April 2001 — Features
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Designing and Delivering an Online Course for K-12 Educators
The Web and e-mail were the two primary media used for content delivery and interaction. The Web-based materials were stored on a single server that was password-protected but accessible by all students. Most of the students accessed the materials from both school and their homes. This created a mixed mode of access, as they typically had high-speed (T1) access from their schools but only 56K dial-up access from home. Although high-speed access is the ideal, this mixed mode worked well as students quickly learned to schedule time at school to work on those aspects of the course in which high-speed access was most useful.
The course was delivered and managed using WebCT software that is used for other online courses at Stevens. The WebCT system provided most of the basic course management tools necessary to administer a distance education course, and was flexible enough to allow a significant amount of customization. The system included a student tracking and grading capability, real time chat environment, bulletin board, whiteboard, calendar, and file management system.
Impact of Course on Students
For all but one of the students in Internet Applications in Science Education, this was their first experience taking a Web-based distance learning course. All of the students were practicing middle or high school teachers who had enrolled in the course for many of the same reasons: convenience, course content, Stevens'/CIESE's reputation, the opportunity to expand their knowledge, and the chance to further their careers.
Most of the students had taken other traditional face-to-face graduate courses over the course of their careers, and some had even taken face-to-face courses that focused on similar content (offered by CIESE or other professional development organizations). All of the students enrolled in this course had a very positive experience and agreed that this online course was comparable to or better than courses they had taken in face-to-face environments.
Some students attributed their positive experiences to the format and convenience of the course. They could access class notes, resources, the instructor, and the grader on an as-needed basis. They could better control the pace of their own learning, spending as much or as little time as they needed on any of the topics being covered in the course, depending on their prior experience level. Others attributed their positive experiences to the content and organization of the course itself. They had not been able to find this type of course offered elsewhere, and it provided them with the opportunity to focus on Internet-based material that was relevant, timely, and on the cutting edge for their own science classes. These students felt that this particular quality of the course contributed greatly to their success.
Some students were undecided about which type of learning environment they preferred: online or face-to-face. Some felt that a traditional classroom setting would have forced them to remain on a more disciplined schedule instead of relying on a self-disciplined regimen that, admittedly, was challenging for some. Others missed the social interaction afforded by meeting with real people on a regular basis. However, even these undecided students felt that the convenience that an online course offered weighed heavily in its favor despite some of the other drawbacks.
