Editor’s Note: Brent Muirhead is a master of online peer-to-peer discussions – the productive and evocative digitization of academic colloquia. In conjunction with his academic team, he produces a pre-discussion paper to focus the key issues. Discussion dates and web site are announced, discussion continues for a ten-day period, and outcomes are summarized. These discussions are a project of IFETS, the International Forum of Educational Technology & Society, a subgroup of the Learning Technology Task Force of IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. You are invited participate in the online discussion. The pre-discussion paper below is on the forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss_august2001.html

Online Resource Page:
Using Technology to Enhance the Teaching and Learning Process

Brent Muirhead, Jane McAuliffe and Marla La Rue

© International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS)

Introduction

Today’s computer-mediated or online administrators and instructors are investigating ways to foster a dynamic learning environment. Currently, “Internet technology empowers the joint exploration of the delivery mechanisms of previous generations, adding stronger collaborative learning elements (Passerini & Granger, 2000, p. 3).” Contemporary Internet technologies are helping remove the idea of distance from online education. The online teaching and learning process could produce more relevant and consistent interaction than what is produced in the traditional undergraduate classrooms. A large traditional classroom does create communication barriers that make it more difficult for all students to participate in class discussions. It is interesting that university students are using emails more often to share with their classmates and teachers. The Internet is providing a practical way to remove learning barriers and encourage greater access to intellectual resources. The idea of distance education has fostered the pursuit of new educational paradigms that encourage online education to be more personal and student centered.

A major concern among academic officials has often focused on the quality of educational experiences within an online class. Carnevale (2000) relates that research studies indicate that the essential features of a good course include “interaction between instructors and students, a student-centered approach and built-in opportunities for students to learn on their own (p. A46).” Creating and sustaining a quality online degree program is a challenging venture. There are a variety of factors that can have either a positive or negative impact on the online educational setting:

Resource Overview

A challenging problem for distance education systems is how to provide a large number of students, across diverse geographical areas, with consistent materials and resources that will ultimately allow them to achieve their personal and professional goals. This will require a change in the way technology is used in schools (Grabe, 1998). In order to address this problem, one university has eliminated the need for all “hard-copy materials” by developing an online “resource page” for students and faculty. Instead of buying a textbook at the beginning of a course, students will pay a resource access fee that will make available their learning resources for their entire academic program.

In recognition of the fact that all students have unique learning styles, the University of Phoenix Online will soon begin the implementation of , an exciting new product and the new standard for delivery of student and faculty materials. This product is a set of learning tools that are designed and presented in a variety of modalities in order to meet the needs of all learners. These materials will be delivered via the Student and Faculty Web on a course-by-course basis. To facilitate this strategic initiative, the Company is partnering with a variety of publishers to provide content and other ancillary services. UOP currently has partnership arrangements with Thomson Learning, Pearson Publishing, McGraw Hill, Course Technology, and John Wiley. Today, the University of Phoenix Online has 26, 000 students enrolled in their classes and 2100 faculty members.

The resource page is not only an “e-Book” – it is a collection of electronically delivered learning resources, (one element of which is an “e-text”) which are closely aligned to the course objectives. These collections can be differentiated as visual databases, multimedia libraries and more (Barron, 1994). For example, instead of a textbook with perhaps, 20 chapters from which reading assignments would be chosen for assigned reading, the instructor can assign the specific portions of the e-text of their resource page to correspond with the number of class meetings or workshops and the material will relate specifically to the learning objectives. PowerPoint presentations that correspond to the course objectives, as well as self-assessments, multimedia activities and current articles from the digital library will be available. This allows each faculty member to maintain more distinct focus on course or workshop objectives. Additionally, students will have access to their entire “reference library” of university materials from their desktop or laptop and will be able to access their library (with automatic updates) as alumni.

Resource Page: Detailed Descriptions

University of Phoenix Courses will contain the following materials as part of this new initiative. Please note a snap shot of resource page on page 6.

UniModule

The UniModule is the recommended curriculum for a given course; it is developed in a format that provides course guidance for instructional training, whether conducted in the classroom, online, or in a directed study format. This document contains course topics, objectives and assignments, as well as a content outline for instructors. Faculty members have the flexibility to make modification to the curriculum, as long as they adequately address specific course objectives as outlined in the UniModule. In doing so, the University ensures that course content is consistently delivered to students across all campuses.

E-Text

The e-text is the selected “textbook” for each course. In some cases, this material is simply an electronic copy of an existing textbook; in other cases, the e-text is a compilation of material from multiple sources, including chapters from several textbooks, associated selected readings and other printed materials. Students view this material using Microsoft® Reader or by printing all or part of the text from their personal computers.

Supplemental Materials

Information contained in this link will vary from course to course. It may contain course-specific Power Point presentations, assessment tools, case studies, unique learning activities, topic-specific tutorials, video clips and more.

Articles

Each course comes with a set of selected readings, which are a compilation of journal articles and other scholarly literature from the University’s Online Collection. These articles have been specially selected by course developers to supplement the readings in the E-text and to further ensure students are prepared to meet the course objectives.

Web Links

Each course will also have 2-5 associated web links. These links direct students to areas on the web that will further enhance their professional development. Typically, students will explore the sites of professional associations, other related organizations and sites that encourage professional collaboration and/or community involvement.

Multimedia

The University has partnered with several companies to allow students to develop ancillary skills that will further facilitate their learning. In this section, students are provided with a variety of tutorials, from novice to advanced levels, designed to enhance their technological and professional skills. Examples of online tutorials available to students are: Windows, Word, Power Point, Access Excel, and more.

Services

University Library

The Online Collection, the most popular part of the Library Web Site contains databases with millions of full text articles, documents, reference sources, directories, and financial data. Students may use the Online Collection to obtain direct access to subscription resources not normally found through Internet search engines. In addition to the subscription databases in the Online Collection, there are also many helpful Web sites for research available at no cost on the World Wide Web.

The University’s Virtual Writing Lab is a free service, offered to all students. The "lab" is actually an email address where students can send their written materials (papers, projects, etc.) to be reviewed by qualified University of Phoenix faculty members and receive feedback. The lab is not an editing service. Faculty will not revise student papers. Rather, they will review work and give detailed feedback on how to improve specific papers, and on writing style in general. Feedback will focus on format, grammar, organization, punctuation, and usage, but not course content. Currently, the writing lab is receiving over 4,000 papers a month from students seeking assistance.

Writing Lab

Proficiency Assessments

Program Specific

Program Handbook

Program handbooks contain program specific information for students, including program sequence, course descriptions, gradation requirements, etc. This “virtual” document replaces the traditional hard-copy books previously supplied to students upon enrollment.

Downloads:

This section provides students with free downloads for the following resources:

Microsoft® Reader

Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®

Internet Explorer

Electronic Portfolio (Education Programs)

This is a link to the students’ individual electronic portfolios. This dynamic site represents a teacher’s continuous progress and development throughout his/her program and career. Elements of the portfolio are designed to ensure that students meet state, national, and program standards and are evaluated using formative and summative methods. This tool is introduced during the first course and reinforced by faculty in each course.

Teachers also post their Teacher Work Sample Project in this portfolio. This product is a 4 week, standards-based unit that include the following elements:

• Unit learning goals
• Contextual information
• Content
• Assessment plan
• Pre-assessment analysis
• Design for instruction
• Description of two featured students
• The instructional process of the two, featured students
• Analysis of learning results
• Reflection on teaching and learning

Teacher Preparation Accountability

The resource page seeks to address teacher preparation accountability issues involving computer-mediated instruction. Therefore, the resource page will house performance assessment pieces of their teacher preparation program: electronic portfolios and teacher work samples. The University’s teacher work sampling model is based on work done by the Renaissance Partnership for Improving Teacher Quality (adapted from Pokay, P., Langer, G., Boody, R., Petch-Hogan, B. and Rainey, J., Renaissance Partnership for Improving Teacher Quality and Western Oregon’s Teacher Work Sample, 2001). The teacher work sampling is infused in applicable University programs that focus on Pre K-12 classrooms.

This model suggests that successful teachers:

• Support students’ acquisition of substantive learning by designing units of instruction that employ a range of strategies that build on each students’ strengths, needs and prior experiences.
• Align learning goals with state and district content standards.
• Adjust the classroom environment and instruction to address important contextual characteristics of the classroom.
• Employ a variety of instructional resources to help students attain learning goals and to offer them new opportunities to explore important ideas or to learn new skills that have relevance to their lives.
• Use multiple assessment methods that appropriately measure learning gains towards the selected goals.
• Explore students’ understanding and thinking processes while evaluating the effectiveness of their teaching.
• Analyze student learning by examining individual, small group, and whole class achievement.
• Use their analysis of student assessment to guide instruction, to provide feedback to students, and to plan for professional development.
• Provide credible evidence of their instructional effectiveness through student performance (Pokay, et al, 2001).

This area of the resource page will allow students to document how and when they meet the program standards. Additionally, it will offer data for faculty, administration and accrediting organizations with an opportunity to regularly evaluate student performance and examine program effectiveness (D’Ignazio, 1996). Instructors can monitor student achievement to insure that the course materials are closely aligned with the course objectives. Ultimately, a variety of resources will promote individualized instruction for a diversity of student learning styles and encourage optimal learning experiences.

Conclusion

The creation of the electronic resource page is intended to foster a dynamic learning climate. It ensures that students will have access to diverse and a larger number of information resources. Online instructors can insure that students have access to the same materials that are tailored to specific course objectives. Yet, teachers can use their subject knowledge to creatively add materials such as PowerPoint presentations or video streams. The   has real potential to individualize online instruction and promote rich educational experiences that are relevant for today’ students. Our discussion of the online resource page will involve discussing a variety of educational issues:

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of e-books?
2. How does the   influence the classroom learning environment?
3. How can today’s instructors use the   to enhance online interaction?

References

Baron, A., Breit, F., Boulware, A. & Bullock, J. (1994).Videodiscs in education: Overview, evaluation, activities (2^nd ed.). Tampa, Fl: University of South Florida.

Carnevale, D. (2000). Study assesses what participants look for in high-quality online courses. Chronicle of Higher Education, 47, 9, A46.

Cooper, L. (2000). Online courses. THE Journal, 27, 8, 86-92.

D’Ignazio, F. (1996). Restructuring knowledge: Opportunities for classroom learning in the 1990’s. Computing Teacher, 18, 1, 22-25.

Grabe, M. & Grabe, C. (1998). Integrating technology for meaningful learning. Boston, MA: Houghton Miflin.

Passerini, K. & Granger, M. J. (2000). A developmental model for distance learning using the Internet. Computers & Education, 34, 1, 1-15.

Pokay, P., Langer, G., Boody, R., Petch-Hogan, B., & Rainey, J. (2001, February). Exploring a way for teacher candidates to demonstrate student learning. Presentation at the 81^st Annual Conference of Teacher Education, New Orleans, Louisiana.

About the Authors:

Brent Muirhead has a BA in social work, master's degrees in religious education, history, and administration, and doctoral degrees in education (D.Min. and Ph.D.). His Ph.D. degree is from Capella University,a distance education school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He took the majority of his courses online and gained valuable experience in distance learning. His dissertation studied interactivity (communication, participation, and feedback) between students and between students and their professors in a computer mediated graduate school.

Dr. Muirhead is a prolific writer with 60 publications about social and technology issues in the past three and half years. He has published letters in USA Today, The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His interactivity research is published in Educational Technology and Society (for which he is an Executive Peer Reviewer), Education at a Distance, and OLS News, a British academic publication.

Dr. Muirhead is area chair and teaches a variety of courses for the MAED program in curriculum and technology for the University of Phoenix Online (UOP). He also trains and mentors faculty candidates, conducts peer reviews of veteran faculty members, and teaches graduate research courses in the new UOP Doctor of Management program.

Tel: + 1 770-751-1783, email bmuirhead@email.uophx.edu

Jane McAuliffe is Dean for the College of Education, University of Phoenix, where she oversees education programs offered in multiple states. She was previously Associate Dean for the College and a Program Director at their Phoenix Campus.

Jane's education and background has been focused in special education. Her doctoral degree is in curriculum and instruction and her masters and bachelor's degrees are in special education. She was an Instructor and a Director of a Special Education Evaluation Clinic at Arizona State University. She is a certified teacher with experience in teaching students with learning disabilities, mental retardation, severe and profound disabilities, and behavior disorders in both the public and private school setting. For the past 6 years, Jane has also served as the Conference Coordinator for an annual special education conference focusing on students with behavioral disorders.

Marla La Rue is the Associate Dean for the College of Education at the University of Phoenix. In this capacity, she is responsible for the development and expansion of programs for pre-service and continuing teachers. Prior to this position, Dr. La Rue served as the Director of the Center for Teacher Education at the Phoenix Campus, University of Phoenix.

She holds a Masters degree from the University of Michigan, her doctorate in Management of Educational Programs from Nova Southeastern University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.