Destination: Online Course Platforms

Foundation

Creating a course in an online course platform (also called Course Management Systems) gives you all the technological tools you might need. Whether you use one depends upon how well you like the interface of the platform, and whether it serves the needs you have. Most online course management systems provide similar capabilities:

• a bulletin board function (multiple bulletin boards possible)
• a real-time chat feature (multiple conferences possible)
• file upload capabilities
• email communication to class members from within the program
• areas for announcements, course information, assignments, and links
• a testing capability
• gradebook feature
• the ability to track some features of student use of the program

Online course platforms provide anywhere/anytime access for students to access information and do work related to your class. Most all CMSs are designed to be compatible with different browsers and operating systems (even at low dial-up speed), so access should not be a problem. Although each differs slightly, most CMSs are also designed to be easy to use, so you won't have to spend a lot of time teaching students how to use the program.

Practice

I recommend initiating your students to whatever online course platform you use together with them in the computer classroom. That way you can walk them through the log in process and show them the key features you will be using. A follow up session in a week or two after you have been using the program will help clear up any other access and use issues.

WebCT
Our community college district has a license with WebCT, one of the best known and most used CMS applications. The program has been plagued with sporadic unreliability (though that has improved). If you decide to use WebCT with one of your classes, the support staff here will create a class for you and download all your students rosters into the program. WebCT is also a bit hard to set up as an instructor, so I recommend that you attend a few of the training sessions about using it at the Instructional Innovation Center.  

Getting a section created
--Visit the ACCD Faculty Support site for WebCT (http://www.accd.edu/is/html/faculty3.htm  ).
--Click the "Request Services" link and follow the directions for filling out an Erequest. Within 24 hours, you should receive an email with instructions for accessing your newly created class.  
--You can also tell our department Secretary, Annette, what sections you want WebCT courses created for you. She will put in the request for you.

WebCT/Eportal Integration
WebCT and Eportal are now integrated, which means that you can access your WebCT class though Eportal. All you students, also, will automatically be enrolled into your WebCT class.

You may have to contact district to make sure that your classes in the "My Classes" section of Eportal are the WebCT ones rather than the Eportal classes. Call 220-1616 and ask for Amita to help you.

enCore MOO
Another alternative is to use an encore MOO like Nouspace as your online class platform. The advantage of MOOs are that they are more interactive and allow for more creativity in composing a learning environment. Students are able to "see" and talk to each other online as opposed to a program like WebCT where two students could be logged in to the site at the same time and not know it. Every "room" in an Encore MOO (like Nouspace) has a text chat area on the left and a webpage graphical interface on the right. Also, all users of a MOO can create their own spaces and objects in the MOO--that means you can create a classroom space exactly like you want it and you can even have students create their own spaces for class projects. The down side is that the program is more manual--you have to do more work to set up and maintain the learning environment.

If you are adept at creating web pages and you want more freedom with your online learning environment, I encourage you to explore the possibilities of MOO. Contact me (Lennie Irvin) to set up a user account and begin creating your own learning space.

Moodle
Moodle is an open source online learning environment that has many interesting features. Contact Lennie Irvin if you have questions and an interest in Moodle.