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Use of the Web in a Course Using the Faculty Link The Faculty Link at Boston University is an Internet resource for faculty instructors and faculty advisors. The Faculty Link provides access to class schedules, class lists, final exam schedules, advisee lists, class photographs, textbook information, links to course websites, and an electronic Faculty Annual Report template. Access to these useful faculty resources requires a BU login name and valid Kerberos password, obtained through the Office of Information Technology, 111 Cummington Street, or on-line. The functions relevant to management of your courses are listed on the Faculty Link under Instructor's Tools. By clicking on the different entries, faculty members may access information specific to managing their own classes. This section of the Link provides individual class lists, photo galleries of students enrolled in your classes, textbook adoption information, links to class management software ("courseware") , entry of grades, and other items relevant to course management. Faculty members that serve as academic advisors can access information on individual students through the Faculty Link. Besides your Kerberos password (see above), you will need to have either an official designation as a student's advisor (arranged by either your department or college, or by the student) or a SecurID device. The latter can be obtained through your departmental administrator if there is a need for you to have broad access to student records, as determined by your department. The device displays a numerical passcode that changes with time, in an effort to provide special security to student records. In order to access student academic records in this way, you need to enter the Faculty/Staff Link. A prompt will then ask you to type in both your Kerberos password and the passcode displayed by the SecurID device. Courseware like WebCT and CourseInfoBoth of the courseware packages available at BU, WebCT and CourseInfo, allow faculty to quickly and easily post materials online. Files of any format like documents, video, and audio can be posted online on a courseware site. However, be conscientious of the software students are most likely to have on their computers; files with the extension .doc, .xls, .pdf should be readable by most students. Because both courseware sites use password protection to give access only to students in the course, faculty can post material like journal articles or songs without copyright infringement. Posting pages in courseware is similar to making a webpage: the file must first be uploaded to the appropriate courseware server folder, then the page must be made viewable by linking it within your courseware site. Both courseware packages utilize obvious buttons to significantly streamline this process. A CET workshop held on 12/12/05 and led by Prof. Karen Jacobs of Sargent College, provided suggestions for using courseware - with CourseInfo as the model - effectively. A summary of the workshop is available. A comparison of WebCT and CourseInfo is available from WebCentral. People.bu.eduBU faculty, staff, students, and organizations can create and publish webpages on people.bu.edu. An application must be completed after which a home page file named “index.html” will be put in your Web directory. In addition to creating personal webpages, instructors also can create interactive webpages for classes. Example course webpages might include a syllabus with links to online scholarly articles, streaming audio or video, or simulations. Note that posting copyrighted material on a public website is copyright infringement. To properly post copyrighted material, instructors must use password protection for that material so that only students in the course may gain access. Courseware packages like WebCT and CourseInfo (both available at BU) make this very easy for the instructor; only students registered for the course can access the courseware site. Most Web pages are formatted with HTML, a simple markup and formatting code that is easy to learn. However, casual web designers may find HTML Editors like Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Contribute, or even Netscape Composer more helpful. These programs allow creation of webpages in WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") format instead of through composing HTML code. WebCentral offers tutorials in HTML, Dreamweaver, and Contribute. Creating PDFsMany file types can be converted to pdfs, including Word documents (.doc), spreadsheets (.xls), and slide presentations (.ppt). Converting documents to pdfs allows users to view the file exactly as you intended; formats will not be lost when the file is opened using software of different versions or with different default settings. Furthermore, pdf file sizes are smaller than the file in their original file formats. Because of these qualities, posting pdfs to Courseware sites and sending pdfs as attachments is a beneficial method of getting information to students. However, be aware that a pdf cannot be modified once it is created; the original file must be used to make changes. This is a serious concern when sending spreadsheet-style data to students. In order to read a file, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, available free for download. In order to produce a pdf, a full version of Adobe Acrobat must be installed on your computer. Then, when you want to make a pdf, select "Print" and choose "Acrobat Distiller" as your printer. Adobe Acrobat is available for purchase from University Computers; BU also has an Adobe Campus License, so check with your department administrator about purchasing Adobe Acrobat. Powerpoint and Student Response SystemsPowerpoint and other presentation software packages allow the instructor to show notes, images, animations, and other electronic media to the class. Furthermore, Powerpoint slides can be posted either on the course website or a courseware page as in WebCT or CourseInfo. Posting slides in advance of a class meeting allows students to bring printouts of the slides to lecture and write notes in the margins. They can also listen more intently to the lecturer and review the slides after class. Students may not have Powerpoint on their computers, so it is good practice to convert the slides to html or pdf and then post both the Powerpoint and other format online. Powerpoint has its drawbacks, and therefore should be avoided if a class does not lend itself to that format. One problem is that composing a Powerpoint lecture can occupy an inordinate amount of the instructor's time. Another is the temptation to cram too much material into the lecture, causing students to copy madly the notes while only barely listening to the instructor. Instructors should design their presentations to leave ample time for interaction with the students to discuss the material. Powerpoint can, on the other hand, promote student interactions if used judiciously. Many instructors incorporate student response systems ("clickers" and a receiver plugged into a PC) into their Powerpoint lectures. After discussion of a topic, a Powerpoint slide poses a multiple-choice question that requires application of the material or expression of opinion about a topic to be discussed. The students respond using their clickers, as in a quiz show. The instructor then views a bar graph showing the frequency of selection of each response choice. The CET has two sets of 32 clickers +receiver (made by eInstruction) for small classes and one set with 100 clickers for a moderately large class. These are available for instructors to borrow for a week or two in order to determine whether the system is advantageous for their classes. Contact the CET if you wish to try it out. Maintaining Online MaterialThere are a variety of ways that an instructor can use to post course material online. See the page Maintaining Material Online. |
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August 31, 2006 |