"Do-It-Yourself Creation of Internet Courses of Instruction" W. R. Klemm "I'd rather do it myself!" is the cry of frustration. And frustration is first cousin to teaching, especially teaching in high-tech environments. Soon after I got the notion of creating an Internet course, the emerging frustrations led me to decide to do it myself. Let me share with you what I learned along that journey. If you cannot answer this question, don't create a Web course. Sometimes, professors create Web courses because it is a "hip" thing to do, or because administrators pressure them to do so. At the University of Washington two years ago administrative pressures to create Web courses caused 900 professors to sign a protest letter to the Governor. At York University in Toronto, Canada, professors went on strike for two months over the same issue. As these professors correctly perceived, creating Web courses can be a burden. Just to do it for its own sake is insufficient reason. Internet courses take a lot of technical support and more than the usual amount of professor time in interacting one-on-one with students. Also, teachers have to change their style and basic ways of teaching. Legitimate reasons for Web courses do exist. They all begin with an identified clientele. Certain expertise may be needed by people who otherwise have no access; for example, oil workers in Venezuela need petroleum engineering courses, in-service K-12 teachers need formal course work in their subject-matter disciplines, ranchers in West Texas need agribusiness courses. In short, the justification for Internet courses is to provide access to those that do not have it. Another reason for having an identified clientele is that the course has to be marketed. Given the thousands of on-line courses available, the competition is fierce. Cataloging and publicity are also problems. There is no national registry for on-line courses. Typically, a student has to check out the Web sites of universities one at a time. On-line courses often cost more than regular courses, because distance education technology fees are tacked on to the regular tuition charges. In my case, I created a course "Science and Technology Practices and Policies in Biomedical Research," mainly because I thought it would be a neat thing to do. That was not good enough. Where was my market? Twenty students did sign up, but all but one were resident students who had schedule conflicts or who took the course out of curiosity. Now, I am homing in on K-12 science teachers, who should have the interest and motivation to pursue more science literacy without leaving home and work to do so. Why Do It Yourself In my experience, a main reason to do most of the work myself in creating Web courses is that I ended up having to do a lot anyway. Having a third party involved is inconvenient. They are not always around when you want them. The time it takes for you to explain what you want them to do can be as long as the time it takes for you to do it yourself. Then there is always fine tuning of the Web-site content. A conscientious teacher continuously finds things to add or modify. Running to a third part to get all these little editing touches accomplished is a nuisance. Getting Started The most important thing about getting started is to get started early. When I created my course, it took the better part of a year. It was a part-time effort, sandwiched in among all the other things I have to do. But those constraints will probably be yours too. AND my course was converted from an existing course. It did not have to be built from the ground up. Also, I already knew, more or less, how to build Web pages, and I had a student helper. Thus, the other point about getting started is to start learning a Web site creation and management tool, such as Front Page. You can learn details as you go along with the course creation, lest you be overwhelmed with the process. Notice that I do not mention using the "turn-key" systems, such as Web CT, because these are usually licensed and maintained at the institutional level, and thus you are not really "doing it yourself." In my experience, mastery of Front Page or some equivalent Web software gives the teacher a lot of freedom and control that are not available in the turn-key systems. Finally, you have to make arrangements with a Web host, either one at your institution or a commercial Internet Service Provider host. Typically, a Web Master will provide space on the server and create the login access, with the rest being left up to the teacher. Planning Among the things you should think long and hard about are:
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Activity |
Current Course |
Internet Course |
Syllabus (rules, procedures) |
yes |
yes |
Schedule |
yes |
yes |
Announcements |
yes |
yes |
Lecture |
yes |
no |
Assignments, individual |
yes |
yes |
Assignments, group |
yes |
yes |
Quizzes |
yes |
yes |
Final Exam |
yes |
yes |
Grade Book |
yes |
yes |
Interactions with students |
yes |
yes |
Interactions among students |
yes |
yes |
Items in bold face are activities that must be done much differently in an Internet course |
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E-mail interactions Real-time on-line chats? *Compulsive lecturers are finding ways to simulate lectures via Web pages with "streaming" audio and video technologies. But why go to such bother, when the Web environment opens the opportunity for more active and student-centered learning?
Hire a developer? Do it yourself
Summary of Lessons Learned My experiences in creating my first Internet course have taught me the following lessons: 1. Have a good reason to construct an Internet course. Have you identified a market? Is it a market you can reach to inform people about your course? 2. Convert an existing course, rather than create a new one. The first effort at creating an Internet course is difficult enough as it is. Don't overwhelm yourself by having to create new subject matter at the same time you are building an Internet course. Leverage what you already know and do to facilitate the conversion to Internet format. 3. Plan and initiate the effort well in advance of "delivery" date. Assuming that you have to continue your usual duties, it will take a year or more to convert an Internet course. 4. Content does not have to be on the Web site. Too many Web page enthusiasts think that all the course content has to be on the Web site. Not so. You can still use a textbook. You can still assign readings, which can be sent by U.S. post to the students. You can use material on the Web that was created by others. You do NOT have to re-invent the wheel. If you insist on providing the content yourself, I suggest that you do it in the form of short tutorials, that you can construct quickly and which can accumulate over multiple semesters of teaching the course. (See, for example, the mix of tutorials and other activities at my site: www.cvm.tamu.edu/bims470). 5. Change your teaching style and philosophy. You can no longer "stand and deliver" lectures. You need not write the equivalent of a Web-based book. The Internet course environment is ideal for weaning you away from old lecturing practices into the more nourishing and satisfying world of instructional management in which you help students find, comprehend, integrate, and apply knowledge. 6. Make it clear what students are supposed to DO. Be explicit with goals, objectives, assignments. I also found it helpful to provide on-line, "flash-card" quizzes with our new system, Get Smart! (www.foruminc.com/getsmart) 7. Frills can consume more time and effort than they are worth. Fancy graphics and special features reduce the amount of time you have available for the really important things you must have in an Internet course. 8. Letting students set their own schedules is a mistake. Too many students will put everything off until the last minute. This also destroys any attempt at group work, because some students will be very conscientious and prompt, and they will become frustrated and angry with their procrastinating team members. Set rigid deadlines for every major activity. 9. Put the burden of communication on the students. Construct activities and assignments that require students to interact with each other. Provide a bulletin board or conferencing system (we invented FORUM98 for that purpose - www.foruminc.com) where students interact asynchronously on line and at the same time produce academic deliverables based on assignments. Don't allow "lurking" where students only read the commentary of others. See my paper on "Eight Ways to Get Students More Engaged in On-line Conferences" (http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/wklemm /Eight%20Ways/8waystoengage.htm). 10. Automate as much as you can. One device that I found useful was an automated way to provide feedback on assignments. My reading assignments included open-ended questions posted on the Web. Each student was to send an e-mail with the answers. Upon receipt, I logged completion of the activity, and replied with a boilerplate answer that included all the key points I expected students to provide at exam times. I supplied similar boilerplate feedback on other kinds of assignments, such as experimental design and statistics questions. 11. Do as much of the course administration as you can. Delegating work to others means inevitably that they are not available every time you want their services. Of course, get help when you need it. Web Masters usually can provide useful tips on page construction. You will want to recruit out-of-town proctors for examinations. Student assistants can help moderate on-line discussions. |
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