by Wesley A. Fryer

Despite the availablity of graphical, ‘point and click’ software tools, the process of creating and posting webpages on the internet remains an intimidating prospect for many educators. Browser based webpage services can make this process easier, however, and enable classroom teachers to publish course content and even teach online with a minimum of web development expertise.

This article presents three different options for educators wanting to create webpages to supplement and/or facilitate a course. These include Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.com), Yahoo Courses (http://courses.yahoo.com), and WebCT (http://www.webct.com). Including a variety of both free and fee-based features, these web services are worth examining if an educator wants to teach with online content.

Hybrid Courses
According to the research firm IDC, less than one percent of the US population has taken a course online. Yet online learning has appeal for traditional as well as non-traditional students, and many K-12 teachers as well as university faculty are increasingly expected to integrate technology use (including use of the internet) into their instruction. Rather than teaching in a purely online format, many of these teachers are creating ‘hybrid’ courses that include some online content and activities within a traditional class format. Online courseware provider WebCT reports that approximately 80 percent of the 500,000 WebCT courses online world-wide are ‘hybrids’ by this definition.

Online course materials can afford students and educators a variety of benefits. While educators should avoid the tendency to simply upload all course content to a website and create a glorified correspondence course, putting lecture notes and PowerPoint presentations online can be very beneficial for students. Thanks to online access to teacher notes, students in class can potentially focus less on ‘text capture’ and more on critically thinking about the concepts and ideas presented.

Online courses can also allow students who might not participate in a traditional class discussion to engage both their instructor and fellow students in dialog. Asynchronous online discussions (in which students participate on their own time, not necessarily in real-time with each other) can permit more thoughtful responses from students since immediate replies are not required. Textbooks and other resources can be consulted and cited in posted responses. Every student can potentially be asked to respond to a question posed by the instructor, via discussion group or email. These outcomes are difficult to achieve in a traditional classroom setting, but realistic for an online course once materials and activities are available on the internet. For that task, online courseware can be invaluable.

Blackboard
According to their own promotional materials, “Blackboard is the leading e-Education infrastructure company with the vision to transform the Internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning.” With a strong track record of past performance combined with its recent success obtaining additional investor capital (including sizable funds from Microsoft) Blackboard has positioned itself as a leading provider of online courseware.

Educational institutions can purchase a license for “Blackboard 5” Course and Portal Software, but educators can use the free Blackboard.com website to create online course materials up to 10 megabytes in total size (http://coursesites.blackboard.com).This free service provides the same features and functionality of the fee-based Blackboard 5 service, and enables educators wanting to ‘get their feet wet’ with online courseware to do so without cost, using their web browser as the development tool. Educators creating online course materials using the Basic or Free service from Blackboard should update content at least once every 30 days, as Blackboard reserves the right to delete courses unmodified for a month or more.

After creating a Blackboard user account, educators are presented with a tabbed webpage including the options “My Blackboard,” “Courses,” “Community,” and “Academic Web Resources.” To start creating a course, click the “Courses” tab and then the “Create” button. A four part web form will solicit Course Information, Course Design, Course Options, and provide a submit button. While answering questions in these categories, educators may choose to make their course private (accessible only to students given access) or open to guest access. Pre-designed course modules (purchased online) may also be inserted and used.

After creating a course, it can be selected and edited within the course list of “My Blackboard.” Course content can be entered either online in the web browser or uploaded (like Word documents saved as HTML / web pages). Course annoucements can be posted, a class calendar created, discussion forums and chat rooms created, as well as ‘digital drop boxes’ for submission of student assignments. Students can be added and assigned to groups for project purposes, and can post work on group webpages as well as correspond with the instructor and classmates. Assignments can be posted, grades assigned for students to view after logging in, and a ‘virtual classroom’ created allowing for real-time interactions between instructor and students. These interactions are not limited to text chat, but can also include use of an electronic whiteboard.

As previously mentioned, while Blackboard can be utilized for a course taught wholly online, it also can be used for a hybrid course. A teacher can create a private Blackboard course and grant access to students to participate in an online discussion. This online dialog can be used one time or throughout the time the course is taught, depending on the constraints setup by the instructor.

At the time an assignment is posted, the instructor can choose to make other attachments available to students. Also, the dates to make the assignment visible / available to students can be specified, and student accesses (hits) on the page can be tracked. In this way, educators can both direct and monitor student access to course materials using Blackboard.

The distinguishing advantage of Blackboard online courseware, according to many educators who have used it, is its ease of use. Setting up the previously described course options does not require programming or coding of any type. Files do not have to be ‘uploaded’ to a web server using another program: everything is done by typing, pointing, and clicking within the web browser. Internet users with a modest amount of computer experience can utilize Blackboard to start creating their own online course materials in a comparatively short time, compared with that required to post and upload webpages created with tools like Frontpage or Dreamweaver. This ease of use is a common feature, in this reviewer’s opinion, betwen all of the courseware options reviewed in this article.

Beware that the user agreement and terms of use agreement educators must assent to prior to creating a free Blackboard.com account and online course materials cede many rights to Blackboard when it comes to ownership of materials. Carefully read section 5 of the Blackboard Terms of Use (http://company.blackboard.com/legal/tou.cgi), which includes the provision “By uploading or otherwise making available any User Content, you automatically grant and/or warrant that the owner has granted Blackboard, the perpetual royalty-free, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, perform, display, and transmit the User Content through Blackboard.comSM....” The disadvantages of these provisions should be weighed against the ease of use and other benefits of Blackboard.com services before creating online course materials with this tool.

Blackboard users wanting to exceed their allotted free 10 megabytes of webserver space can step up to a premium / paid account, or utilize provisions of an institutional license for Blackboard services. Different levels of licensing are available depending on the web server used to host course content, the number of courses and students to be hosted, the technologies required for support, and other factors.

Yahoo Courses
A relative newcomer to online courseware services but well-known web company, Yahoo, began offering course services to educators in 2001 on its course website (http://courses.yahoo.com). Like Blackboard, Yahoo’s courseware services require creation of a user account. Existing Yahoo members (including those with a Yahoo email account) can login with their username / password. After creating a new account or logging into an existing one, users should click either the link for Middle/High School or College under “Instructors” to create an online course. Course creation with Yahoo requires three steps: describing the course, classifying the course, and specifying an instructor email address.

After creating a Yahoo course, educators will be prompted to add a course syllabus and enroll students. As with other courseware tools, the syllabus page can either be created by typing into a browser window, or uploaded through the web browser like an email attachment.

At present, Yahoo Courses offers fewer course options than either Blackboard or WebCT. A course calendar can be created, handouts posted online for student download, and student assignments turned in through the website. Email can be exchanged between the instructor and students, however, discussion forums and chat rooms CANNOT be created.

A useful feature of Yahoo Courses is the ability for the instructor to create polls for students to participate in, and view running results.

The terms of use for course materials posted with Yahoo is less expansive (and potentially intrusive on educator rights) than the agreement offered by Blackboard (http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms). Yahoo requires permission to use course information and content to promote the course on its sites for the time it is posted online, but this permission is cancelled at the time materials are removed by the owner from the Yahoo Courses site. Again, these comparative advantages should be weighed against the features offered by other courseware options like Blackboard and WebCT. Despite its limitations of not presently offering chat or discussion forum options, Yahoo Courses is a user-friendly, free service that should not be overlooked by educators going online with instruction.

WebCT
Born five years ago at The University of British Columbia, WebCT is a proven and widely adopted online courseware solution in use by over 2200 schools worldwide. WebCT was purchased by a Boston-based company and has become a commercial enterprise, but its essential nature as an easy to use, browser-based online course development tool has been retained while additonal functionality has been added over time.

According to their website, “WebCT is the most widely used course management system in higher education, enabling the delivery of online education around the world. The WebCT solution integrates the richest and most flexible pedagogical tools with your existing campus infrastructure. Our secure "virtual classroom" environment can be deployed enterprise-wide to supplement the traditional classroom or for pure distance programs.”

One important difference between WebCT and other online courseware options like Blackboard and Yahoo Courses is that it is not freely available for use or trial online. WebCT must be licensed for use, and this licensing is typically paid for by institutions of higher learning. A “Standard Edition” for stand-alone, limited deployment is available, along with a more powerful Campus Edition.

WebCT provides a similar ‘wizard’ for online course creation, called the “WebCourse Builder,” which allows educators to build customized or template based online courses meeting individual and unique needs. Commercially sold ‘e-packs’ are also available, many created by textbook publishers in specific alignment with their books. Over 1100 are presently available, and when used, require students pay a $10-20 fee for an access code that permits course access on the WebCT server.

Several features distinguish WebCT from alternatives like Blackboard and Yahoo Courses, but one of the most impressive is its robust online assessment features. Instructors can create a wide variety of test questions, adding them to a database within WebCT. This quiz / testing tool allows multiple choice, true or false, short answer, calculated answer and essay answer questions. In addtion, student self-tests and surveys can also be created. These features make WebCT an extremely flexible and powerful couseware tool for instructors.

WebCT includes similar calendar, announcement, assignment, drop box, communication tools, and other options included in Blackboard and Yahoo Courses. It is further distinguished, however, by its ability to permit selective release of course content based on student performance. For example, online availability / release of a subsequent assignment can be made conditional on satisfactory student performance on an online quiz. In this way, courses can be customized to site the individual needs and performance of students to a greater extent than courses delivered with Blackboard or Yahoo Courses courseware.

Unless a commercially purchased ‘e-pack’ is used, which carries its own unique terms of use depending on the publisher, courses published with WebCT are not subject to a “terms of use” agreement as limiting as that of Blackboard or even Yahoo courses. Individual institutions likely have policies regarding ownership and future publication of courses created with WebCT. Instructors should consult with their respective institutional representatives about the terms of those policies, as well as carefully read ‘e-pack’ terms of use (if applicable) before using WebCT to create online content.

Many Choices Available, Choose Wisely
Many school districts have been wise to warily consider the variety of ‘free services’ offered by commercial vendors to school districts in the areas of website service and online courseware. The technology industry is a dynamic sector compared to educational institutions, and this can be both a benefit and a disadvantage. No school district or educational institution wants to commit to a particular technology or technology service, only to have it discontinued shortly thereafter. It is prudent, therefore, to choose wisely among the variety of options within the marketplace of online learning.

Given their past track records of success in online learning and internet services, the three courseware options discussed in this article are good options for individual educators as well as their organizations to consider for online courseware. While no one can predict the future with absolute certainly, it does appear that online learning will continue to grow in popularity in the years ahead. Many companies and investors are literally banking on this trend. Eduventures.com Inc. predicts the higher education e-learning market alone (not including K-12 education) will grow from $4 billion to $11 billion by 2003.

Thankfully, online courseware services like those described here can make the transition to a web-based or hybrid course a much less painful experience for educators than past software tools could. For many, the process will prove to be not only challenging and rewarding, but also a lot fun, as students are provided with new educational opportunties thanks to the proper use of technology tools in the hands of skilled educators.

Wesley Fryer is the Director of Distance Learning for the College of Education at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. His educational technology website is http://www.wtvi.com/teks .Contact him at wesfryer@yahoo.com

Source : http://www.wtvi.com/teks/01_02_articles/onlinecourseware.html