Teaching via
the Internet
A Workshop Sponsored
by
Institute for Teaching
and Learning
The California State
University
Teacher-Scholar
Summer Conference
98
California State
University,
Long Beach
New Media Center
July 6-7, 1998
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Course Elements:
TEXT
You need to decide whether you will
use
-
a print textbook for your course, supplemented
by on-line elements,
-
on-line readings in place of a print text,
or
-
some combination of print and on-line readings.
A few publishers are now experimenting
with Web sites they produce and maintain to supplement widely used textbooks
for popular courses. Some publishers have also experimented with CD-ROMs
sold with their textbooks. See what's available in your field to determine
whether you could use these existing technologies, rather than developing
your own from scratch. Unfortunately, these experiments seem to be limited
to a few courses with huge enrollments nationwide to support the development
costs (e.g., introductory texts in political science and history).
Print textbook
Advantages:
-
The copyright issues have been solved by
the author/editor of your print textbook, just as they are in a traditional
course.
-
Finding and organizing material for the
course will be much easier if you continue to use a print text.
Disadvantages:
-
Students unfamiliar with the Internet might
try to get through the course without learning the on-line skills necessary
to use your Internet elements; the print textbook tempts some into thinking
it's all they need to learn.
-
Print texts rapidly grow out-of-date in
some fields and you will forfeit the opportunities of up-to-the-minute
course materials possible on the Internet.
On-line reading
Advantages:
-
You can take advantage of the most up-to-the-minute
material available in your field and can add/revise your readings during
the semester as new materials become available.
-
Your students will be forced to master
the necessary technical skills to participate in the course.
-
You can experiment with the use of hyperlinks
between your assigned readings and other materials to take advantage of
the WWW, and making reading more interesting and interactive.
Disadvantages:
-
Copyright restrictions might make it difficult
for you to put appropriate reading on your own site.
-
Page numbers for print-outs of on-line
readings will vary, depending on the options set by each user for font
size, type style, margins, etc. In order to make reference to certain passages
in the reading in your class discussions and assignments, you will need
to devise an alternative citation system - sections, chapters, and/or paragraphs
should be numbered, e.g.
-
Although you can set up hyperlinks to assigned
reading on other people's sites to include copyrighted material, it might
be difficult to construct an entire course syllabus this way. There are
still huge gaps in the resources available on the WWW.
Examples:
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