For those looking for software for computer mediated conferencing and e-learning, these sites might prove of interest.

Marshall University's Comparison of Online Course Delivery Software Products http://www.marshall.edu/it/cit/webct/compare/comparison.html This site contains a list of 20 different online course delivery tools that are currently on the market and compares most of them. The reviewers seek outside help to make their list more inclusive and up-to-date. Reviews are categorized by developmental features, instructor tools, instructional features, student tools, technical support, administrator tools, administrative features, software costs, and hardware costs.

Online educational delivery applications: A web tool for comparative analysis http://www.edutools.info/index.jsp This site is designed to help educators evaluate and select online delivery software, such as BlackBoard, WebCT, and Top Class. It also has application reviews and related sites. This site was originally produced by the Project Team of Bruce Landon of Douglas College, Randy Bruce of Kwantlen University College and Amanda Harby, Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology. The present site analysis includes technical specifications, instructional design values, tools and features, ease of use, potential for collaboration, and compliance with standards for over 50 products.

The following is a sampling of e-learning platforms:

http://www.blackboard.com Blackboard.

http://www.centra.com Centra provides software infrastructure for virtual classrooms, Web conferences, and eMeetings. Symposium is their virtual classroom software that contains tools for live and asynchronous elearning.

http://www.ecollege.com See eCollege Teaching Solutions and their extensive list of teaching resources from informational content and course supplements to career development opportunities.

http://www.softarc.com FirstClass.

http://www.wbtsystems.com TopClass.

http://www.lotus.com Lotus Notes.

http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/tabs/learnspace Lotus Learning Space has both asynchronous and synchronous conferencing, and authoring tools.

http://www.horizonlive.com HorizonLive is for teaching and learning live online. The site indicates that the technology is appropriate for classroom instruction to the Web, launching a new product, providing continuing education, or communicating within a global organization.

http://www.ualberta.ca/WEBCT This is the supplier's site for WEBCT. Links on the page take you to reviews and advice about WEBCT use from University of Alberta in Canada.

WebCT information: The quickstart from WebCT has separate sections for faculty, student, and administrators. http://www.webct.com/quickstart/

Note: On 2/19/01, Dr. Abramson relayed a message from Dr. Eric Ackerman, who wished to pass along a message from WebCT to students using WebCT at SCIS:

Question Can I use Netscape 6.x with WebCT?
Summary: Due to several significant issues in Netscape 6.0, many WebCT users have noted problems using this browser to view WebCT content. Problems reported include:

Javascript errors in the Content Module
Prompts for authentication when navigating within a course
The Content Module will not load, and the Back button does not function
The Manage Students interface does not display correctly on the Mac

Workaround Solution
While WebCT does plan to support Netscape 6.x in future, Netscape 6.0 is not currently recommended for use with any versions of WebCT up to and including WebCT 3.5. Our Development Team will release further updates as subsequent releases of Netscape 6.x are tested with WebCT.

Web Articles

The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH Act) was signed into law by President Bush on November 2nd, 2002. According to Crews, "TEACH redefines the terms and conditions on which accredited, nonprofit educational institutions throughout the U.S. may use copyright protected materials in distance education-including on websites and by other digital means--without permission from the copyright owner and without payment of royalties." Read about this new copyright law for distance education at http://www.ala.org/washoff/teach.html

An emerging set of guidelines and practices for the design and development of distance education. Retrieved January 28, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.outreach.psu.edu/DE/IDE/ [This document was developed by Penn State faculty members, in partnership with faculty from Cheyney and Lincoln universities, in connection with the AT&T Innovations in Distance Education project that began in 1995.]

Barron, A. (1999). A teacher's guide to distance learning. Retrieved June 20, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/distance/

Carnevale, D. (2000). What matters in judging distance teaching? Not how much it's like a classroom course. The Chronicle of Higher Education. February 21, 2001. Available: http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/printable.cgi

Hollands, N., (Ed.). (2000, Fall). Online testing: Best practices from the field. Creating a Virtual Learning Community, 2(1). Raleigh: North Carolina Community College System. Retrieved January 23, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://198.85.71.76/english/blackboard/testingadvice.html

Kaplan, H. (1998). Building your own web course: The case for off-the-shelf component software. CAUSE/EFFECT Journal 21, 4, (online). Retrieved June 21, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/cem9849.html [Component, off-the-shelf software allows for the creation of audio slide lectures, course materials, discussion forums, animations, synchronous chat groups, quiz creators, e-mail, and so forth. The alternative is integrated packages (e.g., WebCT, Top Class) that are menu driven and offer many of the same features.]

Klemm, W. R. (2001, May/June). Creating online courses: A step-by-step guide. The Technology Source. Retrieved June 20, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/default.asp?show=article&id=861

Koyanagi, M. (1997). Putting courses online: Theory and practice. Retrieved March 6, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://ils.unc.edu/disted/cmi/

Learning Peaks, LLC. (2001). Asynchronous Online Learning Instructor Competencies. Retrieved March 6, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.learningpeaks.com/instrcomp.html

Muirhead, B. (2001). Practical strategies for teaching computer-mediated classes. USDLA Journal, 15(5). Retrieved January 25, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/MAY01_Issue/article02.html

Muilenburg, L., & Berge, Z. (2000). A Framework for designing questions for online learning. The American Journal of Distance Education. Retrieved January 22, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/muilenburg.html

Pitt, T., & Clark, A. (1997). Creating powerful online courses using multiple instructional strategies. Paper presented at the second annual online Trends and Issues in Online Education Conference sponsored by the Teaching in the Community Colleges List & Kapi'olani Community College, Hawaii, April 1-3, 1997. Retrieved January 23, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/tcc_conf97/pres/pitt.html

Prensky, M. (2001). Exclusive interview: Amy Jo Kim on online learning communities. Elearingpost. Retrieved April 3, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.elearningpost.com/elthemes/amyjo.asp

Schatz, S. (2000). Paradigm shifts and challenges for instructional designers: An introduction to meta tags and knowledge bits. Retrieved January 19, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.imsproject.org/feature/kb/index.html

Sherry, L. (2000). The nature and purpose of online conversations: A brief synthesis of current research. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 6 (1), 19-52. Retrieved January 28, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~lsherry/pubs/dialogue.htm

Sonwalker, N. (2001). Changing the interface of education with revolutionary learning technologies. Syllabus, 15(4), 10-13. [Read highlights retrieved January 28, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5663]

Sonwalker, N. (2002). The pedagogical rating of online courses. Syllabus, 15(6), 18-21. [Read highlights retrieved January 28, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5914]

University of Illinois (1999, December). Teaching at an Internet distance: The pedagogy of online teaching and learning. Report of a University of Illinois 1998-1999 faculty seminar. Retrieved January 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/tid/report

Last Modified: 07/21/03