UDMessenger

Volume 12, Number 4, 2004


In the classroom

As UD began building its network in earnest, it found that constantly evolving new technologies had a place beyond student services and business practices, and those were soon incorporated in classrooms and laboratories.

"With our students and our staff fully wired and involved, it led naturally to use of new technologies by our faculty," Roselle says.

"By nature, our faculty has a curiosity about better ways to teach," Roselle adds, "and their response to new technology has been very encouraging."

The University provides a wide range of tools to faculty and students in support of the core mission of teaching, learning and research, according to Hollowell. "We very much view technology as a utility and set of tools that support these activities and we feel that we are providing a very rich technology environment," he says.

"Academic enterprise in relation to teaching and learning is a huge area," Susan Foster, vice president for Information Technologies, says.

Provost Dan Rich says UD's faculty is recognized as a national leader in the effective use of new instructional technologies.

"Beyond the use of new instructional technologies in classrooms and laboratories, UD is notable for the widespread adoption of online course management systems and student advisement systems," he says. "In addition, a growing number of faculty use advanced instructional technologies to support new initiatives in distance learning. At the University of Delaware, technology is used to supplement and strengthen faculty instruction in ways that enhance student learning."

UD offers professors a variety of resources for training in new technologies, including the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, the Center for Teaching Effectiveness, the PRESENT, a resource center for teaching with technology, and the WebCT course management system.

The Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education has received national attention for its emphasis on problem-based learning, which integrates new technologies in an educational process based on cooperative research and solutions.

The Center for Teaching Effectiveness, with headquarters in the leading-edge Gore Hall classroom building, is dedicated to faculty development in instruction and offers a variety of programs, including extensive information on the use of technology in the classroom.

The PRESENT is designed to bridge the gap between what it calls "gee whiz" gadgetry and effective use of technological tools in the classroom. With a simulated classroom in Smith Hall, it provides faculty and other teaching staff a place to explore technology-based teaching and learning options through hands-on evaluation of available tools.

One of those tools is WebCT, a course management system that facilitates web-based teaching and learning through administrative and educational technologies in a virtual work space. It provides for an online syllabus, lecture notes, handouts, assignments, discussion and even quizzes and examinations, by incorporating text, images, e-mail, streaming video and web links.

In the fall 2003 semester, about 500 courses offered at UD had WebCT content, according to Leila Lyons, director of IT-User Services. That is up from just 50 courses three years ago. In addition, Lyons says about 11,000 students are enrolled in WebCT courses.

The College of Health and Nursing Sciences has used WebCT to design training programs for U.S. Figure Skating Association judges, and the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics plans to use WebCT in master of business administration courses at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Foster says use of these new technologies is important because students have a high level of confidence and competence in the use of computers when they arrive on campus. As a result, their expectations of supplemental technologies in the educational process are very high.

University faculty members have shown themselves to be very open to use of new technologies in the classroom, as evidenced by consistently strong enrollment in Teaching, Learning and Technology Faculty Institutes that are offered following the spring and fall semesters.

"We don't require faculty to use technology, but they do," Roselle says. "In fact, for six years, large numbers of faculty voluntarily have been attending week-long faculty development seminars--the Faculty Institutes--on making the best use of technology in their classrooms. The result is an environment in which faculty and Information Technologies people alike feel free to present ideas and to seek out ideas. Their goal, and our goal, is to the make our entire campus a learning place."

Technology is used in a wide variety of fields, perhaps most visibly in the sciences and engineering but also in such areas of study as fashion design, visual communications, art conservation, foreign languages and literatures, English, psychology and criminal justice, to name a few.

Many classroom and laboratory experiences are being enhanced by technology, including those in one of the University's largest courses, Biology 104. The course involves hundreds of students, who are taught by more than a dozen different faculty members and graduate teaching assistants, and who must learn to master a compound microscope for laboratory work.

Developed through a Technology Enhanced Course Redesign grant, the course now has as an important component in an online virtual microscope that students can learn to use even before they reach the lab.

Students can learn about the microscope and then actually use it from a computer screen in the comfort of their dorm room. The virtual microscope has a variety of moving parts that students can adjust, and there are even virtual slides for them to study.

Lyons says the project was highlighted at a conference and on the web site of the New Media Consortium, an international consortium of 200 leading colleges, universities and museums dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.

Students in the University's successful apparel design program have been on the cutting edge for many years through Computer Aided Design, or CAD. UD was one of the first three universities to receive the technology, in 1982, and graduates say the training provides a key skill that proves very marketable in a highly competitive field.

Teachers of students in kindergarten through grade 12 who are pursuing their master of instruction degrees in UD's School of Education are required to assemble a portfolio of their work, from lesson plans to samples of student work to videotapes of themselves in front of their class. In a pilot project, some of those teachers now create their portfolios electronically, posting the exhibits of their work on the web and in CD-ROM form, which is more portable and flexible to use.

For graduates with bachelor's degrees in nutrition and dietetics who must complete an internship to earn their registered dietitian credentials, UD now offers its program in a web-based format. Students perform internship duties at approved locations of their choice around the country, complete written assignments on the web and communicate with faculty by e-mail. The preceptors overseeing the students' clinical work also report to UD electronically. The program is especially popular with students whose family or work responsibilities require them to live in areas with no local dietitian internship programs.

And, in specially equipped wireless classrooms, a new interdisciplinary project is under way in which students in such fields as criminal justice, consumer studies and physics and astronomy are using laptops to work on projects and classroom assignments in small groups.

UD visual communications students rely heavily on desktop computers in advertising design, graphic design and interactive media applications, and students in the internationally renowned art conservation program use a variety of high-technology tools, including spectroscopy, to learn about and preserve works of art and cultural artifacts.

In addition, technology has been a major tool in enabling the College of Marine Studies to both study the wonders of the deep sea and also share them with tens of thousands of schoolchildren around the world during its annual Extreme expeditions to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

The 2001 expedition saw the first successful attempt to sequence DNA while at sea, using pioneering technologies, and the 2002 dive provided select students from around the world an opportunity to communicate with scientists aboard the submersible Alvin while they plunged to Pacific floor. Students also are linked to the expeditions through e-mail contact with the researchers, and through colorful and innovative web sites.

An exceptionally important campus learning resource is the University of Delaware Library, which has been an active partner in developing and making use of new technologies for many years.

The DELCAT online card catalog was completed in 1996, when all bibliographic records were transferred from the old wooden card catalog containers to the network.

Besides searching the electronic bookshelves, library users can find out what books they have checked out by logging in online.

In addition, faculty members across the campus have electronic access to hundreds of journals and databases.

Hollowell says the University's library resources available online are "among the best in the country."

While all UD students use technology in virtually every aspect of their academic life, there are several specific majors, minors and courses for those who want to learn to design computers or explore their workings and uses in depth.

In the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Computer and Information Sciences offers undergraduates two degree choices. The bachelor of science degree in computer and information sciences provides a strong technical education in computer systems, software development and theory of computation. Students who want to emphasize the design of new software technology for use in business applications can pursue a bachelor of science degree in information systems.

Students in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics can enroll in a new major leading to a bachelor of science degree in management information systems. This degree is intended for students who want to learn how to use information technology to solve business problems.

Another undergraduate program is the College of Engineering's bachelor of science degree in computer engineering. Students in that major learn to apply electrical engineering principles to the design of computers, computer networks or systems that include computers.

A graduate program in the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy leads to a master of science degree in hospitality information management. The goal of that program is to prepare graduates for successful careers as corporate hospitality information managers, consultants and systems implementation professionals. When UD began the master's degree program in 2001, it was the only one of its kind in the nation.

According to Douglass F. Taber, professor of organic chemistry, the University's investment in technology has extended the teaching and learning time available to both professors and students. "It improves the learning experience a great deal," Taber says. "Instead of 50 minutes per session a few times a week, learning is now something that goes on all the time." He has made available old examinations and assignments, which students can access online at their convenience.

Faculty members are appreciative of the University's work in building the network, Taber says, adding, "It makes a big difference in instruction."