THEME - A Multipart Series: Technology Support Issues...

UPFRONT -About Support Issues, You Said...
FOCUS -Out-a-Sight Support!
FROM THE DISTANCE EDUCATION CLEARINGHOUSE: NETNEWS -Resources for Program and Course Information
UW CAMPUS HILIGHTS - UW Campus Information
READINGS -Support's in This Issue, Virtual University Gazette
SOME STATS - Did You Know That Between 1995-1997...
ETC. - Corporate Universities Becoming Big Business, Academic Online Publishing, Net Trust
SSPI SCHOLARSHIPS -International Scholarship Awards Deadline
NEW TECH TRENDS - School of the Future - The Netherlands, OmniSight
NEW ON THE LIST - New Subscribers This Month
FYI - News, Conferences and Institutes
ENDNOTE - The Masie Seminar - A Remarkable Experience

JUNE ISSUE FOCUS - A Multipart Series: Technology Support Issues

 

UPFRONT

"I wanted to comment on your picking support for the subject of future DESIEN issues. Kolbe and Bunker (1997) examined The American Journal of Distance Education between the years 1987-1995 and classified only 2.3% of the articles under student administration and support. Support has not received the attention in the journals. Some of this is due to the pragmatic nature of support, its a service function that gets little attention." (Robert Oehlkers, Instrumentation Tech, Space Science and Engineering).

"Support definitely needs to be brought to the attention of those who make the decisions in both policy and budget. A series on the areas where support is needed will to be extremely valuable." (Terry Wolcum, Consultant Stillwater, MN)

"The topics coming up in DESIEN (on support) sound great!" (Julie M. Hellweg, Director of Credit Outreach, UW-Stevens Point Extension)

Because support happens, for the most part, "behind the scenes" it's more difficult to see how absolutely critical it is. But ask faculty members or trainers what they most need and they'll reply that in addition to incentives they need "support" - technical support, training support, site support, design support... It's a critical area we need to draw attention to. It was good to see in the 1997 Campus Computing Survey that support is beginning to become a pressing priority. (See STATS below - Rosemary Lehman)

 

FOCUS

Out-a-Site Support!
Milly Jones, Manager Program and Site Coordination - ICS, UWEX

One of the most important elements in developing a distance education program is providing support for students, faculty and the technology at the remote sites. Students and participants deserve a high quality experience whether in a traditional classroom or hundreds of miles away in a remote classroom. It takes planning and organization, dedication to students, communication and resourcefulness to provide this support.

At Instructional Communications Systems (ICS) we've found that there are some very important steps to keep in mind in developing support networks at distant locations. First, keep in mind that classrooms should be easily accessible with good parking and other services such as fax machines, VCRs, telephones, and even extra phone lines for modems or other communications hardware available nearby. Although you often may not have control over these factors, it is important to find out what facilities are available for your participants. Never assume there is a VCR in the room to run your tape. Always ask in advance.

Once you have rooms and know what is available in them, identify personnel at each site to assist with technical and administrative functions. There may be distance education support staff at some sites, but more commonly, you will need to develop a relationship with a staff person who takes on this assignment as part of another job. Whatever the case may be, it is imperative to involve site support staff with the details of your program or course from the start. Ongoing communication can eliminate misunderstandings and problems from happening as the program progresses.

Once all personnel are identified at each site, collect all the information you can. You'll need to know phone and fax numbers, email addresses for staff you're working with, shipping and mailing addresses, room size and configuration and information about the technology. Keep that information in an easily accessible place. ICS uses a database to store information about our sites and makes that database available to any of our staff who need to access the information including technicians who operate the programs, schedulers, program coordinators and administrators.

Establish understandable procedures and expectations for the class and the sites involved. Make sure those are communicated with the support staff. Having support staff buy into the goals of the class or program is very important to its success. Be sure to share any changes or updates with the sites and ask for their ideas in planning the program.

Set aside time to train the site support staff in the operation of the technology and in the procedures you'll be using for class delivery. They'll need to know how to administer tests, monitor homework, provide library or resource information and deal with emergencies such as power losses, snow storms and line disconnects. Try to think of every possible scenario in advance. It's guaranteed that something unexpected will come along during the class, but with advance training the site coordinators will be better prepared to think clearly and act calmly in the event of an emergency. It is very helpful to provide training for sites using the technology to be used for the class. The staff gets an opportunity to use the technology and have the experience of being a distance education participant.

Constant communication before your program begins, and for the duration of the course, is vital. ICS uses several methods to keep in contact with more than 200 remote sites. Over 100 ETN sites receive weekly mailings with updates on program changes, schedules and information sheets describing each program. Sites are contacted regularly to update site information. The 72 WisSat satellite downlink sites also receive regular mailings with updates and program information. We have listservs for the compressed video and WisSat sites and email lists for WisView audiographics sites to keep them informed. Everything is also available on the Web for immediate access to the most current information.

Provide easy ways for sites to communicate back to you in the event of emergencies, problems and questions. ICS has a special 800 number for use by students, sites and others. That phone number is published in every piece of information given to students and site support staff and is placed on microphones and other equipment. Encourage sites to have a phone in each distance education classroom for staff and student convenience. If that's not possible, then there should be access to a nearby phone during class time. Always be very clear about who to contact in the event of problems and emergencies and make sure your staff is clear about how to handle trouble calls internally. The ICS 800 number goes directly to the control room technicians, so they can begin correcting any problems immediately.

Keeping in mind these tips and keeping open lines of communication between instructor, administrators and the site coordinators and technicians will help ensure a positive experience for you and your participants.

 

FROM THE DISTANCE EDUCATION CLEARINGHOUSE: NETNEWS

Resources for Program and Course Information

Michele Jacques

The Distance Education Clearinghouse provides links to Wisconsin resources providing program and course information for users statewide. In our recently updated section, located at: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/programs.html you can find links to the following resources:

Catalog of Distance Learning
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/catalog/
Fall 1998 program information is now available, listing over 150 programs and courses offered via distance learning technologies from the University of Wisconsin institutions.

Distance Education Related Resources of the University of Wisconsin
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/uwinfo.htm
This page is a collection of distance education resources created and developed by the campuses of the University of Wisconsin. For example, here you will find links to information about UW-Whitewater's Online MBA program or UW-Eau Claire's Distance Education Services, along with dozens of links to other resources at each of the institutions.

Learning Innovations
http://www.learn.wisconsin.edu/
Learning Innovations implements unique and innovative educational ideas and practices that set the tone for progressive education worldwide.

Extended Degree Programs
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/exdegree.html
Currently, three University of Wisconsin campuses offer Extended Degree Programs: UW-Green Bay (Generalized Studies), UW-Platteville (Business Administration) and UW-Superior (Individualized Major).

Distance Education Professional Development Program (DEPD)
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/depd/cert pro.html
The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Certificate Program is recognized worldwide. It covers all major components of distance education and provides quality resources and hands-on learning.

Creating Interactive Teaching Strategies
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/training/
One of our newest resources: "Creating Interactive Teaching Strategies" provides customized training for compressed video or videoconferencing events. It is developed and designed by Instructional Communications Systems, University of Wisconsin-Extension.

The Program Resources and Courses page of the Distance Education Clearinghouse lists links to sources of program and course information outside of Wisconsin as well. These directories have been compiled by universities, organizations and individuals with distance education knowledge to help you locate specific course information from various institutions worldwide. Our collection of directories of courses offered worldwide can be found at: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/catalog/other.htm

If you see needed additions to our list of resources for program and course information, please contact us at the Distance Education Clearinghouse.

Michele Jacques
Distance Education Clearinghouse
Information Resources Manager
jacques@ics.uwex.edu

 

CAMPUS HILIGHTS
(Send campus distance education HILIGHTS to: lehman@uwex.edu)

UW-COLLEGES - Starting the last week of July, the 13 UW-Colleges will receive 4 hours of vendor training for faculty and support personnel planning to use the colleges new videoconferencing system in the fall. Following this training, Instructional Communications Systems (ICS) will provide additional training, building on their two-day spring workshop. Hardware has now been installed at a majority of the colleges sites and there is a sense of excitement as fall draws near.

UW-COOPERATIVE EXTENSION - This UWEX Division will be offering its satellite downlink sites to local groups when the Society for Non-Profit Organizations offers a PBS/ALS satellite certificate program through its recently created Learning Institute. The 8-part program piloted in the spring, will be offered this fall. It includes such subjects as: strategic planning, resource development, board development, marketing, financial empowerment... It 's a program that will be helpful to nonprofit board members, management and administration. For further information contact Char Bell at: 608-264-9730.

UW-EXTENSION, ICS - What do UW-Milwaukee education faculty, Pennsylvania Power and Light Nuclear trainers and professional staff members of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services have in common? They all wanted to learn how to design and conduct interactive video courses, programs and meetings - and they tapped ICS expertise to help them.

During the weeks of June 15 and June 22, these three groups, located at their remote sites, participated in a highly interactive 16-hour videoconferencing (VC) workshop. They talked about their concerns, explored the medium's potential and benefits, learned to feel more comfortable with VC, discovered the 7 Key Areas for VC Success, developed and presented a 15-minute micro-session and...had fun!

While VC Workshops are given regularly by ICS Distance Education Specialists Bruce Dewey and Rosemary Lehman, this one was "a first" for several reasons. It incorporated groups from diverse organizations at one time, included a newly designed VC Web site to provide pre-workshop orientation and post-workshop information, utilized cross-site interviews and blended in a wider variety of other media: fax (for activity information), email (for participant feedback), audio (to bring in a guest expert) and video (for case studies and presentations.)

According to Bruce and Rosemary, "As we continue to develop these VC workshops, we're beginning to realize the richness that divergent backgrounds can bring to the experience and the power that use of multiple media can add."

UW-PLATTEVILLE - The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is in the process of hiring an individual to work with faculty in designing courses for web-based instruction. The title of the position is Information Processing Consultant. Full information about the position can be found at http://vms.www.uwplatt.edu/~pers/employ.htm. If you have questions contact Dawn Drake at: 608-342-1547 or email at: Drake@uwplatt.edu.

 

READINGS
Support's In This Issue
Virtual University Gazette

A new issue of The Journal of Library Services for Distance Education has just been published at http://www.westga.edu/library/jlsde/

CONTENTS

• NetLinks: Piloting Online Professional Development for Networked Learner Support, by Sarah Ashton and Philippa Levy
  
• Asynchronous Delivery Support for Distance Learning: A Strategic Opportunity for Libraries, by Don Beagle
  
• One State's Approach: The Florida Distance Learning Library Initiative, by Tracey Burdick
  
• Thousands Still Shoeless: Developing Library Services in Support of Distance Education: A Case Study, by Cesar Caballero and Henry T. Ingle
  
• Flexible Learning and the Library: The Challenge, by Judith Clark and Ron Store
  
• Distance Learning and Copyright, by Laura Gasaway
  
• Delivering Course Materials to Distance Learners over the World Wide Web: Statistical Data Summary, by Nancy Schiller and Nancy Cunningham

BOOK REVIEWS:

• Searching & Researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web, by Ernest Ackermann and Karen Hartman.
  
• Libraries and Other Academic Support Services for Distant Learning, edited by Carolyn A. Snyder and James W. Fox.
  
• Library Services to Distance Learners in the Commonwealth: a Reader, edited by Elizabeth A. Watson and Neela Jagannathan
  
• Perspectives on Distance Education: Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Selected Case Studies, edited by Alan Tait.

VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY GAZETTE - Each issue of the Virtual University Gazette, a free monthly electronic newsletter for distance learning professionals working at adult, university and continuing education levels, has a section on professional jobs and business opportunities in the field of distance learning and training - faculty, professors, trainers, instructional designers, administrators, corporate alliance professionals, CEOs and consultants. The free Virtual University Gazette is archived online each month at Lifelong Learner's Adult Education & Distance Learner's Resource Center: http://www.geteducated.com/vugaz.htm. To subscribe via e-mail send the word SUBSCRIBE to:vug@oaknetpub.com or contact publisher, Vicky Phillips, directly at vugazette@aol.com. Send job, career or business announcements to Vicky at no cost.

 

SOME STATS
Did You Know That Between 1995-1997...

• Electronic mail integrated into instruction increased from 20-33%
  
• Educational Internet use grew from 11-25%
  
• Multimedia use increased from 8-14%
  
• CD-ROM use grew from 7-12%
  
• Use of the World Wide Web more than doubled - from 6-14%

  And...

• Over 46% of public and 41% of private four-year colleges participating in the 1997 Campus Computing Survey stated they require students to demonstrate some level of information technology competency
  
• Despite its challenges, institutions rank technology integration into instruction and the improvement of support services as the two most pressing priorities on their agendas.

  (University Continuing Education Association (UCEA, May 1998, p. 3)

ETC.
Corporate Universities Becoming Big Business, Academic Online Publishing, Net Trust

CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES - Ten years ago there were about 400 corporate universities - today that number has grown to 1,600. Several of them, such as the Arthur D. Little School in Boston, have formal degree-granting powers and many have forged alliances with nearby colleges and universities to enable students taking their courses to receive credits that count toward external degrees. But the relationship appears to be crumbling, as corporate universities increasingly are under pressure from their companies to become self-supporting. That puts the corporate schools in direct competition with conventional universities in the fundraising arena. A recent survey of 100 corporate universities showed that 10% planned to be self-funded by 2000. As the funding model changes to be more self-funded, these universities are going to brand what they are doing and use their significant resources to go to the external market. At that point they are a significant threat.
(Financial Times 18 Jun 98)

ACADEMIC ONLINE PUBLISHING - A group of influential academics wants to introduce online peer review and publishing of scholarly works as an alternative to high-price journals (some cost as much as $15,000 a year.) The group, with academic officers from the University of Rochester, Columbia University and the California Institute of Technology, wants universities to recognize online posting as "publishing". "We are calling for neither a lessening of the importance of research in the criteria for promotion and tenure, nor a turning away from peer review," says an Association of American Universities and the Association of Research Libraries paper. "We seek an alternate means of achieving those ends." Under the proposed plan the papers, once posted online, would be peer-reviewed by a panel of experts, just as is now the case with print-published papers. The panels, established by scholarly groups, would give each article a grade or a stamp of approval. Response to date is lukewarm.
(Chronicle of Higher Education 26 Jun 98)

NET TRUST - A recent United Press International poll found that computer users put more confidence in information that they find online than that gleaned from more conventional sources, such as newspapers and television. Forty-three percent of those polled said they trusted the accuracy of online information versus 35% for other media; 59% of their computer time is spent doing work versus 41% of time spent on recreational activities.
(Information Week 1 Jun 98)

 

SSPI SCHOLARSHIPS
International Scholarship Awards Deadline

The Deadline for the Tenth Annual Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) Scholarships is December 1, 1998. Ranging from $1,500 to $4,000, these scholarships are available to 1998 matriculated students studying in the broad area of satellite communications in the fields of Broadcasting, Telecommunications, Engineering, Journalism, Communications, Space Applications, International Policy Studies, Business and Law. Awards announcement - January, 1999; Awards presentations - SATELLITE '99 conference, Washington, DC, February, 1999. For more information see: www.sspi.org.

 

NEW TECH TRENDS
School of the Future - The Netherlands, OmniSight

SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE - While in the Netherlands recently, the Masie Group visited a new institution site in Hertogenbosch, where the Dutch government has commissioned the creation of a School of the Future to create prototypes for how the next generation will learn and study. Focusing on the age range of late teens and early twenties, the School of The Future will feature the latest in learning technologies and collaborative processes. They are in the final stages of construction on a building site that will contain a blend of learning lab setups, technology hosting facilities for distributed events and models for coaching and simulation.

School of the Future Director, Ian Ginn, detailed their desire to be spokes in a worldwide hub of research and development for learning and technology. The Masie Group made arrangements to bring Ian and the School to the TechLearn '98 Conference in November via video. "We'll tour their new facility which will have just opened in November and look at the state of learning technology in Europe," said Masie. You can check out their emerging web site at http://www.svdt.org and see a picture of the building as it nears completion. (TechLearn Trends, Technology & Learning Updates # 48 - 21 June 98)

OMNISIGHT - This new "all-around" videoconferencing system is designed to maintain one center of common attention for all participants and include all participants in the picture. With everyone seated around a circular table, a panoramic camera (with eight integrated heads) shoots from the center of the table at 360 degrees around the room and is combined with a full view of the current speaker, achieved by incorporating an automatic direction-finding function which enables the camera to point instantaneously at the speaker, as the speaker begins to talk. The systems microphone array achieves the best possible sound from the correct direction. In addition, OmniSight features easy system integration into existing VC setups. (Teleconferencing Business, May/June 98, pp. 10, 19 and 21)

 

NEW ON THE LIST -

Welcome to: Virginia Carmichael, Benjamin Buxbaum, Kathy Buckley, Kary Jablonka, Dennis Fink, Carl Kulo, Leslie Fournier, Robert Clyatt, Fiona Simpkins, Gregory Roberts, Hayley Schnell, Cindy Ireland, Zeus Valls, Vicky Phillips, Charles Sidell, Danny Brelik, Ioannis Botonakis, Walter Javor, Wendy Mead, Frances Taylor, Martin Williamson, Y.P. Aggarwal, Paul McKay and Nancy Anderson.

 

FYI
News, Conferences, Institutes

THE NEXT WELLSPRING WORKSHOPS - 1) July 7 to 16, "Teaching My First Online Course: What Worked and What Didn't" - Danielle Kaplan, Ph.D. candidate, Teachers College, Columbia University; 2) July 21 to 31, "Creating Graphics for the Web" - Franklin Westbrook, Instructional Systems Inc. For more information call: 800-314-8861 or email: rob@isinj.com.

 

A NEW EASI-SEM ONLINE COURSE BEGINS - Equal Access to Software and Information (EASI), a non-profit organization, will offer an online course beginning July 6. It will focus on the barriers faced by students with disabilities and the accommodations and strategies that will help these students work and study in the technical fields. The material is aimed at service providers, teachers, administrators and parents and provides the latest information on hardware and software solutions to help K-college students get access to science, math and technology. Expanded to four weeks, the 3 CEU course includes three videotapes and the book "Information Access and Adaptive Technology" for $195. The course, offered via email, will incorporate class discussion with colleagues nationwide and one-on-one with the instructor. For a Syllabus and Registration see: http://www.rit.edu/~easi/workshops /semsyl.html or email: nrcgsh@rit.edu.

 

CONNECTIONS 98 - Call for Papers. University of Western Ontario Faculty of Information and Media Studies is hosting the fourth annual Connections conference in London, Ontario, Canada, October 24 and 25. This conference will provide a forum for the exchange of research among doctoral students from all library and information science related fields on reports of research in progress as well as recently completed studies. Accepted presentations will be limited to 20 minutes, including discussion. Accepted Abstracts will be printed in a proceedings and posted on the Connections 98 Web site. Deadline for submission is July 31. For further information contact: connect@julian.uwo.ca.

 

WORLD CONFERENCE OF THE WWW, INTERNET AND INTRANET - Web Net 98 will take place Nov. 7-12, 1998 in Orlando, Florida at the Holiday Inn International Drive Resort. Submission Deadline for participation is July 23. The conference is organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) in cooperation with WWW/Internet businesses and industry. WebNet 98 serves as a multi-disciplinary, international forum for the exchange of information on the development, applications and research of all topics related to the Web and Internet. This encompasses the use, applications, societal and legal aspects of the Internet in its broadest sense. To submit see: http://www.aace.org/conf/webnet/finalsubmit or call: 804-973-3987.

 

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE LEARNING SCIENCES - (ICLS-98) is set for December 17-19, 1998 in Atlanta, Georgia, hosted by Georgia Tech University and sponsored by the EduTech Institute. The conference focuses on the process of human cognition and computing technologies and the application of this research in three integrated areas: Design, Cognition and Social Context and will feature examples of new applications and pedagogical frameworks. Of particular interest this year are issues pertaining to the learning of knowledge and skills for real-world problem-solving: reasoning skills, communication skills, design skills, explanation skills and debugging skills. See URL at: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/conferences/icl s98.

 

ENDNOTE
The Masie Seminar - A Remarkable Experience

I returned from Washington, DC last Sunday where I took part in the June 25-26 Elliot Masie Seminar "Skills for On-Line Trainers." I had previously participated in one of his two-hour satellite sessions, but that didn't begin to prepare me for the energy and expertise I experienced at the two-day seminar session.

A little background - Elliot is the author of a dozen books, (his latest, Learning in the Digital Age will be out this November), has presented programs to more than 450,000 professionals throughout the world, consulted with more than 2,900 organizations, ranging from the Central Intelligence Agency to Walt Disney and advised a host of government agencies. He's a consummate professional, who thrives on teaching, coaching and humorous inspiration. Most important, he models his learning/technology methods.

During the two-day session an Intranet setup of 30 computers gave all 60 participants maximum hands-on experience. We explored a wide variety of software, began the team creation of an Orientation Program, using the software we had explored and discovered that we would continue on as Virtual Teams of four people each, to complete our Project during the coming months.

While we were working, we were learning about and modeling instructor skills, being challenged with "real-world" updates for our Projects, understanding the critical need for support, finding out about learning and cognitive research, dialoguing while rotating in small group situations and having a "great time." Throughout the session, Elliot was not only down-to-earth but also very approachable. Each Team Project will receive personal feedback, with an award given to "the outstanding Orientation." It is notable that a portion of all Masie Center profits is donated each year to charities working in the field of technology and learning. The workshop was one of the best I've experienced.

Elliot will be in Madison as one of the Keynote Speakers at the 14th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, August 5-7, 1998. Information about the Masie Center, its November TECHLEARN '98 Conference and its TECHTRENDS newsletter can be found at: www.masie.com.

 

JULY ISSUE FOCUS - A Multipart Series: Technology Support Issues

 

DESIEN ARCHIVE: An Archive has been created for past issues and interaction comments. Locate at: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien/

DESIEN has been created to encourage information exchange and discussion of distance education issues concerned with: 1) UW Systemwide distance education progress and institution course/program development, 2) faculty/team development, 3) technology, 4) policy, 5) funding and 6) research. List recipients outside of the UW System are also welcome to join in with information contributions and discussion.