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OPINION
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Who's Conferring with Faculty on Online Course Quality?
Terry Calhoun, Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan
Henryk Marcinkiewicz is associate vice president for academic affairs
at Pennsylvania College of Technology,
and a frequent writer and presenter on issues relating to information technology
and teaching and learning. In his opinion piece he calls for greater quality
control over online course development, noting that course management technology
d'esn't lend itself to quite the same degree of self-correcting misuse as other
forms of information technology did when they were relatively new.
* * *
Faculty and institutions should control for quality when using online instruction.
This may seem obvious, but it is not common practice for faculty to follow a
set of quality control measures in developing online instructional material.
The fact that online courses are password-protected complicates the review process.
During an introductory or novelty phase of instructional technology application
there is a lot of experimentation, as there should be. Recall the overuse of
features on word-processed documents, varying font sizes and styles, for example.
Or, consider the overuse of features in digital slide show presentations. Course
management systems (CMSes) for online instructional material are practical:
They have enabled the compiling of lesson parts and functions into a single
location, but the same overuse or misuse of features has been evident in these
applications as well. …
Read more
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| IT NEWS |
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Microsoft Sponsors University Work on Embedded Windows
After 130 proposals from 120 schools, Microsoft Corp. is splitting $1.7M in
grants among 77 winning research projects and curriculum development relating
to Microsoft CE .Net and Windows XP for embedded use, including various robotics
projects. (InfoWorld)
Read more
Fresno State Faculty Group Challenges PeopleSoft Investment
Following complaints about "delays in student financial aid, lack of
system security that allowed unauthorized sharing of confidential information,
and registration," a faculty union has called for the project to stop and
the dollars to go directly to instruction. Others say the system is already
creating synergies for the institution. (The Fresno Bee)
Read more
Seton Hall Sophs Give Nod to IBM ThinkPad R40s Switch
The university's PC Support Services office ran its recommendation to purchase
IBM ThinkPads by the sophomore class Senate for approval. With the nod, students
will get laptops with 32MB video RAM, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, a DVD/CD-RW combo,
and a Universal Serial Bus 2 port in exchange for models they had previously
been using. (The Setonian)
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EDUCAUSE Task Force Looking to Ease File-Sharing Friction
EDUCAUSE has asked the technology task force of its Joint Committee of the
Higher Education and Entertainment Communities to help ease file-sharing friction
between the higher education and entertainment communities. Its goal is "to
gather, describe, and organize the information submitted to provide a knowledge
base on available technologies and/or legitimate services" for file-sharing
and to find legal ways to share files as inexpensively as possible.
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Expensive Legal Bills for Miami U. Student E-mail Prankster
Ben Field has learned that he did a really stupid thing—and that lawyers
are expensive. Last spring the senior from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio,
sent a fake e-mail canceling classes to the 31,000 students, faculty, and staff
at the school. Now the university's president has donated $10 to help him repay
$5,000 in legal fees.
Read more
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| RESOURCES |
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National Center for Technology Planning
The National Center for Technology Planning (NCTP) is a clearinghouse for the
exchange of many types of information related to technology planning. This information
may be: school technology plans available for downloading online; technology
planning aids (checklists, brochures, sample planning forms, PR announcement
forms); and/or electronic monographs on timely, selected topics.
Learn more
Side-by-Side Comparisons of LMSes
Brandon-hall.com, a research and consulting firm for the eLearning industry,
released a research report it says provides an objective comparison between
69 Learning Management System (LMS) software packages, as well as new packages
from IBM, SAP, and PeopleSoft. "LMS 2003: Comparison of Enterprise Learning
Management Systems," which includes an optional "LMS selection tool,"
enables educators evaluating LMSes to draw feature-to-feature comparisons between
LMS systems, the company says.
Learn more
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| DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS |
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Swedish Tech Institute Signs on to 3D Life Cycle Program
The Linkoping Institute of Technology, one of Sweden's technical universities,
signed to participate in IBM Corp.'s Product Lifecycle Management Higher Education
and Training Program (HEAT). The program is co-produced by IBM and product life
cycle management software developer Dassault Systemes, whose software offers
a 3D vision of the life cycle of products from conception to retirement. Linkoping's
Department of Mechanical Engineering wants to move from a CAD platform to the
IBM PLM solution.
To learn more, click here or here.
Universities Ready New Scoring Displays for Fall Football Season Five universities are upgrading their athletic scoring displays before the start
of the fall 2003 football season. The University of Oklahoma in Norman will upgrade
its existing Daktronics ProStar VideoPlus display for scores and information during
games in its Memorial Stadium with the latest generation of the company's full-color
LED display technology. The other schools are: the U.S. Naval Academy; Troy State
in Troy, Alaska; Stanford University; and Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. The
value of the five projects exceeds $4.5 million.
Learn more
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NEW PRODUCTS
SCT Releases Banner 6.0
Campus management system software developer SCT released SCT Banner 6.0, a
suite of software applications for student information, faculty support, human
resources, and finance. The new version includes an open registration system
and modified fee assessment and refunding process to enable schools to offer
courses that can start at any time, run for any length, and be customized to
fit anyone's schedule.
Learn more
P2P Workspace Software for Classroom/Distance
Learning
Groove Networks Inc., a collaboration software developer, unveiled its "Groove
U" program, designed to equip higher education institutions with its workspace
desktop collaboration software. Unlike Web-based eLearning tools, Groove Workspace
is peer-to-peer (P2P) software that gives students and professors the ability
to interact and collaborate around shared coursework, online. With little to
no IT assistance, professors can create Groove-based virtual classrooms for
each course, and invite students to join via e-mail or instant messaging.
Learn more
dvGarage Releases 3D Training and Tools for
Average Users
dvGarage released the 3D Toolkit 2.5, a 3D training package designed to bring
high-end 3D production to video, print, and Web professionals, but also to students
and hobbyists, the company says. While high-end 3D production is now possible
on entry-level computers, the software is expensive and complicated for the
average user. The 3D Toolkit ships with four hours of video training, 28 tutorials
and a full, working version of Electric Image Universe, a production-level 3D
application used in more than 50 feature films and TV shows. The package retails
for $99.
Learn more
Dictionary Reader Optimized for Palm OS PDAs
Beiks LLC came out with an update of its BDicty Dictionary Reader for Palm
OS. The software is optimized for the underlying ARM processor that drives Palm
OS 5.x devices, making it perform very fast searches for any Palm OS dictionary
application. BDicty works with the collection of dictionary lexicons available
from Beiks, including languages and professional and scientific terminologies.
Learn more
Discounts Offered on Bible Reference Engine
for Scholars
Logos Research Systems Inc., publisher of high-end Bible reference
software, is offering discounts on its new Logos Bible Software Series X - Scholar's
Library for qualified groups of students and faculty at religion departments,
seminaries, and Bible colleges. The search engine is designed to save traditional
and distance-education students hours on biblical languages assignments, while
faculty use it for research and to demonstrate parsing, morphological searches,
and lexical look-ups.
Learn more
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Wireless Handheld Computers to Increase Interactivity and
Collaborative Learning
This week's interview features Betty L. Black
Click
Here to Listen
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