Course Management Tools Mature: Resource Libraries on the Web
Only a year or two ago, Web-based courses were considered interesting and unusual
alternatives to traditional fare, and any instructor teaching a section solely
on the Internet was a pioneer. Now, most college campuses offer a variety of
opportunities for teaching and learning on the Web. Course management tools
such as WebCT, Blackboard, and Jenzabar have become everyday teaching vehicles
for posting course materials and links to learning resources on a course Web
site. It follows then that as faculty members, students, and IT staff become
more sophisticated users of the Internet and World Wide Web, the purveyors of
these course management packages are looking beyond providing templates and
tool kits, to offering content as well.
Since many instructors of online courses refer students to online resources,
and a large percentage of students use the Web for at least some of their academic
research, it makes good business sense for a course management provider to position
itself as the starting point for finding reliable information on the Web. Currently
the most robust package of content available comes in WebCT's e-Learning Hub,
a content source for dozens of academic disciplines and sub-disciplines, from
biology to writing. Content, in this case, is defined broadly to include text
material from commercial publishers, self-published faculty material, reference
content, and links to hundreds of journals that offer their back issues online.
Much of the content is free, but some, notably material available from textbook
publishers, must be purchased.
Finding the content on the WebCT site is easy for most of the subject areas.
Visitors click on "find resources" or "library" within one of the e-Learning
community's many disciplines—currently 15 are established, and more than twice
that many are listed as "emerging." Within the chemistry category, for instance,
there are 23 subcategories, allowing users to tailor a search for content. Links
within these subcategories are carefully annotated and vetted by editors familiar
with the academic terrain.
WebCT has partnered with Bell and Howell Information and Learning's XanEdu
ReSearch Engine, an online collection of newspapers, periodicals, magazines,
journals, and dissertations. This vast database is available to any student
who registers with WebCT. Partial access is free, and for a nominal fee, registrants
get complete access to XanEdu's treasure trove of academic content.
In addition to offering access to academic content, WebCT's e-Learning Hub
is a learning community. Students can get advice from the ask-an-expert feature,
staffed either by WebCT consultants who are experts in their field of study,
or users who have been reviewed by WebCT and deemed expert. Registered users
can ask a general question or one that is discipline specific. Those are directed
to experts dubbed "Dr. Biology" or "Dr. Education," depending on the topic.
Although some students appear to be trying to get their homework done by sending
the questions in to the experts, many students are using the service as an opportunity
to study a topic in depth and expand their use of the Web. There are articles,
eColloquia, and discussion groups defined by academic discipline as well as
discipline-specific topics.
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A Community of
Resources
WebCT's e-Learning
Hub is a useful portal for instructors and students seeking in-depth information
on a particular academic topic. Within some disciplines, such as mathematics,
education, and history, there are hundreds of links. Happily, WebCT has
organized them into logical hierarchies that simplify searching for even
the most inexperienced Web surfer.
Since many of us have
already bookmarked major sites within our areas of interest, the most
valuable contributions in the Hub may be WebCT's own original materials
and compilations for academic support. For instance, students struggling
with college algebra may appreciate the Algebra Problem of the Week (http://mathforum.com/algpow/),
which provides a weekly challenge along with its solution. World history
instructors may want to surf the useful list of academic sites compiled
by WebCT expert and Washburn University Professor Sara Tucker (www.webct.com/
History/ViewContent?contentID=1807236). Students of art history can
explore WebCT's list of online museum tours (www.webct.com/History/library/
browseCommunity?objectID=361407&categoryID=311737&sIndex=0).
Always worth a look
are the Hub's "best of the Web" lists. The history "best"
list currently includes links to sites on the American colonies, jazz,
the Supreme Court, and "smoking gun" documents for conspiracy
followers, along with established authoritative resources such as the
Library of Congress. The education community's best sites include links
to thousands of lesson plans, background on instructional media theory,
and cultural arts resources.
Although several of
the science communities are still in development, there are plenty of
resources here for biologists and chemists. Along with links to the American
Chemical Society and Lawrence Berkeley Labs, the chemistry "best
sites" list includes the Mad Scientists' Network, the Why Files,
and How Stuff Works (www.webct.com/Chemistry/ViewContent?contentID=2385430)
pages.
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