NEH Focus Study Grant: Spring 1998
- An interdisciplinary faculty conversation about
potential uses of the Web for teaching the humanities
- Focus on creating a World Wide Web teaching and
learning environment
Continuing the Conversation
- TLTR Grant from NVCC President
- Small group of faculty including a counselor and a
librarian
- Focus on the academic uses of the site
- Web courses
- Web course components
- Web resource sites
Initial Goals
- To develop a rich, integrated environment of
teaching and resource materials on the Web
- To provide faculty training and mentoring
- To provide a supportive technological
infrastructure for the site
Projected Benefits to
Faculty
- Improve communication within and between
disciplines
- Provide more opportunity to teach specialized
subjects
- Improve computer literacy
- Provide access to pedagogical and technological
support
Initial Focus of Discussion
- Create a common site template
- Develop a mentoring process
- Discussion forums
- Site design evaluations
- Build a technological infrastructure
Learning Curve Variables
- Web Technology
- Site Design
- Distance Education
- Site Content
Building on Experience
- Explore ways to share material from existing
online courses
- Develop stand-alone web resource sites
- Encourage interdisciplinary connections
Consensus
- Concentrate on resource sites
- Formalize the mentoring system
- Create a search engine to provide easy access to
materials
What We Learned
- We tried to create a template to organize what
people do
- Instead we began to find ways to index and use
what people produce
- We realized we need to help each other develop a
wide range of web site development skills
Types of Dogwood Sites
- Resource-based sites
- Skill-based sites
- Courses
- Course Modules
Resource-Based Sites
- Starting points for research on the Web
- Organize a topic using:
- Original, faculty-generated information
- Annotated hyperlinks to Web resources
Types of Resource Sites
Themes
Issues
Persons
Places
Directories
Skill-Based Sites
- Supplemental material for course activities
- Reference material for faculty and students
- Topics for personal enrichment
Types of Skill Sites
Support for course activities
- Reading and Study Skills
- French Writing
- Interpersonal Communications
Tutorials
Explorations for personal enrichment
- Lifelong learning
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Courses
Stand alone Courses
Course Sites Connected to resource sites
Course Modules
Stand-alone course units
One-credit course segments
Training
Day-long institutes and half-day workshops
- Hardware and software issues
- Site creation/storyboarding
- Site management
- Navigation
- Color theory
- Page layout and design
Mentoring
Site Infrastructure
- Hardware and software requirements
- Taxonomy of content and purpose
- Database design and administration
- Search engine
Plans for the Future
- Seek further funding to support:
- Additional institutes and workshops
- Additional faculty to develop sites
- Development of database and search engine for
Dogwood site
- Administration of Dogwood site
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