Project Directors:Carol Hansen and Catherine Zublin

Title of Project: "Humanities on the Internet, A Collaborative Model for Faculty Development" a presentation at the Ed-Media 2001 World Conference on Educational Media, Hypermedia and Telecommunications in Tampere, Finland June 25-30 2001.

Award Date:Spring 2001
Completion Date: Summer 2001
Amount of RSPG Award: $3,400
Amount of RSPG Award Spent: $3,400
Type of Proposal: Faculty Vitality

Purpose of Project: The purpose of this grant was to enable Carol Hansen and Catherine Zublin to deliver a conference presentation and to attend the 13^th annual Ed-Media 2001 World Conference on Educational Media, Hypermedia and Telecommunications in Tampere, Finland.

Project Outcomes:The purpose of this project was to disseminate information about this innovative model course to a wider, global audience. Zublin and Hansen delivered their presentation to a group of interested international attendees. A copy of the conference paper, and a copy of our PowerPoint presentation follows this summary.

In addition we hoped to gain useful information from attending conference presentations given by others. The conference sessions we attended were extremely interesting and very useful. We found it to be particularly beneficial to attend sessions with international participants. The global perspectives presented by international attendees was new and engaging. We felt we came away with many more new ideas for teaching and learning because of the global perspective of presenters and other attendees. 

Evaluation & Dissemination Outcomes: Our conference session was well attended and we received excellent feedback from other interested attendees from all over the world including attendees from Brazil, Italy, Malaysia, Finland and Idaho.

We have provided short summaries of some of the most interesting sessions we attended below to share with colleagues at WSU. Each of these sessions described below has provided inspiration for new or ongoing activities at WSU.

Pre Conference Workshop: Evaluating Interactive Learning,Thomas C. Reeves, University of Georgia.

This half day pre conference workshop focused on the rationale and criteria for evaluation, and on models and steps required for interactive learning. The presenter defined e-learning as "the content, tasks, problems and most importantly feedback and collaboration mediated by a networked computer." E-learning that works well will include

•  project based learning in an information rich, tool rich environment,
• collaborative learning when communication can be synchronous and asynchronous, 
• learning that occurs at the pace and times of a student's choosing, 
• learning marked by continuous improvements of a piece of work
• improved student faculty and student-student interaction and enhanced feedback
• tasks that are authentic

The presenter discussed the shift from instructional design to learning design. He discussed in detail each of his crieria for evaluating E-learing including: learning, consistency, economy, safety, flexibility, efficiency and enjoyment. A major evaluation challenge is determining what your stakeholders regard as credible evidence. Evaluation paradigms can be quantitative, qualitative, postmodern (critical), pragmatic, and empirical.

Ideas/Outcomes for WSU from this session: This session has influenced my thinking on assessment as we developed assessment plans for each type of library instruction this fall.

Conference Keynote Address by Julia Lipianen, Director of Systems and Applications, Nokia. "M Learning."

As this conference was held just down the road from the world headquarters of Nokia, the keynote was given by Nokia's Director of Systems and Applications. His focus was on the evolution he sees taking place from e learning (computer based learning) to m learning (learning that takes place in a mobile environment). Cell phones are everywhere in Finland and more and more information and ultimately even learning opportunities are being made available via mobile learning environments such as the cellular phone. He stated the newest Nokia phones have the technical capabilities of an average PC. The mobile Internet is not just one new media, but the combination of at least 4 or 5 new medias coming together in new ways. Many new developments are expected in 2002 and 2003. Public and private partnerships are needed to expand and extend m learning opportunities. Some geographic locations are still bandwidth hungry and this will cause access problems. In summary he feels future communications will be mostly mobile/wireless. Mobile networks will support voice, text and video in a high quality way.

Ideas/Outcomes for WSU from this session: Get a palm. Submit a grand to do a library tour students and other visitors can download onto their palms.

"Participant Interaction Models and Roles in a CSCL Environment: A Malaysian Case Study." Ester Daniel, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya.

In this case study the professor studied how students interacted with her Web based course materials. She discovered three distinct cyclical models of interaction. Students kept a journal on how they interacted with the teacher, the web site and with their peers. The journal enabled them to think and reflect about how they are getting information and how they interact. They can now visualize the roles of the instructor, the learners, and the computer.

Ideas/Outcomes for WSU from this session:Ideas from this session have resulted in more reflective assignments in Module 1 and 4 of the Internet Navigator course. This presenter also mentioned the VARK (Visual, Aural, Read/Write, Kinesthetic) online learning styles inventory (see http://www.vark-learn.com/questionnaires/general.pdf). This is a good online tool to use in any class.

A PDA based Classroom Computer System, Adolfo Rivera, Spain

Classrooms can also be managed with PDA's. This session discussed the hardware and software needs of PDA managed classrooms in Spain. The instructors used the PDA to control large display, mouse, etc.

Ideas/Outcomes for WSU from this session: Need to request funds for a  PDA and begin experimenting with classroom uses.

Collaborative learning Environments, Helen Brown, BECTA, UK

The BECTa project involves teachers in the UK to research and evaluate the impact of new technologies on student learning and attainment. The NGFL (National Grid for Learning) is also used. They have found that collaborative environments can link learning at home and at school. These collaborative environments can change our concepts of learning and assessment. They looked closely at what IT skills students needed and how they are using IT to learn. Concept maps were a good method they used to get at hidden areas of learning. Students would draw how they see connections. They would be asked to draw a picture to describe how they used computers. The presenter stated that there are 3 things that help us use tools effectively: 1) the tool itself, 2) our mental representation of the tool (concept maps used here) and 3) our skill in using the tool. All three enable more effective learning with IT. See http://www.becta.org.uk for more info on her project.

Ideas for WSU from this session: Use concept mapping in Lib Sci2201 to help students get a better visualization of their skills, roles, tools.

Improving Assessment Rubrics in a Tertiary Multimedia Course, Barney Clarkson, Australia

Learning = quality interactions + assessment. Rubrics are part of the overall assessment strategy. Rubrics are popular with students because they are student centered. They let student's know exactly what is expected. Rubrics help faculty simplify judgments. Rubrics should be given to students first to provide a clear outline to reduce subjectivity. Students can even be encouraged to add their own criteria to a rubric. Rubrics can be used to better explain learning outcomes to students, and they can be used to incorporate higher levels within Blooms taxonomy into the assessment process. The purpose of a rubric is to help students focus on key learning outcomes.

Ideas for WSU from this session: Implement broader use of rubrics in Internet Navigator and for other classes.

Developing New Roles in Teaching and Learning Through Electronic Portfolios, Andrea Bartlett, University of Hawaii.

The teaching portfolio is the structured documentary history of a set of coached or mentored student work with multimedia. It can be a fun and meaningful way to assess student work and is less bulky than paper or other hard copies. Student teachers in this project videotaped their teaching, edited it and displayed the video with a PowerPoint presentation. These were then copied onto a CD that can be opened on any platform. Additional documents, beyond video and PowerPoint can also be added.

Ideas for WSU from this session: This could be another possibility for Humanities on the Internet presentations.

Developing More Effective Access to Higher Education fro people with Disabilities, Elaine Pearson, University of Teeside, UK

The problems this institution dealt with in meeting the needs of the disabled included the institutional use of Web CT and its inability to meet several important needs for the disabled. There were no text equivalents for some icons, logos and graphics, and the heavy use of tables was a problem, in addition to the overuse of frames. There were also innumerable problems with the navigation and structure of their online course Web site. The solution was to address the issues at the redesign stage, to use learner centered design principles. Sites need to be checked for accessibility using available templates. No site can meet every need but a reasonable effort should be made. Accessibility is about learner centered design. She mentioned voice can be added to PDF files using the latest adobe plug in. For broad accessibility guidelines see http://www.cast.org./bobby/.

Ideas for WSU from this session: Send an email to get her guidelines. Continue to work towards total accessibility for all the Web sites at WSU.

Are Experts Able to Predict Learner Problems During Usability Evaluations?, Maia Dimitrova, City University, London, UK.

This session was particularly interesting as Stewart Library was in the very beginning stages of discussing our Web usability study. This study in London examined the variety of predictions various parties make regarding a Web site's usability. Evaluation methods of an educational multimedia Web site need to be done by both students and by experts. Learners actually discovered many more problems in the site than did the experts. Many more problems were discovered by experts than by students. Meaning some of the "problems" experts were fixing, were not problems for students at all. Problems missed by experts regarded comprehension and learning support. In the final analysis this researcher feels expert evaluation is not as effective as that of the learners. Expert input is still important to get at problems relating to media design and navigation.

Ideas/Outcomes for WSU from this session: Student input is critical in Web usability testing and design. Student focus groups and student survey data was used in Stewart Library Web usability study this fall. College of Arts and Humanities faculty were majority participants in the library's Web usability faculty focus groups. More student feedback methods have been added to more course and other Web pages.

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