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WEB-BASED INSTRUCTION (WBI) AUTHORING PROGRAMS Francesco Scordato, Educational
Technology Coordinator and Alice D. Garrard February 7, 2000 Introduction Members of the faculty and the Technology Advisory Committee have expressed interest in utilizing the web for course instruction and enhancement. This document reports on current products and services available for this purpose. The information presented here has been gathered through solicitation from vendors, attendance to regional seminars on the subject matter and solicitation from fellow educational institutions utilizing similar tools. Report Layout This report has been prepared as a web page. The goal is to allow the reader direct access to many of the web sites of vendors discussed. While major features are discussed in the detail body of the report, each web site offers full detail information on each product. You may choose to further explore the vendors of your interest. Francesco Scordato completed many hours of on-line review of the products and has included his comments within the detail body of this report. Current Situation Berry College obtained a ‘free,’early version Web Course in a Box two years ago. This software is currently running on the in-house Intranet server located in the computing and technology area. Students can access courses from computers physically located on campus or through the dial-in utility that connects students to the campus. These courses are not available through the Internet. At this time, there are approximately 30 courses prepared by a total of 17 different professors posted to the Web Course in a Box site. Support is offered from Computing and Technology offering user set-up, web server administration and WCB administration. Francesco Scordato has conducted training for the Evans School of Humanities faculty and for individuals interested in posting courses to the web. Summary of Evaluation There are many different products that enable instructors to develop courseware for the Internet. These products consist of web authoring tools, full virtual campus development and hosting, consulting services, and course design and development. To review these products one can analyze the following key characteristics; product function, ease of use, platform, vendor stability and commitment, current user base, cost and back office interface (to the administrative package). Another factor to consider during review is whether the product vendor's plans to abide by the future guidelines established by the IMS. The IMS is a coalition of educational institutions, vendors and government agencies defining guidelines for Internet use in education. Once a standard is devised and implemented, it will be easy to move a course or course material developed with one software program into another. It will be possible to deliver educational multimedia content across different computer platforms and devices. For more information on this organization you may visit their web site at www.imsproject.org. Back office interface refers to the product ability to interface with the administrative software utilized at the college. This feature allows courses to be populated with enrolled students, identify appropriate registration, class schedules and fee payment. Berry College’s administrative package is CMDS’s Team Elite. Most products currently interface with Peoplesoft and SCT. However, the main players, WebCT and Blackboard plus others, will write the APIs for the interface to CMDS database for a fee. Many textbook publishers are also getting involved in this field of web based instruction. Several companies offer templates that can be used in WebCT or Blackboard. These templates may be used as-is or they can be modified by the instructor to meet their needs. Our collaborative recommendation is for Berry College to make a commitment to a tool professors can utilize to develop courses on-line. To achieve this the Information Technology Committee should assign a team of professors to review the products and make objective reviews. Of the products we reviewed, we feel that WebCT and BlackBoard both offer products that will meet the needs of Berry College. However, with further investigation WebCT appears to offer a superior product once vendor commitment is evaluated. BlackBoard is currently seeking to expand their market share. They are moving into the private sectors and partnering with many vendors. WebCT has a commitment to continue growth in the higher education market. WebCT’s primary owner is the University of British Columbia they have a true focus on the future of this product being used in higher education. WebCT is used extensively by the Universtity of Georgia. They offer training courses to other users as well as serve as a beta site for WebCT development. The Internet is constantly evolving. There is confusion between a Web Based Instruction (WBI) software and Workgroup/Conferencing software. Some of the software packages are aimed principally at Educational Institutions while others seek out private corporations for Web-based training. There are also companies who are offering total solutions, from the WBI software, to the training of faculty and staff, to the design of the courses as well as even hosting them. Another issue that software vendors are attempting to address at the college level is the offering of a "portal" in cybespace. A portal is like a gateway to the Net, an example is AOL which is at the same time an Internet Service Provider as well as an Internet portal. We looked at two portal companies, Jenzabar and StudentOnline. These companies will gather information from a back office packages and populate a database. Then students and faculty can access personal calendars, schedules, personal web page areas, e-mail and even access to shopping services. This is all served on their servers through the Internet. Most of these services are 'free' due to the fact that these services receive compensation for purchases made through their portal. The look and feel of the site is dictated by the service. These portals do not have a primary focus of on-line instruction, but the latter is offered as an additional service.
IMS is a global coalition of academic, commercial and government organizations, working together to define the Internet architecture for learning and teaching. GO TO Summary of Top Products GO TO Three Main Web Authoring Programs GO TO Other Competitors GO TO Total Solution Providers GO TO College Portal Companies Fredrickson Scott. (1999). "Untangling a Tangled Web: An Overview of Web-based
Instruction Programs." TheJournal.com. http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A2087.cfm |
