It’s hard to find “one
size fits all” solutions to anything at a university,
but UI experts are confident their decision to replace
two educational software systems on campus with just
one will be a good fit for many teachers and students.
“We’ll keep tabs on how people like
it and whether they find it was beneficial to go
from two course management systems to one,” says
Steve Alessi, associate professor of psychological
and quantitative foundations in the College of Education.
Alessi served on the advisory committee and participated
in a subcommittee that examined ease of use of a
new course management system that will replace two
online course management systems currently in place
on campus, WebCT and Blackboard.
If you’re a teacher or student, you probably
know that an online course management system is a
software program designed to help professors and
instructors create and teach courses online or use
online technology to help run classes. In educational
software circles, it’s also often called an
e-learning system, a learning management system,
or a virtual learning environment.
“We’ve taken a circumspect view of all
that’s available out there for e-learning,
so that The University of Iowa can empower instructors
and students to fully use the available technologies,” says
Molly Langstaff, director of ITS-Academic Technologies
at The University of Iowa.
A valuable resource
UI faculty members have been using course management
systems mostly to administer their classes, Langstaff
says. They found that it could help them better use
their class time because they didn’t have to
spend as much time on administrative tasks like passing
out papers.
Langstaff says students seem to like online courses
for the immediate, anytime access to grades and course
documents.
But pretty quickly, students and faculty learned
the scope of the virtual classroom could extend much
larger.
“Faculty members and students found out that
course management tools can provide a place where
students and instructors can meet virtually, chat,
work on projects collaboratively, create web sites,
and more,” Langstaff says.
And more is what will make the University’s
new course management system a valuable resource
to students, faculty members, and staff, Langstaff
believes. Dubbed ICON—for Iowa Courses Online—the
University’s new course management system was
created by Desire2Learn, a technology company specializing
in higher education classroom software. Over the
next year, ICON will replace WebCT and Blackboard
at The University of Iowa.
Meeting needs
Langstaff says making the migration seamless to
the new system is a top priority.
“We appreciate the fact that instructors have
already been using online course tools,” Langstaff
says. “We don’t want to turn anybody
off, so listening to their needs and seeking their
involvement has been critical.”
An advisory committee of faculty and staff members
from each college and other major units (such as
University Libraries) allowed Academic Technologies
to ensure that any new system would meet the University’s
needs.
Langstaff and the committe set up a usability study
and had students and faculty and staff members try
tasks and then complete questionnaires about the
process.
“Users found that ICON is relatively easy
to use,” education professor Alessi says.
Features, functionality
Though many instructors had been using other online
learning tools for UI courses, Alessi believes focusing
the campus on one central resource would allow the
University to better serve the e-learning needs of
the academic community and also functionally integrate
with current and future applications more effectively.
“Every college campus has some sort of course
management support system,” Langstaff says. “But
we were able to take a step back and examine how
e-learning fits on our campus and how we want to
use it in the future. The new system combines desirable
features and functionality with an easy-to-use interface.
I believe this pulls the strengths of WebCT and Blackboard
into one system.”
Some of the features of ICON include a grade book
to help instructors manage large classes; a quiz-building
function; online whiteboards, which haven’t
been available on the University’s previous
systems; an ability to integrate with the library
system; integration with the University’s Evaluation
and Examination Service, so that scores are automatically
populated in grade books; and the opportunity to
use online resources for more staff training through
UI Learning and Development.
The implementation process for ICON will indeed
be a process. Langstaff says Academic Technologies
will support WebCT and Blackboard for at least a
year to enable faculty and staff migrate to ICON
when it’s convenient for them.
For more information about ICON, visit the E-Learning
Project web site at www.uiowa.edu/~provost/elearning.
by Anne Remington
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