Like WebCT (see DESIEN Volume 3 - January 1999), Web Course in a Box (WCB) is a course management system that allows course designers and instructors to easily develop and deliver instructional materials via the Web. It is learner-centered, user-driven and it is an easy program to use. Some of the features of the program include: lesson builder, interactive quiz builder, discussion forums with file attachments and archiving, support for multiple instructors to edit/manage a class, copying of classes between instructor accounts, and the ability for students to create "project pages" and links to course pages. As the instructional designer for web-based courses, I will describe how I used WCB and its benefits.

How Was WCB Used?

As part of a unique statewide collaborative initiative to deliver an Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) course at a distance, eight Wisconsin institutions of higher education with a total of 12 faculty members are teaching over 90 students in spring semester 1999. This initiative uses a combination of web-based instructional strategies and compressed videoconferencing. WCB is used for the purpose of designing the course, training faculty members, and delivering instruction. Putting the course on the web during the development phases is an excellent tool to assist in managing the different phases of the development process. It is also a good tool to train faculty on how to use the program for course delivery. For the ECSE course, two web sites on WCB were created: one for faculty development and one for delivery of instruction. These web sites are linked to a main course web site created with FrontPage 98.

Faculty Development - Most of the faculty members were not familiar with WCB. At the beginning of the web development phase meetings, a training session on how to use WCB was provided. As part of the activities, each faculty member had to post messages regarding their upcoming summer vacation. Later, faculty were divided into groups to develop each course session according to their expertise. Each session is called a module. A team of faculty members with a designated team leader designed the content of each session. The content design was done using the discussion forum feature of WCB. Each module had a special discussion forum, so faculty members could exchange files, and make decisions about content and instructional strategies. In this case, faculty members were planning the course and at the same time practicing the use of WCB for delivery of instruction. Refer to: http://www.uwm.edu/wcb.uwm/schools/999/999/sconceic/4/

Delivery of Instruction - As the content of each session was posted on the faculty development web site, I started placing the content of the course on the students web site, so faculty members could view how the course was being designed. My role was to serve as a consultant during the integration of content and instructional strategies and media to be used for each session. Refer to: http://www.uwm.edu/wcb.uwm/schools/17/360/ahains/5/index.html

The Main Course Web Site was Created with FrontPage 98 - In addition to using WCB, I used Microsoft FrontPage 98 to design the main web frame for the course. From the main web site faculty members and students are able to orient themselves to the main web pages serving the site. The main web site contains links to the following areas: Course Information, Faculty & Staff, Student Resources, and Faculty Development. Pages requiring a more sophisticated design were developed in FrontPage 98, while pages requiring password protection were developed in WCB. Refer to: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/early-childhood.

The course information page provides links to Course Description, Course Modules, Class Schedule, Faculty & Student Directory, Learning Links, and Help/Utilities. All of these pages, except Course Modules are WCB generated. The course description link provides information on course instructors, course description, teaching methods, course objectives, required texts, recommended texts, required readings, and web links. Course Modules provides links to a list of seminar modules, including dates and faculty members that will be teaching specific topics. Class Schedule provides links to information on seminar topics per scheduled modules and weekly assignments. Faculty and Staff Directory provides links to a directory of students and faculty participating in the course. Learning Links provides access for students and faculty to the on-line forum discussions. Help/Utilities provides access to students to an area where they can change passwords, create/edit a homepage, create/edit a project, create/edit a Portfolio, and upload files.

The Faculty & Staff page provides a list of faculty members and staff with links to their own personal information pages. The Student Resources page provides links to Student Guide to Distance Education/Videoconferencing, UWM Electronic Reserve access information, The CyberSchool Survival Guide, Web Course in a Box Student's Guide, Citing Internet Resources, and Study Guides and Strategies. The Faculty Development page provides links to the Faculty Development site in WCB, Faculty Directory, Faculty Discussion Forums, and Project Evaluation Plan.

What are the Benefits for WCB Features For Instructional Design?

Although I did not use all the features of WCB for the design of the course pages, I still believe that this web-based management program provided me with benefits:

Discussion Forum - This is one of the best features of the program because it allows students to have on-line discussions, to attach files, and to post URLs with hot links. It also restricts areas of the forum to students and faculty. The limitations of WCB are that it does not provide a chat feature and email can be sent to individual students or faculty members or the class as a whole. The discussion forum can be restricted to groups of students; however, it is limited to reading, posting, and replying to messages.

Learning Links - This feature provides a Web page that can post useful links to sites important to each course session. Links are first saved into a FrontPage 98 file and then typed in the Learning Link area. This feature is easy to enter and update.

Adding Students to the Class - This feature allows one to add students to the class in an easy and rapid way. It is possible to upload class information from a student database to add student names all at once in the batch mode. It is also possible to add, delete, or edit information on one student at a time by choosing the option to add individually. This feature allows students and faculty members to have access to the restricted areas of the course web page.

WCB is definitely quite simple and easy to use. It can be the right solution for an instructor or a designer who wants to place courses quickly on the World Wide Web. If you would like to visit the Early Childhood Special Education course web site go to: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/early-childhood. Your feedback is welcome! Send feedback to early-childhood@uwm.edu