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Features
University of Alberta: eLearning: From Grass Roots to Mission-Critical
3/25/2003
eLearning
began at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with a few brave
faculty members who decided to try something new. They started small: making
their course syllabi, lecture notes, or class assignments available to students
via the Web. Students responded positively—even seeking out particular instructors
or courses that featured online components.
Today, what began as a grassroots movement by students and faculty has evolved into an institution-wide eLearning program that is closely aligned with the university's core mission and goals. The university currently offers approximately 1,500 online courses, with more than 120,000 student registrations—and expects a continued 25 percent growth for the next several years.
Building Momentum
"Early days" of eLearning at the university consisted of individual
instructors or departments using various teaching and learning tools to incorporate
Web-based material into their courses. As more and more faculty ventured into
the world of online learning, student demand for such courses continued to grow,
prompting faculty to consolidate their efforts and work toward a centralized
solution.
The first step involved forming a committee to evaluate and select a centrally supported course management system for the school. The committee consisted of representatives from across the university, including faculty members, support professionals, and IT staff.
The university looked at eLearning as a competitive advantage and powerful means of working toward strategic institutional goals, such as improving the learning environment, recruiting and retaining top-notch faculty, and attracting high-achieving students. After evaluating several eLearning applications, WebCT's course management system was selected.
Smart Growth
The school began development and testing of the pilot course management system
in the spring of 1998. In September, the system went live with 100 courses and
8,000 users. By the end of the 1998-1999 academic year, those figures rapidly
grew to 375 courses and more than 14,000 users. Course offerings spanned the
university's departments and included undergraduate, graduate, certificate,
and extension programs.
Susan Stein, Distributed Learning Project Lead and WebCT Administrator for the university's Computing and Network Services (CNS), group is responsible for driving the adoption of the WebCT solution on campus. She has worked to align the department's efforts with mandates and objectives outlined in the key strategic initiatives.
"Our role in CNS is to provide end-to-end support for the university's eLearning initiatives, encompassing everything from server and software management to course planning, design, development, and delivery, as well as faculty and student training. We collaborate with a number of support groups on campus to meet the full range of instructors' and students' requirements in support of eLearning," explains Stein.
"Continuous improvement of the teaching and learning environment is critical to the university's long-term goals, and our partnerships with both WebCT and Sun Microsystems have enabled us to implement an eLearning solution that is scalable, reliable, and cost-effective in support of those goals."
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