The Challenge of Teaching with Technology
CourseInfo Eases the Task of Putting Courses Online

"When we decided to use technology in a traditional course, we found that we had to rethink not only the ways in which we present material, but the whole course structure. Teaching with technology is complicated and requires more than creating electronic materials; the technological component must have pedagogical value and help improve the learning process and student performance," says Lora Shapiro, Mathematics.1

For many faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, however, the very mechanics of putting course components online has been a challenge. In the past, instructors have had to rely on various products to accomplish their goals, often sacrificing interactivity or using software residing on another institution's server. Many instructors have grown frustrated trying to apply HTML code to their materials. HTML conversion packages have not been universally available, and there have been no central services to support the preparing and housing of course information.

Now, Pitt faculty have access to software that offers a combination of instructional options, easing the transition of teaching materials into an online environment. The Software and Networked Information Working Group of the Executive Committee for Academic Computing approved licensure of CourseInfo last spring. This fall, 19 Pitt faculty are using CourseInfo to enhance learning in their courses (http://courseweb.pitt.edu/). CourseInfo is course management software that functions as a "container" for course information and documents; it provides tools for discussion, quizzes, file transfers, external links and faculty information. Frank Giarratani, FAS Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, believes that the standardized look and feel of CourseInfo materials benefits the students.

Documents can be typed directly into CourseInfo, or they can be transferred using routine word processing packages. Students can submit assignments via a class "drop box," and instructors can provide feedback, all online. Groups or individual students have common work areas for creating projects. An online gradebook from which information can be extracted and used for analysis is available to faculty. Some instructors have elected to put only portions of text materials into this web-based environment. Others are charging forward into this technological arena and making use of all the features of CourseInfo.

But what can a student expect when registering for a class with online materials? Review several sites from the World Lecture Hall (http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/index.html) and you'll find that the concept of "having a course online" varies greatly. Putting syllabi and lecture notes on the web is the most common response. Some faculty produce extensive notes pages, list content-related links to web sites, or encourage e-mail office hours. These variances generally reflect the faculty member's understanding of how computer technology can improve teaching. Most efforts toward online courses serve the purpose of either (a) increasing communication and learning for students, or (b) redistributing routine administrative tasks such as reproducing and handing out materials.

As a major step towards using an online environment, 23 faculty from the Oakland, Bradford, and Johnstown campuses participated in week-long training programs sponsored by the Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education (CIDDE) and by Computing and Information Services (CIS). Participants learned how to use CourseInfo and other supporting software such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to develop their online materials. Throughoutthe week, workshop participants transferred course rationale, syllabi, assignments and notes into the electronic mode, thereby archiving information normally handed out in class.

A common first attempt that instructors make towards online teaching is to move text documents typically distributed or displayed in class onto a website. Anticipating that students will flock to websites, discouraged instructors complain that their efforts yield little in increased communication or understanding from students. Last year, CIDDE surveyed students with access to online course materials in an effort to gage how they were using the information. The majority of students preferred to have documents such as syllabi and assignments distributed in class, with a backup on the computer. They also liked to print out online lecture notes before class to use as a tool for note taking. Contrary to the fears expressed by some instructors, students reported that the availability of notes does not deter them from coming to class. More than half of the students preferred to access information by printing it onto a hard copy rather than reading it from a computer screen. Although students who participated in computer-based discussion groups reported that the interaction was more challenging than their usual face-to-face classroom exchange, they also wanted these opportunities to be a worthwhile use of their time, not duplicating what could take place in the classroom.

Whereas CourseInfo has helped to reduce the technical challenge of creating and maintaining course web pages, faculty now face a different challenge: the integration of meaningful web activities into instruction. When instructors describe how technology changes the way they teach, many are referring to the paradigm shift towards a learner-centered environment. Learner-centered instructional techniques help learners connect new information to what they already know, to seek meaningful knowledge and evaluate their own thinking processes (Bonk & Reynolds, 1997). The student is actively involved in acquiring information through reading, writing, discussion, and other instructional activities that emphasize the student's responsibility in learning, while the teacher facilitates and guides the learning process. Using technology is not a prerequisite for incorporating learner-centered strategies into teaching. In fact, attempting to move traditional classroom materials online without redesigning activities to challenge and engage students can result in file bits of cyberstorage, sometimes used and easily forgotten. In contrast, planning activities that utilize the strengths of the computer can empower the students to perform tasks that are difficult to accomplish in other ways.

Moving towards a learner-centered environment challenges conventional notions of how, when and where teaching should occur. For example, Joe Grabowski, Chemistry, has decided to hold a weekend "group chat" with his students to provide online help with the assignment due on Monday. (See The Seven Principles of Good Practice in Teaching.)

Curtis Bonk from Indiana University (http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/smart_paper.html) describes how he has restructured his large educational psychology course so that it is almost entirely web based. He and his students interact through cyberspace and meet in the same physical location only once at the end of the course for student presentations. Bonk has a semester's worth of pedagogical activities coordinated through the web, including assigning student e-mail pals based on common career goals. The pals provide feedback on their partners' work or postings to the discussion board. This type of a peer mentoring relationship results in reflective writing activities throughout the semester that can be hyperlinked online to student portfolios. Bonk also assigns students specific roles to take during weekly class discussions, and incorporates video-conferences with students from other countries.

Ellen Cohn, Communication Science & Disorders, plans to use CourseInfo to gain the perspective of people outside the classroom walls. "I intend to invite faculty from outside of the class, or students with a disability who cannot come into Oakland to participate in a case analysis. I want students to work together as a group on clinical cases to formulate objectives. Overall, I hope that access to each other will increase as well as access to me." Cohn also plans to incorporate the survey component into her class, initially in the form of a pre-course questionnaire asking about prior clinical experience and career preferences. The results of surveys can be published online so students can obtain a sense of their responses in respect to others. "The surveys will let me learn about student competencies and help me to better understand and plan for my students."

Rethinking, designing and developing an online course is a time consuming and iterative process. The online experience generally evolves as students provide feedback and instructors test new strategies and methods. CourseInfo is currently being used by Pitt faculty on a pilot basis to enable CIS and CIDDE to evaluate support requirements. It is expected to be more widely available in spring term 99-2. Interested instructors and departments should contact Nick Laudato at 624-3335 or e-mail laudato+@pit.edu.

Bonk, C. (1998 ). Pedagogical Activities on the "Smartweb": Mentoring undergraduate educational psychology students. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Annual Meeting, April 14, San Diego, CA. Retrieved September 11, 1998 from the World Wide Web:

http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/smart_paper.html

Bonk, C., & Reynolds, T. (1997). Learner -centered web instruction for higher-order thinking, teamwork, and apprenticeship. In B. H. Khan (Ed.), Web-based Instruction (pp. 167-178). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Notes

1. Lora Shapiro and Beverly Michael, Mathematics have collaborated on the Developing Quantitative Literary through Algebra project.