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The Potential & Pitfalls of Online Course Management: Experiences in a Large-Scale Freshman Program

John A. Merrill, Mary Lamont, and Richard J. Freuler The Ohio State University

Introduction

In the past two academic years, the Freshman Programs at The Ohio State University's College of Engineering have incorporated an online course management system to help with the implementation of a curriculum for over 1,000 first-year students. The instructional team consists of faculty, graduate teaching assistants, undergraduate peer mentors, lab supervisors, and a central office staff. A systematic method was needed to ensure continuity of materials and instruction across multiple sections each week throughout the quarter, to support communication among student teams, and to provide a coordinated vehicle for program assessment. This paper describes the selection of an online environment for course management, including the administrative and training requirements that must be met for ongoing implementation.

The College chose to participate in a site license for the use of WebCT, through the University’s Office of Technology Enhanced Learning and Research. Although WebCT is primarily designed for a distance-learning environment (which is not the delivery mode in use by the Freshman Programs), it offers many features that are useful for course management. The instructional team has used the online environment to provide students with up-to-date course information, an electronic grade-book, animated presentation material, study guides, communication tools and links to evaluation instruments. Student access is password-protected for the course and section in which they are enrolled.

One of the benefits in utilizing these tools is that students have to assume more responsibility over their own progress. They can submit assignments, view their grades progressively throughout the quarter, check the daily syllabus, participate in a class calendar, and access information about their instructional team. However, some of the pitfalls that exist are the amount of time to prepare and load materials by the administrative staff, and occasional problems with the server or computer equipment. Overall, the online environment provides the Freshman Programs with a means to keep a large-scale program organized and to achieve its goals.

This paper will describe the key features used by the instructional team and by the students, with an analysis of the lessons learned for implementing, maintaining, and improving an online environment that supports a large-scale and dynamic program.

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Lamont, M., & Merrill, J., & Freuler, R. (2002, June), The Potential & Pitfalls Of Online Course Management: Experiences In A Large Scale Freshman Program Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10572