Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Connected Classroom
April 7-9, 2002
A Web Enabled Graduate Course: Two Perspectives
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By: James Penrod, Barbara Perry |
Abstract
This session is presented by a professor and a student providing two perspectives on the use of a smart classroom for an extended term summer seminar on "IT Trends & Issues in Higher & Adult Education." It will describe, from each perspective, the smart classroom, the technology used, course objectives, class activities, and results obtained. It will conclude with an analysis by each of the pros and cons of their experiences and critical success factors.
Description
The course described is an extended term (taught over both short summer terms) summer seminar for graduate students primarily in the Higher Education Doctoral program at The UoM. It is taught in a smart classroom where the instructor and each student have a personal computer and there is a smart board, projector, video player, etc. All lectures are online prior to the class and students are expected to have studied them and to engage in discussion of the material with the instructor during class. CourseInfo was used as the course management system. Student web pages, group work space, eMail, discussion board, chat, cumulative grades, assignments, syllabus, external links, etc. were all available and utilized throughout the course.
Each student was expected to find and summarize an article of interest to the class from an electronic source for each class meeting, to write a term paper using hot link footnotes, develop an information technology related project and present and demonstrate it to the class, and to participate in a case study, group based, final examination which was given at the second class meeting; oral and written presentations of the case study findings were given by each group at the last class meeting. Throughout the course, students provided their analysis of what was going well and offered suggestions for improvements. A heavy emphasis was placed on online research and all work was submitted electronically. Guest speakers and short on-campus field trips to learn of “back room” technology augmented the Friday evening, Saturday morning class periods.
The course was designed to prepare future administrators with a broad-based understanding of key information technology issues on college and university campuses. It also attempted to ensure that each student left the course with a basic understanding of information technology fluency concepts and acquired skills.
The presentation will highlight the viewpoints of an experienced, well traveled, graduate professor and that of a mature, professional higher education administrator who is also a doctoral student. In addition to the overall analysis of this course, they will collaborate to provide a critical success factor list for faculty and students in such courses.
Proceeding