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NETWORKING
ISSN 1206-9450 Volume 4, Number 11 12 July 2000
***************************************************************
NETWORKING brings you the latest
developments in learning
technologies from colleges,
universities, government, and organizations
across Canada and relevant news
from around the world.
NETWORKING is published every two
weeks from September through
May and once a month from June
through August by the Node Learning
Technologies Network <http://theNode.org>.
********************************************************
SPONSOR NETWORKING
The Node is seeking sponsorship
for Networking to ensure
that it remains freely available
to everyone. For details
on sponsorship benefits, please
see
<http://theNode.org/networking/sponsor/>.
********************************************************
NEWS BRIEFS:
Determining the cost of online courses
National Information Technology Week
The Mobile Campus Matures
Global University Alliance
Exemplary WebCT courses
New technology standards for teachers
Results: NEA poll of distance learning faculty
IN MEMORIAM:
Dr. Mary Pritchard
CALLS:
WebNet 2000
Ministry of National Education (France)
PUBLICATIONS OF NOTE:
@cademyonline
UPCOMING EVENTS:
AECT Summer Leadership Institute
********************************************************
NEWS BRIEFS:
DETERMINING THE COST OF ONLINE
COURSES
Brian Morgan, Director of the
Center for Instructional Technology at
Marshall University in West
Virginia, is making a worksheet he created for
determining online course
development and delivery costs available free
online to all at <http://webpages.marshall.edu/~morgan16/onlinecosts/>.
He has also posted his report
"Is Distance Learning Worth It? Helping to
Determine the Costs of Online
Courses" in PDF at
<http://multimedia.marshall.edu/onlinecosts/distancelearning.pdf>.
To calculate the costs and
revenues flowing from online courses, users
enter data into the web-based worksheet
by responding to twelve
questions about anticipated costs
and revenues:
*developmental costs: how course
creators will be paid for development
(part of regular pay? separate
stipend?)
*teaching costs: how course
instructors will be paid for teaching (part of
regular pay? stipend per student?
stipend per course?)
*technology and infrastructure
costs: what resources the institution is
contributing (specific costs of
technology training, support and equipment
and "hidden" costs of
general overhead)
*revenues from tuition and
technology fees
Morgan's worksheet then projects
the costs and revenues over a seven-
year period, extrapolating data
such as server maintenance costs, software
and communications charges, help
desk and library support costs, and
overhead costs from the
information entered.
Of necessity, Morgan makes certain
assumptions in his data calculations
that will result in inaccurate
projections for many institutions depending on
their situations. One assumption
that may make his projected costs low is
that faculty training,
instructional technology support and library support
are only necessary in the
development year and not in subsequent teaching
years (the underlying assumption
being that development ends when
teaching begins); another
assumption that may make his projected costs
high is that even one online
course requires a full-time business manager
(who, in our fictional example,
accounted for fully fifty percent of the total
development and delivery costs).
But the exercise is not without value; it is
useful to see an informed example
of how online course costs can be
broken down and how the
manipulation of one variable can affect others.
********************************************************
NATIONAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
WEEK
Industry Canada <http://www.ic.gc.ca> and the Information
Technology
Association of Canada (ITAC) <http://www.itac.ca> are sponsoring
Canada's first Information
Technology Week to be held 4-13 May 2001.
The purpose of the week is to
recognize and promote Canadian
achievement in the field and to
generate "new projects, practices, Internet
content and enlarged networks
among schools, businesses and their
surrounding communities."
Interested parties are encouraged to develop
and participate in demonstrations,
open houses and online events and
activities.
For more information, visit
<http://www.ic.gc.ca/cmb/welcomeic.nsf/NewsRelByDate>
and search for
the 23 June news release, or
e-mail questions to
<week.semaine@ic.gc.ca>.
********************************************************
THE MOBILE CAMPUS MATURES
In 1998, the Node Learning
Technologies Network undertook extensive
research into the state of mobile
computing at North American colleges and
universities. The resulting
report, "The Laptop College," drew on interviews
with representatives at 17 mobile
campuses, most in the first or second
year of implementation. At that
early stage in the move towards mobility,
topics of current interest centred
on issues of planning, start-up and
implementation. Questions such as
whether to lease or purchase, how
much of the cost to pass on to
students, and how to prepare for classroom
adoption dominated the discussion.
Now, almost two years later, the
pioneers have moved beyond these initial
issues as they mature as mobile
campuses. What new issues do they face
as they enter "phase
two" of their laptop programmes? How has the reality
of mobile computing met with
original expectations? What impact has it
had? What lessons have been
learned? Institutions are observing positive
changes in their campuses and
confirming their commitment to the vision
of ubiquitous computing.
"The Mobile Campus
Matures" re-examines laptop computing through the
eyes of the pioneers' experience
to answer these and other questions. The
new report is available for sale
through theNode.org website at
<http://theNode.org/ltreport/>.
********************************************************
GLOBAL UNIVERSITY ALLIANCE
Nine universities in seven
countries are partnering with Hong-Kong based
e-learning company NextEd <http://www.nexted.com> to create the
Global University Alliance <http://www.globaluniversityalliance.com>,
a
consortium that will offer online
graduate and professional programmes in
Asia. The participating
universities are:
* Athabasca University (Canada)
* Auckland University of
Technology (New Zealand)
* Chung Yuan Christian University
(Taiwan)
* Hogeschool Brabant (Netherlands)
* RMIT University (Australia)
* Rochester Institute of
Technology (United States)
* University of Derby (United
Kingdom)
* University of Glamorgan (United
Kingdom)
* University of South Australia
(Australia)
Students will apply for admission
to and receive academic credit from only
one university, but they will be
able to take courses from any of the nine.
The GUA expects to enroll its
first students this fall.
********************************************************
EXEMPLARY WEBCT COURSES
Fifteen WebCT courses have been
chosen from seventy-four nominations
to participate in the Exemplary
WebCT Course project, which recognizes
excellence in WebCT course design.
The key criteria for evaluation were
"academic rigour,"
defined as "the degree to which a web-enhanced or
asynchronous online course causes
students to become immersed in the
course content through the
application of higher level learning objectives,"
and "content
robustness," defined as "the breadth and depth of the content
included in or part of a
web-enhanced or asynchronous course and the
extent to which students are
required to interact with that content and with
each other."
The winning courses are:
* Assessment in Literacy
Instruction
Dr. Toni Bellon, North Georgia College & State University
* Engineering and Sustainable
Development
Dr. Fiona Crofton, University of British Columbia
* Ethics
John Wager, Triton College
* Histology
Dr. Sherry McConnell, Colorado State University
* Instruction in Elementary Social
Studies
Dr. Susan Gibson, University of Alberta
* Introduction to Theater
Dr. Terry Fencl, Triton College
* Leadership Foundations
Dr. Shirley Freed, Andrews University
* Pharmacology for Nurses
Diane Belyk, British Columbia Institute of Technology
* Primary Care
Pharmacotherapeutics
Bonnie Bata-Jones, University of Minnesota
* Systematic Design of
Technology-Based Instruction
Dr. Atsusi Hirumi, University of Houston - Clear Lake
* Teaching and the Exceptional
Child
Dr. Robin Barton & Dr. Nikki Garcia, Armstrong Atlantic State
University
* Telecommunications and Distance
Learning
Dr. Autumn Grubb, Georgia College and State University
* The Turfgrasses
Dr. A. J. Turgeon, Penn State University
* Web Design & Development
Gary Kidney, University of Houston - Clear Lake
* WebQuests
Janine Lim & Kevin Clark, Berrien County Intermediate School
District
The project team (Maisie Caines
and Kevin Deveau from Newfoundland's
College of the North Atlantic and
Dr. David Graf from Florida's Nova
Southeastern University) visited
each institution to meet with the faculty and
staff who developed the courses
and to interview students who have taken
them. Case studies have been
prepared for each course and are being
presented at the WebCT 2000
conference in Athens, Georgia that ends
today.
For more information, see <http://208.31.12.64/news/exemplary.html>.
********************************************************
NEW TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS FOR
TEACHERS
The International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE)
<http://www.iste.org>
has released a set of standards and
recommendations for teachers'
colleges to use in preparing new teachers to
use technology effectively in
their classrooms. The ISTE National
Educational Technology Standards
(NETS) and Performance Indicators
were funded by a three-year, $2.2
million grant from the U.S. Department
of Education and written by a
national team of teachers and education
group representatives.
NETS outlines general standards
for technology operations and concepts,
planning and designing learning
environments/experiences, curriculum
integration, assessment and
evaluation, productivity and professional
practice, and social, ethical,
legal and human issues. Specific performance
indicators are then detailed for
four stages of teacher education, from pre-
service through the first year of
teaching. Taken together, the standards
and indicators describe what new
teachers should know about and be
able to do with technology when
they begin work in the classroom.
The next phase of the NETS Project
will see the development of specific
teacher education learning
activities to complement and support the new
standards.
For more information, see <http://cnets.iste.org>.
********************************************************
RESULTS: NEA POLL OF DISTANCE
LEARNING FACULTY
The National Education Association
<http://www.nea.org> has released
the results of its poll of more
than 400 faculty teaching distance education
courses at traditional two- and
four-year public colleges and universities in
the United States. The purpose of
the study is to help NEA shape policies
that will ensure quality distance
education for students and fair treatment
for
faculty.
Three quarters of respondents were
"positive" about distance education,
believing that it allows
institutions to reach students who otherwise might
not have enrolled. Interestingly,
faculty teaching web-based courses were
*more* positive about the benefits
of distance education than faculty
teaching with other media.
Despite their optimism, many
faculty believe that distance education means
more work for the same pay and
that they won't be fairly compensated for
their intellectual property. The
survey indicates that faculty find teaching a
distance education course requires
more time and effort than teaching the
same course in the classroom, even
if they've taught it at a distance many
times before; yet 84% of
respondents get no course reduction for distance
teaching, and 63% are compensated
as if it were part of their regular
course load. However, faculty
enthusiasm appears to outweigh financial
self-interest and the drawbacks of
distance education do not diminish their
support of it.
The 54-page report is available
online in PDF at
<http://www.nea.org/he/abouthe/dlstudy.pdf>.
********************************************************
IN MEMORIAM:
DR. MARY PRITCHARD
We bid a fond farewell to
colleague and friend Mary Pritchard, for many
years the Coordinator of Mediated
Learning at The University of Western
Ontario and the Chair of the
Ontario Council for University Lifelong
Learning's Standing Committee for
Distance Education. Mary was
instrumental in the founding of
the Node, working with Dr. Carole Farber
and others on the proposal for the
network and providing invaluable
support on our board and in many
other ways throughout our initial years.
********************************************************
CALLS:
WEBNET 2000
The deadline for WebNet 2000's
final call for papers is 18 July. The
organizers of the conference,
sponsored by the Association for the
Advancement of Computing in
Education (AACE)
<http://www.aace.org>,
are seeking work-in-progress short papers,
posters/demonstrations, and
corporate demonstrations for the October
event in San Antonio, Texas. For
details, see
<http://www.aace.org/conf/webnet/finalcall.htm>.
********************************************************
MINISTRY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION
(FRANCE)
The Ministry of National Education
in France has released an RFP to
establish consortia for the
development and delivery of distance learning
programmes in health, technology
training, law, economics and
management.
The deadline for proposals is
September 15, 2000. For more information,
see <http://www.educnet.education.fr>
and the full RFP at
<http://www.educnet.education.fr/actu/appels.htm#cours>.
********************************************************
PUBLICATIONS OF NOTE:
@CADEMYONLINE
@cademyonline may be
"management education's source for distance-
learning news, information, and
commentary," but education and
technology professionals from all
disciplines will likely find something of
interest in this electronic
magazine. Published four times a year since 1999
by University Access <http://www.universityaccess.com>,
which provides
customized business education,
training and content to corporate and
traditional universities,
@cademyonline offers a range of articles on topics
of interest in today's technology-infused
educational environment. Sample
titles:
* Technology Choices for Distance
Learning
* Learning Portals: Reshaping
Business and Corporate Education
* Blurring the Lines: The
Convergence of Higher Education and Corporate
Universities
* Faculty Support for Distance
Learning
* Teaching Online: The Emerging
Core Competency
In addition to feature articles,
@cademyonline publishes brief news stories,
book reviews, a conference
calendar and a list of online business
programmes from around the globe.
Some opaque department titles can
make navigation irksome: while it
is perfectly obvious that the "Newsflash"
department contains news items, it
is not immediately apparent that the
"Think Tank" department
is a listing of conferences, nor that "Intelligent
Life" is where they keep the
book reviews. However, @cademyonline
offers intelligent writing, an
attractive design and only very minor
University
Access horn-tooting at <http://www.academyonline.com/>.
********************************************************
UPCOMING EVENTS:
For the Node's comprehensive
listing of educational technology and
distance education events, visit
<http://theNode.org/networking/upcoming.html>.
Do you have an event
to submit? E-mail the editor at
<editor@node.on.ca>.
Association for Educational
Communications and Technology Summer Leadership
Institute
27 - 30 July 2000
MontrČal, PQ
http://www.aect.org/SummerLeadership/SummerLeadership.htm
This event features sessions on
web-based instruction (best practices,
evaluation, accreditation and
accessibility) and technology training for
preservice, K-12 and
post-secondary educators as well as discussions
of the U.S. Department of
Education's PT3 (Preparing Tomorrow's
Teachers to Use Technology) grants
programme and the forthcoming
AECT/NCATE teacher accreditation
standards.
********************************************************
ALSO AT THENODE.ORG:
THE RIGHTS STUFF: OWNERSHIP IN THE
DIGITAL ACADEMY
This issue of Learning
Technologies Report examines intellectual property
as it affects post-secondary
course development and course ownership in
the digital age. The result of
extensive research and interviews in Canada
and the United States, The Rights
Stuff is now available for sale through
theNode.org website at <http://theNode.org/ltreport/>.
********************************************************
INTERNET MARKETING AND PROMOTION
WORKSHOPS
Register now for the Node's
self-paced workshops on Internet Marketing
and Promotion. Internet Marketing
and Promotion Level I covers such
topics as ensuring your website is
ready for marketing, metatagging, what
you need to know about online
promotion, building a promotional "toolkit"
and registering in search engines
and directories. Internet Marketing and
Promotion Level II covers
marketing techniques such as promoting to
mailing lists, forums, chats and
newsgroups. Both workshops are delivered
completely online with continuous
intake. See
<http://thenode.org/workshops/> for
details.
********************************************************
NETWORKING welcomes your
submissions, comments, and
questions. Send them to Erin Bale
at <editor@node.on.ca>.
To subscribe to NETWORKING, send
the message "SUBSCRIBE
NETWORKING yourfirstname
yourlastname" to
<listserv@mail.node.on.ca>,
leaving the subject line
blank. To unsubscribe, send the
message "SIGNOFF NETWORKING"
to the same address.
********************************************************
Back issues of NETWORKING are
archived at
<http://theNode.org/networking/>.
********************************************************
Copyright 2000, the Node Learning
Technologies Network.
All rights reserved. This
newsletter may be reproduced
with acknowledgement of the source
(title, date and URL --
<http://theNode.org/networking/>),
in any format for non-
commercial purposes.
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