This is the seventh installment of the homepage@usd.edu list.
Your comments and/or suggestions are appreciated. Please direct them to
Erica Young - eyoung@usd.edu.
Developing Online Course Material at the University of South Dakota
Internet Services provides several ways for instructors to develop and
advertise online course material.
The Courses Server provides storage for course materials. The main web
site, Course Homepages (http://courses.usd.edu) provides a centralized
database of information on courses offered through USD that have
material online. Anyone may browse the database by discipline or
college/school and view a listing of all classes in that category. The
search engine finds specific courses based on the instructor’s name,
course number, etc. Please note, however, that if the course is not
stored on the Courses Server, it is the responsibility of the instructor
to notify Internet Services that they would like to have their course
listed in the database.
The advantages of placing online course materials on the Courses Server
are:
1. Material on the Courses Server does not affect an individual’s
storage quota for their personal home directory. This allows
instructors to develop extensive materials for as many courses as they
wish without worrying about running out of space.
2. Course materials are still owned by their instructor and are just as
easy to access as if they were in the instructor’s home directory.
3. Instructors may choose to develop their courses using any method of
HTML composition that they choose – from writing it themselves to
setting up a FrontPage web. To set up a FrontPage web, instructors must
contact Internet Services at webmaster@usd.edu.
For instructors who are interested in taking their online course
materials to the next level, WebCT is available. According to the
company’s own description, ”WebCT is a tool that facilitates the
creation of sophisticated World Wide Web-based educational
environments.” WebCT provides many tools for course management
including a calendar, message board, chat rooms, white boards, and the
ability to put lectures, notes and syllabi online. It also allows
instructors to securely grade assignments, track grades, give quizzes,
and survey students. Students may also securely view their grades, and
give online presentations.
WebCT is very powerful and easy to use. CIDD offers classes on WebCT
throughout the year. To find out more, see their web page at
http://www.usd.edu/cidd/webct/webct.html.
Instructor’s can request a WebCT course and find out other useful
information about putting courses online through the Faculty Tools
available on the courses server (http://courses.usd.edu/faculty/). When
a WebCT course is created, the information is automatically added to the
database on the Courses Server. Instructors that do not wish to have a
WebCT course or have their course content located on the Courses Server
can still have their course materials listed in the courses database and
searchable from http://courses.usd.edu/. To have a course listed, see
Faculty Tools.
Please pass this message on to anyone in your office or department, who
is interested in putting course material online.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 18 2000 - 14:24:38 CDT