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Networking July 2000

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July 15, 2000: This message was distributed by Papyrus News, a free e-mail distribution list on the global impact of information technology on language, literacy, and education. Feel free to forward this message to others, preferably with this introduction. For information on Papyrus News, including how to (un)subscribe or access archives, see <http://www.lll.hawaii.edu/web/faculty/markw/papyrus-news.html>.

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NETWORKING

ISSN 1206-9450         Volume 4, Number 11        12 July 2000

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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>.

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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/>.

 

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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

 

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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.

 

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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>.

 

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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/>.

 

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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.

 

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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>.

 

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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>.

 

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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>.

 

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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.

 

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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>.

 

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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>.

 

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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/>.

 

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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.

 

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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/>.

 

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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.

 

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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.

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Back issues of NETWORKING are archived at

<http://theNode.org/networking/>.

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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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