Universal Design for Online Education

This chapter will discuss accessibility issues related to online education. It will provide rationale for designing online courses that cater to different levels of functional ability. It will also present an overview of the challenges faced by students with disabilities in accessing and interacting with online course materials and activities. In order to address the potential barriers to full participation, national and international guidelines will be examined, with particular emphasis on their implications for specific course components. In addition, mechanisms for validation of web accessibility will be suggested and resources will be listed for those interested in obtaining further information on the topic.

Faculty Participation in Distance Education Programs

Universities around the globe are putting Distance Education (DE) in place, often through administrative choice. However, if a DE program is to be successful, faculty must be involved. This change is multidimensional in that established systems may need to change to support development and delivery of courses through DE technologies. This chapter presents results from two related studies that attempt to answer two questions that should be asked and answered before starting a DE program: (1) What factors are considered motivating or inhibiting to faculty for participating in DE? and (2) Which compensation models support DE make sense?

Design and Evaluation of an Internet-Based Personalized Instructional System for Social Psychology

Two iterations of an Internet-based Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) course are described. The course was designed to capitalize on the unique advantages of the PSI system while using the Internet to overcome some of its noted administrative drawbacks. Unlike previous computer-based PSI courses, the asynchronous nature of the Internet and the automated features built into Blackboard made it possible for students to attend lectures, to take quizzes and examinations, and to communicate with the instructor and other class members at any time from any networked computer. This reduced the labor intensiveness previously associated with PSI while training students to learn through distance education. The combination of PSI and the Internet produced an effective instructional strategy, reviving Keller’s (1968) original PSI model while setting the stage both for more advanced PSI research and Internet-based instruction.

Teaching a Studies-in-Race Course Online

Colleges and universities are increasingly using the latest communication technologies to offer courses to students on campus and beyond. This chapter is designed to answer whether a course dealing with the potentially volatile issue of race can be effectively taught as an online class. The course, Race and Racism in the News (JPRA 320), was designed in 1997 by examining the literature pertaining to teaching online/distance courses and studies-in-race courses, as well as incorporating studies concerned with preserving the anonymity of control groups and those that looked at differences between face-to-face and computer-mediated discussions. This course was developed to effectively incorporate online instruction with race studies aimed at teaching racial sensitivity to journalism students. The course has been offered seven times between 1997 and 2002. Student feedback over the five-year period indicates that such a course can advance the national dialogue on race. Many White students, in particular, said in the required end-of-course survey that the course anonymity provided them with a freedom from political correctness and they could participate more honestly than they would have in the traditional face-to-face classroom setting. Also, students have said they are now aware of the subtle ways race impacts the coverage of news. The effectiveness of this course could have implications beyond the classroom. It is believed that students sensitive to the subtleties of racism in news coverage will make better media professionals in our increasingly multicultural world. In 1997, former President Clinton challenged the country to engage in a race dialogue. This kind of course can be added to the mix of ways in which such a dialogue can be started and maintained.

The Uses and Impact of Academic Listservs in University Teaching

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact academic listservs were making on teaching at Temple University when used in conjunction with face-to-face courses. Since the study was the first of its kind, an exploratory qualitative design was used to see if themes or patterns emerged. Results indicated that listservs were primarily used for housekeeping activities, although instructors voiced their desire to tap into the potential of listserv technology. The overriding discovery was that most instructors were using listservs without a predetermined teaching goal. A demographic profile of professors likely to use listservs is also included.

Media Entrepreneurship as an Online Course

This chapter describes the conversion of a traditional classroom course to one taught online. Creating a Media Business has been part of the Business curriculum within a broad, traditional Mass Communications major, and its objective has been to introduce students to the theory and practice of starting an independent media enterprise. The attempt to transform any traditional academic course into a virtual one will invariably entail redefining pedagogical issues such as requirements, assignments, participation, and evaluation. Certain course content and objectives are more amenable to both the opportunities and constraints posed by the Internet. Our course was enhanced by the conversion because of its suitability for transfer from the tangible to the virtual environment. More specifically, for Creating a Media Business, the Internet is not merely a channel of information transmission, but very often an important, if not essential, part of the very business about which the students are learning.

Creating and Using Multiple Media in an Online Course

The adaptation of a traditional, face-to-face course to an online format presents both challenges and opportunities. A face-to-face fundamentals course treating the science of musical sound and the methods used to code and transform musical sound using digital computers was adapted for online delivery. The history of the course and the composition of its audience are discussed, as are the decisions to create movies, web pages, electronic mail, and a paper textbook for the course. Practical choices for technology, which reflect the conflicting benefits of choosing simple versus more sophisticated technology, are outlined and the reactions of the students to these choices are discussed. An anecdotal comparison between an online and a face-to-face course section is offered, along with ideas for future development.

Evaluating a Distance Education Program

In higher education, distance learning initiatives are very linked to the overall institution’s educational mission. For such an initiative to succeed, a carefully designed distance education evaluation plan is necessary. This chapter describes key distance education program evaluation variables, using the Temple University’s OnLine Learning Program as an example. In addition to describing the purpose of conducting a distance program evaluation and illustrating evaluation methods, the results from surveys and focus groups regarding students’ satisfaction with their distance learning experiences are shared. We consider that a good distance education program evaluation plan should also impact the institution’s general education policies and procedures.

Education Mirrors Industry

Internet distance education is analyzed as a natural consequence of fin de siècle industrial transformations. From this perspective, previous distance- and technologically-based educational innovations are discussed, not as having failed, but as not matching prevailing economic and social conditions. It is argued that in the evolution from a manufacturing economy, in which standard educational practices are based, to an information economy, in which greater autonomy, collaboration, flexibility, and a project orientation to work are the norm, educational practices will either follow the lead of industrial organizations or risk irrelevance. Implications for adapting educational practices to new economic realities and developing new research streams are presented, especially in terms of matching instructional technology to educational outcomes, virtual collaboration, and media naturalness effects.

Certain about Uncertainty

Many students face the prospect of working in teams with apprehension. This feeling is further magnified when most or all of the sensory cues are removed in the virtual environment. We argue that by adopting specific structural and situational strategies, instructors can substantially reduce the levels of uncertainty that usually surround the idea of virtual teamwork in students’ minds. Such strategies are drawn from an exploration of the notion of trust as a key element for the successful performance of teams, as well as on a discussion of the concepts of swift trust, community of practice, and control as guiding principles for the establishment of practices that help build mutual reliance among virtual team members in an online classroom. We conclude with some suggestions that can be implemented at the micro level of the course and the macro level of the institution hosting distance and online learning experiences.