11 August, 2008    16:29
Online Supplemental Courses at UW
From:  Robin K. Hill
To:  uw-faculty@uwyo.edu; uwstaff-l@uwyo.edu 

UW Faculty (and staff that support instruction):

Many instructors use websites to augment their classroom activities.  UW
provides a range of options for online supplemental course support
("supplemental" because we are dealing with the courses in which most of
the activity takes place in class, face-to-face).

We promote good teaching in whatever setting best suits the subject matter
and participants, so you should not feel pressured to use any web option
whatsoever.  We at the Ellbogen Center have no evidence (and anticipate
none) that online methods provide any solid advantage over lively,
perceptive, old-fashioned classroom instruction that respects good
pedagogy.  Furthermore, use of the online methods requires some learning
on your part.

***>> If you don't have the time to master the basics and explain the
environment to your students, please pass over all the choices until you
are able to give the matter your full attention.

Interested parties, keep reading.

We offer four options for course websites that differ somewhat in
instructor and student interface, in management and access, and in sets of
tools offered.
  1. WebCT (under phase-out)
  2. eCompanion
  3. Course Studio in WyoWeb
  4. WyoSakai (a pilot program)

For the most fundamental teaching purposes, they are roughly equivalent,
allowing you to provide materials online to your students, to send them
e-mail, and to conduct online discussions.

***>> To make an discriminating choice among them, you will have to do
research beyond this message, by means of our website or our workshops.

Our main website starts at the "Online Supplemental Courses" page that you
can reach through the Ellbogen Center website, or directly at:
   http://www.uwyo.edu/onlnsupp
Please read the materials under "Faculty Resources."  You will find the
Course Request form here (for WebCT, eCompanion, and WyoSakai).

Our workshop schedule can be found under "Technology Workshops" at the
Instructional Computing Services website given below, in the signature.
NOTE: >>>> A full set of workshops will be held on August 15th and 18th.

***>> If you wish to use an online option as a convenient supplement to
the classroom, please tell your students clearly which one you have chosen
to carry your materials-- eCompanion, WebCT, WyoSakai, or Course Studio in
WyoWeb (or some other choice found elsewhere, such as an academic website,
or combination).


Here follow further notes about the general UW online course landscape.

You will see, if you haven't already, that your WyoWeb portal, under the
"Faculty" tab and the "My Courses" channel (follow the "Course Sites"
link), shows all Fall 2008 courses for which you are instructor of record,
with a Course Studio shell already in place, listed in a section entitled
"Courses I'm Teaching."  Unfortunately, the Course Studio shell is not
labeled thus, simply saying "Course Homepage" at the top.  Instead of
Course Studio, you may select an eCompanion or WebCT or WyoSakai course
shell.  If you decide to take advantage of one of these options, and
submit a Course Request form, we will set up the course shell and notify
you.

Then you can switch the WyoWeb "My Courses" listing by clicking on the
EDIT button next to the title of the course, and choosing the "WebCT" or
"eCompanion" radio button instead (or filling in the address of the
WyoSakai server) which will then link the course title to the appropriate
login page for that system-- or you can switch to some other URL entirely,
if, for example, you have a course website on the UW academic server or
elsewhere. This will control what your students see when they, in turn,
click on that course title in their "My Courses" channel.  In other words,
you get a course URL (link) for every single course you teach, defaulting
to a Course Studio shell, but you can control what that URL refers to.

Many more considerations may come into play for you.  Whereas eCompanion,
WebCT, and WyoSakai are full course management systems with a fairly
standard set of tools, Course Studio provides only file sharing and
communication.  WyoSakai, WebCT, and eCompanion occupy different servers
and require separate user accounts, with different procedures attached.

All of this is easier to understand in person, so...

If you want to know more about the options available to you, and how to
use them, please attend an online courses workshop for a live introduction
and opportunity for questions and practice, or call me to arrange for a
consultation or quick demo.


--
   Robin Hill          hill@uwyo.edu       307-766-5499
   UW Instructional Computing Services     Ellbogen Center
   http://www.uwyo.edu/ctl/Inst_Computing/