Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Challenge Continues
March 30-April 1, 2003
Enhancing Accessibility with Web Material and Courses
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By: Raj Desai, Ted Loso |
Abstract
Materials developed for use in the regular classroom can be incorporated into the web to improve accessibility to students. Many of our working students are unable to attend classes regularly due to work constraints. Easy access to education and training to potential students is a growing need, as well as servicing industry needs through asynchronous learning for employees.
Description
We have both taught web courses for the past three years. We have also incorporated much of our classroom material into our web pages. The course syllabus, power-point presentations, and other class handouts can easily be put online. Again the advantage of putting course material online is that it is available to the student at any time. We see the advantages of using web tools in our courses. The internet has become an effective delivery medium for providing easy access to education and training needs, as well as facilitating asynchronous learning. Having a good understanding of the tools needed for developing and implementing material on the web is imperative. Also tools such as grade reporting on the web can make the teachers work a lot easier, because you do not have students coming to your office asking for the grades. They can view them online anytime and from anywhere.
This article will focus on examining the effectiveness of putting material on the web for the past three years. We will examine the time it takes to develop material for the web and also the benefits of developing complete web courses. We will also examine enrollment in a web course versus a regular classroom based course. We will also look at student evaluations and try to explain the results. We will look at pitfalls with web courses, including the dropout rate. We will examine the grades in web courses and try to explain the results. We will also look at the results of web courses with regards to students who took a second continuation course for the past three years.
University support is vital for putting web material online. We will look at training needs for faculty to put material online. Online grade information, and bulletin boards are generally used with web courses and faculty need training in incorporating these tools in their courses. Some universities also offer incentives such as a reduced course load the first time the course is taught, and/or a monetary reward the first time a course is taught. We will examine the incentives that can be offered to faculty in order to increase the development of web material.
Proceeding