http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/feenberg/TELE3.HTM
Distance Learning: Promise or Threat?
Andrew Feenberg
My Adventures in Distance Learning
Once the stepchild of the academy, distance learning is finally taken seriously. But not in precisely the way early innovators like myself had hoped. It is not faculty who are in the forefront of the movement to network education. Instead politicians, university administrations and computer and telecommunications companies have decided there is money in it. But proposals for a radical "retooling" of the university emanating from these sources are guaranteed to provoke instant faculty hostility.
Today I find myself in the paradoxical position of defending my own understanding of distance learning against both its foes on the faculty and its advocates in the administration.
In 1981 I worked on the design team that created the first online educational program. This was the School of Management and Strategic Studies at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California. The School offered courses taught by humanistic social scientists addressing major issues, such as globalization, environmentalism, urban planning, philosophy of technology, and so on. For nearly ten years, I helped with the operation of the School, trained teachers, and myself taught courses in it.
At the time online education was essentially untried. The equipment was expensive and primitive. We used Apple IIE's with 48K of memory and 300 baud modems. (Multiply by 1000 and 100 respectively to get current averages.) The complexity of basic computer operations in those days was such that it took a full page of printed instructions just to connect. A variant of email called computer conferencing was the only available electronic mediation.
Computer conferencing was suited to our application since it facilitated the sort of many-to-many communication that goes on in the classroom, but no one knew how to use it for education. None of us had ever been a student in an online class or seen one in operation, and we did not know the answers to the most elementary pedagogical questions, such as how to start a class, how long or short messages should be, and how often the teacher should sign on and respond to the students.
We soon discovered that computer conferencing was not very useful for delivering lectures, and of course it could not support any graphical contents, even the simple drawings teachers like to scribble on the blackboard. But these limitations led us to explore a Socratic pedagogy based on virtual classroom discussion that proved quite successful.
The school grew to include over 150 students in 26 countries around the world. It pioneered many of the features of online education taken for granted today. These include typical teacher and student roles and relationships, techniques for organizing discussion in a virtual classroom, ways of combining aspects of technical moderating and educational leadership, the use of informal chatting and "café" conferences, specialized client-server software, and and so on.
Other experiments soon benefited from our example and added their own contributions. Among the earliest were online classes at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, The New School for Social Research, The University of Arizona, Tucson, The Ontario Institute for the Study of Education, and the Open University in England.
These experiments were all championed by enthusiastic professors who involved their students in an adventure on the frontiers of technology. At first growth was slow, but in the last ten years online education has attracted much attention and seems well on its way to becoming a standard feature of the modern university. I am proud to have had a role in this development.
Consider, then, my surprise when I heard rumours last year that something called online education was coming to my university, San Diego State University, under the sponsorship of Microsoft, Hughes Aircraft, Fujitsu, and MCI! This initiative, called CETI, was supposed to build a $300 million information infrastructure to support virtual learning on our multi-campus system. Our classrooms and dorms were to be hardwired to the internet; we were to have video conferencing, various computer based teaching aids, electronic distance learning, and production facilities for marketable prepackaged courses to be sold by the CETI consortium for a profit.
CETI was opposed, sometimes violently, by most faculty and students. There were two main objections. First, both teachers and students doubted the educational value of networking, and second, some faculty members were upset by the commercial goal of CETI, the delivery of higher education through the market outside the context of a university community. What was once a daring faculty innovation had come to be perceived as a big business takeover of the campus.
I am no more enthusiastic about trading an academic job for one at Microsoft than the next faculty member, but this unqualified rejection of online education contradicts our experience at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute. There the virtual classroom was a place of intense intellectual and human interaction.
Literally hundreds of highly intelligent comments were contributed to our computer conferences each month by both students and teachers. The quality of these online discussions surpasses anything I have been able to stimulate in my face-to-face classroom. As CETI became a common topic of discussion on my campus, I wondered why my colleagues did not share my interest in this innovative medium.
My puzzlement was soon to end. Our new systemwide Chancellor, Dr. Charles Reed, was due for a get acquainted visit. As he was leaving I finally had a chance to ask him the question that most bothered me: What is the pedagogical model that has guided CETI? The Chancellor looked at me as though I'd laid an egg, and said, "We've got the engineering plan. It's up to you faculty to figure out what to do with it." And off he went: subject closed!
Would you build a house this way or design a new kind of car or refrigerator? Surely it is important to find out how the thing is going to be used before committing a lot of resources to a specific plan or design. Yet this was not at all the order in which our Chancellor understood the process. Why not? I would guess it is because he did not conceive of the technology of online education as a system, including novel pedagogical challenges, but as an infrastructure, an "information superhighway," down which we faculty were invited to drive. And just as drivers are not consulted about how to build the roads, so faculty were not much involved in designing the educational superhighway.
But this overworked metaphor is altogether inappropriate. In the case of educational computing, the choice of infrastructure will largely determine the applications. If corporations rather than faculty are consulted about this choice, the outcome will be entirely different from the ideal of educational community to which faculty are attached by their culture and traditions. The ambition of CETI to make and market computer and video based courses illustrated that difference.
The CETI story has a significant ending. Public outcry against it grew gradually as faculty and students protested on campus, in the newspapers, and before legislative committees. Legal and financial questions were raised about mixing public and private assets, and finally the companies pulled out one by one. The initiative collapsed and will now be replaced by a more modest plan paid for out of public monies, as is proper. The faculty will shed no tears over having to wait a bit longer for their first ride on the electronic infobahn.
Education and Economics
CETI teaches an important lesson about the different ways in which most administrators and faculty understand distance learning and its technology. I will try to sketch what I take to be these different perspectives. Of course generalizations such as those I am about to formulate do not apply universally, but it is a fact that the distance learning debate polarizes around two hostile positions that usually correspond to the different roles of administration and faculty.
For too many administrators the big issues are not educational. The fiscal implications of electronic distance learning are what is interesting to them. Aministrators hope to use new technology to finesse the coming crisis in higher education spending, and to accomodate exploding enrollments of young people and returning students. Innovations like video conferencing and automated online education will make it possible to improve quality through the use of "star" professors while cutting costs of delivery. Students in virtual classrooms need no new parking structures. What is more, courses can be packaged and marketed, generating a continuous revenue stream without further investment.
But can new technology accomplish the existing educational mission for larger numbers at a discount? Two main solutions have been proposed during the current wave of enthusiasm for distance learning.
Video conferencing allows a professor to address a large numer of students in remote locations. Live interaction can be supported by a two-way video feed. The physical presence of teachers and students in the classroom can be reproduced electronically at some cost but more students can be served without expanding existing campuses.
Automation offers a more radical solution with large start up costs but promising far greater savings in the long run. In an automated system, the teacher's physical presence in the classroom is reproduced on CD ROM or made available over the Internet. Exciting computer based graphical materials can replace dull textbooks. Research on the Internet can replace hours spent in libraries. Testing and grading can be done online. Even essay tests can be graded by powerful programs for textual analysis.
The key to automation is to separate out informational "content" from "process." A small number of well paid "content experts" will work as "star" performers, while the delivery process is deskilled so that inexpensive tutors can handle interaction with students. In a really low cost solution, discussion can be replaced by automated exercises. Eventually it will be possible to dispense with campuses altogether. Students will pick out courses at an educational equivalent of Blockbuster and "do" college at home without ever meeting a faculty member or fellow student.
Is this for real? Unfortunately many people think it is. Coopers and Lybrand have published a white paper in which they claim that 25 packaged courses can take care of half of community college and 35% of four year college enrollments. They are convinced that students will learn just as much if not more, and they will be free to study at their own pace. In educational terms, nothing fundamental will change except cost and convenience, those two favorite selling points marketers like to emphasize.
It's quite a vision, but few faculty buy it. Where administrators see educational "content" as the constant and economics as the variable, faculty see education as the variable and economics as the constant.
Most faculty cannot imagine simply reproducing the learning experience of a face-to-face classroom online. Distance learning, like it or not, will be a paradigm change, a change, many faculty fear, for the worse. Faculty skepticism is of course due in part to resistance to innovation and fear of change, as administrators charge. But they are, after all, the professionals and know something about the difficulties and opportunities of conventional classroom teaching. They have reasons to doubt that an item by item electronic replacement of their classroom is possible.
Faculty consistently anticipate specific losses with respect to face-to-face teaching in an electronic classroom. How, they ask, can one duplicate the learning experience of a highly interactive classroom on an electronic network, and how can one reproduce the wealth of informal human contacts that add so much to education on a campus? How can the intense moments of human interaction which mark our memories and our lives ever occur in a sterile electronic environment experienced in the isolation of the home? Students confirm what faculty suspect, that they are poor TV performers, that it is boring to watch them on the little screen. And both faculty and students complain that computer programs that are supposed to replace specific teaching tasks, such as guiding students through exercises, are often difficult to use or even incomprehensible.
On the other hand, faculty detect continuity in administration enthusiasm for cost-cutting at the expense of traditional educational roles and values. Between 1970 and 1995, the number of full-time faculty increased by about half, while over the same period part-time faculty grew by two and one half times. If the trend continues, part-timers will overtake full-timers on college campuses in three years. At community colleges, they are already in the majority. This worrying trend parallels the growth of the nontraditional or returning student population, which now constitutes the majority of students in higher education.
These students require different course schedules than the traditional ones to which faculty are attached. Largely because of this, adult education has developed outside the standard academic departments and procedures under direct administrative control. As a result, a vast parallel system of higher education has emerged in which faculty have low status and little power. Since it serves adult learners, precisely the students most likely to be open to distance learning, this parallel system has a free hand to experiment even if traditional universities resist.
These trends set a precedent for adminstration strategies. A straight route down the information superhighway leads from the deprofessionalization to the deskilling of higher education. The replacement of full time by part-time faculty is merely the opening act in the plan to replace the faculty as such by CD ROMs. A new economic model of education is being sold under the guise of a new technological model. This is the route to what David Noble calls "digital diploma mills." Understandably, this is not a route many faculty wish to travel.
The Question of Distance Learning Technology
I believe there are two closely linked problems here. First, the source of innovation has shifted from faculty to administration; and second, the nature of the innovation has shifted as well, from text to video based communication. In what follows I will attempt to explain this linkage between actors and their preferred technological designs.
When faculty were lonely champions of the new distance learning technologies, their primary goal was pedagogical success. They had few resources and relied on inexpensive technologies such as email. They were engaged through their vocation as teachers, their commitment to finding new and exciting ways to transmit knowledge and culture. Their principal allies were students interested in playing with computers, and occasionally companies willing to donate equipment. This was a world of tentative experiments in which the stakes were small and near term expectations low.
The present administration dominated phase of the development of distance learning is very different. Now it's all about efficiency and, ultimately, money. And there is plenty of it for high tech approaches to education, if not to staff the French department. Contrary to the popular impression that the academic world is poor, universities in fact spend about $200 billion a year in the US. That is 34 times the revenue of the movie business according to the calculations of Christopher Oberg from whom I draw these figures. Administrators command these resources and corporations know it.
Huge sums are involved in the purchase of elaborate networks. Corporations are major players and find a ready audience for their most expensive technologies among adminstrators, all too easily dazzled by the sales pitch for video-conferencing, automated learning, and the Internet. Big investments in technology today are supposed to pay off in savings on facilities and salaries tomorrow, although the details remain fuzzy. Pedagogical objectives take the back seat to prestige and budgetary ones. Faculty and students are not allies but obstacles to be swept along by the inevitable momentum of progress.
The shift from faculty to administration centered innovation is more than a shift in actors and their allies. It is also a shift in what might be called spontaneous philosophies of technology. By this I mean that administrators typically have a different vision of technology and what it can accomplish than faculty.
Perhaps this is due to the influence of corporations. Salesmen seem often to have the ear of administrators in a way faculty do not, and they use their access to sell not just devices but also the content/process distinction which gives plausibility to their claim to be able to revolutionize something called educational "delivery" without much attention to faculty needs. The faculty already know how to teach and the technology is there to "deliver" the existing classroom experience online. From the standpoint of this dubious doctrine, it seems natural to suggest that new tools be used simply to reproduce the classroom experience or better still, to automate its elements and deliver it as a package.
The aim of reproducing or automating the classroom feeds directly into a preference for video, which seems to offer the closest equivalent to the classroom experience. If administrators believe that, they may buy these expensive tools in the expectation that faculty will be able simply to pick them up and use them. This is naive, even from a business standpoint. But in fact universities do not seem anxious to make the enormous expenditures on adaptation and training that typically accompany the acquisition of complex new computer systems in the business world. A perverse fascination with capital investment seems to be involved.
Faculty, when they actually engage with the new teaching technology, sense immediately that it is not mature, that electronics is not there yet as a ready tool. In the actual experience of online education, technology is not a predefined thing at all, but an environment, an empty space faculty must inhabit and enliven. They have a craft relation to the technologies rather than a development strategy. They try to get the feel of it and figure out how to animate it.
This difference is reflected in different technological emphases. Live video, with its complicated and intimidating apparatus, holds little attraction for either teachers or students. While it would be nice to be a "star" professor in an automated virtual class, most faculty do not aspire to that exalted status. To the extent that they are interested at all today, most faculty appreciate the graphical capabilities of computers in a different connection, as aids to presenting information and exercises in computer labs. But these applications are better compared to textbooks than to classrooms; they are supplements to, rather than replacements for, classroom teaching.
Although neither video conferencing nor automated learning have caught on with faculty, there is a long history of enthusiasm among at least a small group of them for interactive text based applications such as computer conferencing. These experiences go back to a time when there were no more elaborate alternatives; it is widely assumed that the introduction of image and sound renders earlier approaches obsolete. But perhaps that is a mistake. The latest equipment is not always the best for the task. Could it be that our earliest experiences with computer conferencing were not merely constrained by the primitive equipment then available, but also revealed the essence of electronically mediated education? I believe this to be the case. Even after all these years the exciting online pedagogical experiences still involve human interactions and for the most part these continue to be text based.
But here is the rub: interactive text based applications lack the pizazz of video alternatives and cannot promise automation, nor can they be packaged and sold. On the contrary, they are labor intensive and will probably not cut costs very much. Hence the lack of interest from corporations and administrators, and the gradual eclipse of these technological options by far more expensive ones. But unlike the fancy alternatives, interactive text based systems actually accomplish legitimate pedagogical objectives faculty can recognize and respect. There are good reasons for this.
Considered as an environment, the world of online interaction has properties that determine its appropriate use. Just as a concert hall is a space appropriate for different activities than a living room, so the electronically mediated spaces of computer networks are also suited to specific activities. It would of course be possible to conduct a class in a restaurant, or dine on a basketball court, but the results would likely be disappointing. Similar abuse of the online environment will also yield disappointing outcomes. But this is precisely what happens when we try to reproduce a face-to-face classroom online or on CD ROM.
The basic fact about computer networks is scarcity of bandwidth. Even with all the recent advances, we are far from being able to reproduce the actual experience of human proximity in space. Indeed, it is hard to imagine in what that would consist. What kind of network would make it possible to bump into someone on the way into class and make a new friend, to carry on a heated discussion after the end of the hour, to catch the professor's eye and exchange an instantaneous glance in which boredom or alertness is tacitly expressed?
On the other hand, we have a well established method for communicating in a narrow bandwidth. It's called writing. And we have a rich experience of using writing to overcome the limitations of bandwidth. Writing is thus not a poor substitute for physical presence and speech, but another fundamental medium of expression with its own properties and powers. It is not impersonal, as is sometimes supposed. We know how to present ourselves as persons through writing; this is what correspondence is all about. Nor is it harder to write about ideas than to talk about them; most people can formulate difficult ideas more easily in written form than in speech in front of an audience.
These considerations on writing hold the key to online education. The online environment is essentially a space for written interaction. This is its limitation and also its potential. Electronic networks should be appropriated by educational institutions with this in mind, and not turned into poor copies of the face-to-face classroom which they can never adequately reproduce.
While interactive writing is the basic medium of expression on networks, in recent years we have learned to enhance the network experience with sound and image, and that is a good thing. But writing is the basic medium of online expression, the skeleton around which other technologies and experiences must be organized to build a viable learning environment.
In online education as in the classroom, we must be careful to distinguish the basic medium from the enhancements and not to confuse their roles. Speech is the basic medium in the classroom, and we supplement it with labs, movies, slides, text books, computer demonstrations, and so on. Similar, enhancements to the written medium are possible on networks. But confusing the medium with the supplementary enhancements leads to the pedagogical absurdity of teacherless education.
To replace online written interaction with the enhancements makes no more sense than to replace the teacher in the face-to-face classroom with labs, movies, slides, text books, and computer demonstrations. That was tried with educational television and computer-aided instruction long ago with no success.
What does this say about the ambition to replace campuses with virtual universities? Large markets for distance learning will undoubtedly emerge, and this will be a blessing for many students who cannot attend college classes. But if we cut higher education loose from the the traditional university and its values, the blessing will turn into a disaster. The best way to maintain the connection is through insuring that distance learning is "delivered" not just by CD ROMs, but by living teachers, fully qualified to teach and interested in doing so online.
Then prepackaged materials will be seen to replace not the teacher as a mentor and guide but the lecture and the textbook. Interaction with the professor will continue to be the centerpiece of education, no matter what the medium. And of course for most people that interaction will continue to take place on campus if they have the means and the mobility to attend a college.
There is some evidence that students share this view despite the marketing hype for distance learning. In its first weeks, after $9.5 million in expenditures, the Western Governors University had only 10 enrollments. This disappointing start for a major initiative in online education may have been due in part to embarrassing technical difficulties, but it also signals that, whatever its usefulness, distance learning is unlikely to be the panacea claimed by its commercial promoters.
Conclusions
Let me summarize now the conclusions I draw from these reflections.
First, administrators and businessmen should forget the idea that distance learning systems based on videoconferencing or CD ROMs and star professors will replace face-to-face classroom education. The dream of automating the educational process has failed so often in the past that there is little reason to take it seriously on this, the nth round.
Second, politicians need to be realistic about the future costs of higher education. Distance learning is not going to be a cheap replacement for campuses. Some other solution to the parking problem will have to be found. The campus experience will remain in demand for the foreseeable future.
Third, the overselling of foolish ideas about technology should not be allowed to discredit the whole field of online education. We as faculty need to get beyond defensive contempt for this significant educational innovation and look at specific designs with legitimate pedagogical objectives in mind.
Fourth, the educational technologists themselves need to continue to work creatively with faculty and students to devise truly viable applications that fulfill real needs. There are good reasons for sticking with interactive text based systems systems and supplementing them with visual and other online resources, rather than attempting to duplicate face-to-face education online. The design challenge of improving the original text based systems is well worth pursuing.
Fifth, we must give serious thought to the implications of student diversity. The influx of returning students over the past 15 years has had major benefits for many people who missed the opportunity to finish their schooling in adolescence. New educational formats have been developed that work better for them than the traditional residential college teaching schedule. But these innovations have gone along with a devastating deprofessionalization that has gutted the occupation of university professor of security and respect for approximately half of all current faculty. The idea that distance learning can now deskill the already half deprofessionalized profession is so obnoxious that I can see why many faculty believe its advocates should be run off the campuses.
However, negativism is not enough. The failure of the faculties to demand the right and privilege of teaching returning students, to innovate new formats appropriate to their needs, and to exercise control of their education has led to the current situation. The systematic rejection of online education will not stop further deprofessionalization. The dream of automation under cover of which this process will go forward deserves criticism, of course, but that should not become an alibi for ignoring real dangers and opportunities. The faculty must accept the responsibility now for shaping distance learning, and in the process, it should also attempt to reclaim ground lost in the development of programs for returning students.
References
Farber, Jerry (1998). "The Third Circle: On Education and Distance Learning," Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 41, No. 4, 1998.
Feenberg, Andrew (1987). "Computer Conferencing and the Humanities," Instructional Science, 16.
Feenberg, Andrew (1993). "Building a Global Network: The WBSI Experience," in L. Harasim, ed., Global Networks: Computerizing the International Community, MIT Press.
Harasim, Linda, S. R. Hiltz, L. Teles, and M. Turoff (1995). Learning Networks: A Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Noble, David (1998). "Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education." Digital Diploma Mills Conference, Harvey Mudd College.
Oberg, Christopher (1998). "The Price of Information Technology in the Future of Higher Education." Digital Diploma Mills Conference, Harvey Mudd College.
Back to my main page.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
MERLOT
http://voices.merlot.org/group/merlot101/forum/topics/merlot-101-spring-2009-week-2-1
MERLOT is unique in that many teaching materials are peer reviewed by content experts. Please use the Browse function to get a "hit list" of materials in your discipline. As discussed today, "the cream rises to the top," so the highest rated materials appear first on your hit list.
Select one of the materials in your discipline and read the Peer Review (just click on the Peer Review link). After reading the Peer Review, answer the following questions:
1. Is this material something you would use in your class? Why or why not?
2. How beneficial was the Peer Review to your decision? Why or why not?
3. Please comment on MERLOT Peer Reviews in general.
4. Did you think about making a Member Comment?
About Us
MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, searchable collection of peer reviewed and selected higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT's vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.
MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses.
MERLOT’s activities are based on the creative collaboration and support of Individual Members,
Institutional Partners, Corporate Partners and Editorial Boards.
Integral to MERLOT’s continuing development of faculty development support services are its:
• Building and sustaining online academic communities
• Online teaching and learning initiatives
• Building, organizing, reviewing, and developing applications of online teaching-learning materials
MERLOT maintains its currency through ongoing and continuing communication with its worldwide supporters in a variety of ways, including the annual MERLOT International Conference, the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), member publications, news, and our new Voices website to enable MERLOT users to communication with others.
MERLOT is unique in that many teaching materials are peer reviewed by content experts. Please use the Browse function to get a "hit list" of materials in your discipline. As discussed today, "the cream rises to the top," so the highest rated materials appear first on your hit list.
Select one of the materials in your discipline and read the Peer Review (just click on the Peer Review link). After reading the Peer Review, answer the following questions:
1. Is this material something you would use in your class? Why or why not?
2. How beneficial was the Peer Review to your decision? Why or why not?
3. Please comment on MERLOT Peer Reviews in general.
4. Did you think about making a Member Comment?
About Us
MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, searchable collection of peer reviewed and selected higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT's vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.
MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses.
MERLOT’s activities are based on the creative collaboration and support of Individual Members,
Institutional Partners, Corporate Partners and Editorial Boards.
Integral to MERLOT’s continuing development of faculty development support services are its:
• Building and sustaining online academic communities
• Online teaching and learning initiatives
• Building, organizing, reviewing, and developing applications of online teaching-learning materials
MERLOT maintains its currency through ongoing and continuing communication with its worldwide supporters in a variety of ways, including the annual MERLOT International Conference, the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), member publications, news, and our new Voices website to enable MERLOT users to communication with others.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Structure of the Open University (UK)
Professors - Tutors
Are they really interested in online degrees?
Are they really interested in online degrees?
Italy's International Telematic University (Didactic Cyberspace)
http://www.uninettunouniversity.net/e/main.asp?id=040001010000000001000000010300000000
Dear Student of the International Telematic UNINETTUNO,
this document has been drawn up by your tutors in the hope that your path to learning and professional growth will prove in an engaging and enyoyable experience that will be enriched on a daily basis with new stimuli and contents.
The primeobjective of our university is to facilitate access to knowledge for all citizens of the world, without space or time limitations.
This goal is pursued through the carrying out of adidactic model, which has been developed through years of research in the field by Prof. Maria Amata Garito, full professor of "Technologies of Education and Learning", Psychology Faculty, at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rector of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO and Director of Network Nettuno.
The present guidelines are presented in two parts:
•in thefirst part, you will learn how the Learning Process is developed within the didactic model of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, in which teaching materials are presented in modules and the didactic activities are carried out in both a traditional and long distance fashion;
•in the second part, you will learn how the Didactic Cyberspace, is laid out. This is where all of the distance learning activities are carried out.
1. The Learning Process
1.1 How the teaching materials are delivered
The didactic approach of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO does not follow a traditional semester plan. Instead, it unfolds as teaching materials are presented. All of the teaching activities of the Degree Courses at the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO are delivered in modules of a variable duration based on the academic credits of the given course. These are repeated four times each academic year.
Right by your side, to guide you along your study path, there will be two professional figures:
•the Mentor, who is concerned with making you feel at home and offering support for the duration of your degree course. Your mentor will listen to your needs and guarantee optimum conditions for the learning process;
•theTutor, specific for each teaching subject, has the task of facilitating your learning process and communication on the web. Your tutor will provide you with the necessary instruments in order to get the most out of your studies, guiding you up to the final exam.
For each teaching subject the students are divided into classes on the basis of individual profiles that are the result of the Entrance Questionnaire that students fill out at the moment of enrolment. A tutor is assigned to each class, which can contain up to 30 students. This applies to all of the Faculties, with the exception of the Degree Course of the Engineering Faculty where the classes can contain a maximum of 20 students.
During the period of time in which teaching is carried out, your tutor will follow your progress as the didactic activity unfolds, furnishing you with ad hoc learning materials and interacting with you through the available systems of communication. These you will find on theTutor Page of the Didactic Cyberspace.
To earn1 academic credit,remember that according to the rules currently in effect one must carry out 25 hours of activity. These are broken down as follows:
•5 hours of videolessons that you will find in digitalized format in the Video Library of the Didactic Cyberspace; these video lessons will take 10 hours of your time, as we think it is appropriate that you follow each lesson twice;
•10 hours of individual study on texts and exercises that you will find in the Media Library and the Virtual Laboratory of the Didactic Cyberspace;
•5 hours of activity assisted by the Tutor.
For example, if a teaching subject comprises 25 video-lessons (of 1 hour each), you will earn 5 academic credits through:
•50 total hours of viewing of the video lessons (2 hours for each video lesson);
•50 hours of individual study;
•25 hours of activity assisted by the Tutor.
When the teaching subject has been persented in its entirety, exam sessions will be organized.
1.2 Traditional and long distance didactic activities
For each teaching subject, the starting point of your learning process is the viewing of academic video lessons, which are available on the Internet in the Didactic Cyberspace – Video Library Sections – and broadcasted on the satellite channel RAI NETTUNO SAT 1.
The videolessons present the following characteristics:
•modular contents;
•indexing of the themes treated in the lesson;
•bookmark, that is to say a graphic icon representing a link to the learning object.
Each video-lesson is divided into topics and created with a predefined indexing system which allows for flexible use. You can see an entire video lesson in a linear fashion or follow a non-linear itinerary, thus choosing the topics that you wish to study in greater depth along with the connected study materials.
The slide presented by the Video Professor during the video lesson constitute an important support tool for your studies: you can use them as a basis for your notes, a means by which you can create your own network of links between topics and write your personal notebook.
The video lessons, furnished with their relative slides, are enriched with didactic materials known as a learning object, these are signaled during the course of the video lesson by an icon link (bookmark) and are made available in the Didactic Cyberspace of the Internet site.
Such materials can comprise the following:
•books and articles (extracts, study activity sheets, etc.);
•Cd-Rom (or DVD);
•Exercises (with answers);
•Virtual laboratories;
•Annotated bibliographies;
•Annotated site links.
The modular organization of the course contents, the indexing of the topics and the bookmarks allow you to develop multimedia and hyper-textual learning processes, leading to a more personalized study path.
The consultation and study of didactic teaching materials will enable you to prepare yourself more thoroughly through studying in greater depth the various topics introduced in the video lesson and through practical application of the concepts learned.
The television interface through which the video lessons are transmitted is structured in the following way:
The web interface for the transmission of the video lessons is structured in the following way instead:
The didactic model of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO allows you to integrate the many advantages of the above-mentioned long distance didactic activities with the benefits that only “face to face” contact can guarantee.
The traditional didactic activities are comprised of the following:
•Direct interaction with the professor and tutor, through “face to face” meetings at the main site and at the Technological Centres;
•Practice activities and seminars, with the assistance of professors and tutors;
•Evaluations and exam sessions at the main site and at the technological centres.
1.3. Tutoring activities
In the proposed Educational Psychology model, the student is at the centre of the educational process, guided however by a new figure known as theTelematic Professor-Tutor, who represents a guide as well as a constant presence during your Learning Process.
The Tutor works in close contact with you and his or her activities are aimed at creating a collaborative and helpful context for your path of study and professional growth.
The long distance Tutoring activities can be carried out in two ways:
- in a synchronic manner;
- in a diachronic manner
The On Line Tutoring or Long distance Tutoring is organized into classes of students, with an advanced agenda system that is able to recognize each individual. The Agenda is the instrument used by both the Tutor and the student in order to fix appointments as well as on line and “face to face” meetings. Using the course agenda as a basis, you can also manage your own personal agenda.
1.3.1. Long distance synchronic Tutoring
You can have a dialogue with your Tutor in real time (Synchronic Tutoring) by using the telephone, the chat room, the video-chat room, video and audio-conference systems activated in the Didactic Cyberspace.
The telephone is traditionally considered by the students to be the most direct and simple means of communication with the Tutor. Also the Tutors maintain that conversing via telephone is still valid for carrying out their role as guide and for supporting the learning process.
The audio and video-conference systems facilitate collaborative learning processes and are therefore well-suited to exercises and group work at a distance.
You can carry out this activity on an individual basis as well through the chat rooms and video-chat rooms that enable you to have a dialogue with the Tutors and with the other students in real time, thus creating true virtual encounters.
1.3.2 Diachronic long distance Tutoring
When communication in real time is not necessary, you can activate a Diachronic Tutoring Session through tools such as e mail and discussion forums on the Internet.
Email allows a rapid exchange of information, documents and materials at a distance.
The discussion forums, related to the topics of a given teaching subject, allow you to extend the dialogue and activate a collaborative learning process. This approach is different compared to the audio and video-conference systems, which rely on oral communication. Here the focus is on writing, which gives you the chance to reflect and organize your thoughts regarding the discussion topic and study activity that you are engaged in.
1.3.3 Face-to-face Tutoring
In Traditional Tutoring, the interaction with the tutor is direct, through individual or group meetings at the main site or at University Technological Centres. These involve seminars and moments of discussion.
They are important occasions where you can benefit from your tutors’ elucidations and more detailed information on subjects that have been previously explained and perhaps were not understood during the long distance tutoring sessions.
The Tutor, during these “face to face” meetings, can discover the depth and breadth of your knowledge and identify eventual problems and weak points in your learning. This is all in the interest of making sure you are on the right study path.
2. The Didactic Cyberspace
The fulcrum of didactic activity on the Internet is represented by the WEB macro-area known as the Didactic Cyberspace, which allows those who participate in this learning process to access the areas relating to their area of study.
In the Didactic Cyberspace a learning and developmental process is implemented through a new approach to communicating knowledge.
There are various ways to access the Didactic Cyberspace through login and passwords on the basis of the three different roles of those who participate in the learning process: Professors, Tutors and Students.
The three categories of those who utilize the service can access information linked to each teaching subject. In particular, the Professor and Tutor can modify or substitute didactic materials and add new ones for the duration of the teaching period, while the student has his or her own area where data, information and personal notes can be inserted.
When you enter the Didactic Cyberspace, you can choose your Faculty and your Degree Course.. Then, through the window entitled List of Teaching Subjects, you can access:
- the The Page of the Appointed Teaching Professor
- the Tutor Page
Within these pages you will find the Learning Environments.
2.1 The Appointed Teaching Professor Page
This contains all of the functions of the Appointed Teaching Professor and allows access to the following areas:
•Curriculum vitae;
•Teaching Program;
•Conceptual Map;
•Didactic Material;
•Didactic Planning;
•Exam Guide;
•Exam Calendar;
•Learning Environments;
•Links to the Tutor Pages
The Teaching Programme is stuctured in such a way as to contain:
•The description, objectives and contents of the subject being taught;
•The specification of necessary prerequisites;
•The reference to exercises relative to the video lessons;
•The indexing of textbooks;
•Key words of the subject being taught;
•Indications as to the methodology along with study suggestions for the subject being taught.
The Concept Map for the teaching subject presents the title of each lesson, a listing of the topics within each lesson along with bookmarks that connect the didactic materials (books and articles, CD-ROM, bibliographies, site links, exercises and virtual laboratories) relating to the various topics that are treated.
The Didactic Material is comprised of elements that have been prepared upon in an ad hoc fashion by the Appointed Teaching Professor. These can include articles, study sheets, exercises, CD-ROM/DVDs and slides. Select materials prepared by students during their collaborative studies may be included at the discretion of the Appointed Teaching Professor.
The Didactic Planning section depends on the number of academic credits, as relates to the amount of work the student does. All of the Teaching Subjects of the Degree Courses at the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO are presented as a series of modules that have a predefined duration according to the number of academic credits attributed to the course, as has been illustrated before. In the Didactic Planning section, the Appointed Teaching Professor will indicate the approach and timing as to his or her teaching programme, the parameters regarding academic credits and other information relative to the teaching subject.
The Exam Guide specifies the following:
•How the exam wil be carried out;
•Prerequisites for admission to the exam;
•The way in which you can reserve a place in order to sit the exam;
•Documents that must be presented in order to take the exam;
•The way in which results are communicated;
•The way in which results are recorded.
The Exam Calendar displays the following:
•dates, schedules and places where exams are held;
•the composition of the exam commission.
The didactic activities unfold within the Learning Environments: the Video library, Media library, Virtual Laboratory and Tutoring On Line. For a detailed description of the different environments, please refer to the dedicated paragraph.
The Links to the Tutor Pages allow the appointed Teaching Professor to have at his or her disposal all of the materials, information and tools relative to his or her own subject.
2.1.1 The Functions of the Appointed teaching Professor
The main activities of the Appointed teaching Professor can be summarized as follows:
•structure the teaching programme or update/adapt the existing one;
•invent or revise the conceptual map of the subject being taught;
•furnish didactic materials for in-depth study;
•didactic planning of the subject;
•make the exam guide available;
•coordinate work with the Tutor;
•organize and lead discussion forums on topical themes of particular relevance to his or her subject;
•test the students at the conclusion of each teaching module.
In particular, the Appointed Teaching Professor, collaboration with the Tutor:
•evaluates the topics of the existing lessons and revises them (by reducing them or by integrating new material) if necessary;
•indexes the video-lessons (available on video cassette) for the dvd layout;
•if necessary, entrusts one or more of the Video Professors with the task of recording new video lessons;
•analyses the existing teaching materials in order to select those that he or she still considers to be valid;
•defines the contents and type of teaching materials to be produced ex novo;
•specifies, for all of the video lessons, the count in minutes in order to signal the bookmarks relating to the didactic material.
In the case of recording new video lessons, each Video Professor,, where collaboration with the Tutor is necessary, is mainly occupied with:
•preparing the professorial lesson slides and recording the video lessons;
•indexing his or her own video lessons for the dvd layout;
•completing the conceptual map of the subject being taught, connecting several types of didactic materials for in-depth study to the video lesson topics. These materials can include books and articles, CD-ROMs, bibliographies, site links and exercises;
•specifying, for all of the video lessons, the minute count details in order to signal the bookmarks relative to the didactic materials.
2.2 The Tutor Page
The on line page for each Tutor of the subject being taught will communicate his or her availabilty (dates and schedules) along with contact details (e-mail, telephone and fax number), whilst in addition allowing access to the following areas:
•Curriculum vitae;;
•Teaching Program;
•Conceptual Map;
•Didactic Materials;
•Didactic Planning;
•Agenda;
•Evaluation and Statistics;
•Learning Environments;
•Links to the Page of the Appointed Teaching Professor;
The Program, Conceptual Map and Didactic Planning of the subject being taught are the same documents that can be found on the Appointed Teaching Professor Page.
The Didactic Material is comprised of:
•subjects that have been explained in an ad hoc fashion by the Tutor on the basis of student profiles and on the results of the qualitative evaluations that the Tutor periodically administers to the students;
•a selection, made by the Tutor, of materials developed by students during their activities with the Tutor or with other students during collaborative learning tasks.
The materials developed or selected by the Tutor represent an integral part of the Media Library and of the Virtual Laboratory, and are aimed at a specific class of students.
The Agenda is the tool that the Tutor uses in order to fix appointments and on line meetings, confirm meeting requests made by students and manage his or her personal agenda.
In the area of Evaluation and Statistics the following are made available:
•the tools of quantitative evaluation, or the statistics tracking the activity of the students (at both the individual and aggregate level). This is done in terms of the number of access times and time of use in the Learning environments on the part of the students as well as by tracking the use of the Tutoring On Line tools, number of exercises completed and the mean average of evaluation and self-evaluation;
•the tools of qualitative evaluation, or the evaluation of each student based on evaluation sheets (with open questions and/or exercise), developed by the Tutor in order to monitor the learning progress of the student in his or her class.
The Tutor Page, as with the Appointed teaching Professor Page, allows access to the four Learning Environments: Video Library, Media Library, Virtual Laboratory and Tutoring On Line.
The Tutor Page contains links to the Appointed Teaching Professor Page in order to facilitate navigating the Didactic Cyberspace..
The Appointed teaching Professor and Tutor can know about the composition of their own classes of students and have access to the pages of single students through the List of Teaching Subjects for Degree Courses window.
As stated before, in the Educational Psychology Model of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, the student is at the centre of the learning process, which is designed on the basis of his or her needs and created through a high level of interactivity between the Professor, Tutor and Student
The professors’ and the tutors’ knowledge of their students is possible by several diverse means, including the entrance Questionnaire, which is filled out during enrolment, and the frequent virtual and face to face meetings with the Mentors and Tutors during the entire course of study.
Each and every student has at his or her disposal a page, called My student page”, that can be personalized at will in such a way as to allow the student to use the various didactic support materials available to better meet his or her needs. This makes it easier for the student to actively contribute to the collaborative educational process.
Your home page offers the following possibilities:
•to personalize your study itinerary by choosing the teaching activities to follow and making note of the last lesson that you have visited in each pf the chosen teaching subjects;
•verify your progress by checking your self-evaluations as well as those of your Tutor and viewing, for every lesson, which didactic materials you have used, how many times and for how long;
•plan your didactic activities, by mean of an Agenda, in order to view appointments in the Chat Rooms, Forums and Virtual Classrooms set by your Tutors, to insert reminders and request intervention on the part of your Tutors;
•send your didactic materials to your Tutors or to your Appointed Teaching Professor which, if selected, can be published on the site and thus made available to the entire scientific community;
•always have at your disposal your Tutors by accessing the Tutor Page with a simple click.
2.2.1 The functions of the Tutor
Within the didactic model adopted by the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, the Tutor plays a crucial role, acting as mediator between the participants in the Learning Process, so that a Network of Knowledge Exchange (NEKE) is created.
The tutoring activity represents one of the most significant moments of learning input and requires a high level of interactivity between Tutor and Student. It has been noted that the student learns through the continuous integration of theoretical knowledge (through the professor’s lessons), concepts that are acquired thanks to examples and advice provided by experts (through discussions and comparing ideas in the Forums) and practice in the field (through exercises guided by the Professor and/or Tutor that are offered singularly and personally to the student).
The Tutoring phase is therefore a necessary complement to the lessons of the professor and to the period of self study that follows.
The Tutor is presented as a “planner” for the learning experiences of the students, a consultant and guide to the Learning Process; thus he becomes a member of the learning team, reducing the risk of isolation on the part of the student.
The Tutor has the task of organizing and making available to the students a series of materials and tools. These match the lessons given telematically and, taken altogether, give a precise picture of the individual topics being taught.
As shown in various studies conducted in the field, the role of the Tutor is considered by the learners to be a sort of interface between the student and the teaching subject; his or her activity should be aimed at creating the interactivity between student and professor that is missing in the video-lessons.
In addition, an undeniable characteristic is the quickness of response. This underlines the need of the students to have someone who represents a constant and reliable presence. The contribution of the Tutor will be even more appreciated with the preparation and correction of written exercises in preparation for the exam. In this way, a didactic ‘semi-guided’ itinerary is created, taking the student up to the final exam with a preparation suited to the needs of each and every program.
The tasks of the Tutor at the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO are orientated towards organization, both their own and that of the students.
The tasks geared towards organization consist of the following:
1.Selecting/adapting learning materials:
◦Selecting supplementary learning resources;
◦Organizing the access of the learner to learning resources.
2.Giving an evaluation/some feedback:
◦Regarding the results of the learner and his or her experiences in the program and the course;
◦Regarding the materials and the organizational aspects;
◦Regarding the students’ problems.
The tasks of the Tutor where the learner is concerned are the following:
1.Help the student stay motivated:
◦Actively bring about and maintain motivation;
◦Create an open and positive climate;
◦Help fill the gap in a student’s social needs.
2.Provide help concerning the course contents:
◦Connect the contents to the previous knowledge of the student;
◦Solve problems regarding content;
◦Stimulate the application of the course contents in a professional context.
3.Develop study skills:
◦Promote a critical spirit;
◦Develop learning styles and cognitive strategies;
◦Help the student to self-regulate his or her study and learning;
◦Promote knowledge of contextual factors in learning;
◦Introduce the student to the use of new technology (e-mail, chat rooms, videoconferencing and Internet).
4.Give an evaluation/ feedback
◦Inform the learner about his or her progress;
◦Prepare the learner for exams;
◦Help the learner to develop realistic self-evaluation skills.
To these tasks are added other functions specific to tutoring.
At the beginning of the course, for example, the Tutor:
defines what the learner is to expect from the course;
- verifies previously acquired knowledge;
- offers suggestions and materials to strengthen any weak spots in the student’s preparation and, if necessary, offers training to improve study skills (especially time management).
During the next phase, which begins at the start of the course itself, the Tutor’s role as mediator comes into play. In fact, during the course the Tutor carries out a series of tasks with the precise aim of guiding the various aspects of learning and laying the basis for the exchange of knowledge between the participants in the Learning Process.
These tasks are to:
- enrich the materials of the course and provide access to the learning resources (by creating Internet site links, exercises on the web, etc.);
- identify study problems and find eventual solutions;
- instill specific study skills and improve learning capacity;
- lend support in practice activities;
- “try” the contents of the course;
- give objective and constructive feedback on the results of the learning process in the interest of ensuring success on the part of the student;
- help the student to apply the contents of the course in real life situations;
- instill a spirit of cooperation among the students (functioning in this way as mediator); - monitor (evaluate) performance.
As the teaching modules are presented, the Tutor provides qualitative and quantitative evaluations on the student’s learning so as to constantly monitor the results of the Process of Learning, as well as giving the students personalized support in preparation for the exam at the end of the module.
The quantitative evaluation of the student’s participation is given by the Tutor on the basis of statistics regarding the student’s navigation through the Didactic Cyberspace. These are defined as follows: number of access times throughout the time of use on the part of the student within the Learning Environments, the Tutoring On Line tools, the number of exercises completed and the average of the evaluations/self-evaluations.
In order to integrate this level of monitoring, the Tutor administers evaluation sheets to all the students (preferably with questions and open answers and/or exercises) in order to check and see how well the student has assimilated the contents of the professor’s lessons.
The results of the qualitative and quantitative evaluations constitute the basis for carrying out the aims of the Tutor, namely strengthening the student’s cognitive abilities along with preparing him for the exam.
The Tutor’s offering of supplementary learning materials serves two purposes: on one hand to strengthen any weak spots in the Learning Process of the single student or group of students and on the other hand to satisfy eventual requests for study in greater depth. These materials can be: books and articles (therefore study sheets and projects), CD-ROMs, bibliographical or site link references, exercises and and virtual laboratories.
The Tutor’s role as mediator involves a last phase that coincides with the end of the presentation of teaching materials. Here the Tutor helps the student review the teaching contents and prepare for the exam. The Tutor also asks the student for their evaluation of the teaching itself, thus obtaining valuable feedback on the teaching/training process from the student.
As has been previously stated, the Tutor works in close contact with the students and his/her activity is aimed at creating a collaborative environment characterized by direct support for the students through two complementary approaches: the long distance (synchronic and diachronic) method and the traditional one.
In order to carry out such an important and complex role, the Tutor must possess a combination of abilities. These can be boiled down to five fundamental areas:
•specific ability to control and direct;
•specific professional ability;
•organizational ability;
•communicative and relational abilities;
•pedagogical and didactic abilities.
Naturally the content of the Tutoring activity and the combination of abilities necessary to carry it out will vary based on various factors, including the aims to be reached, the specific needs of the students, the characteristics of the Degree Course, the type of subject beingtaught, etc.
2.3 The Student’s Page
It includes the functions at the students’ disposal and allows access to the following areas:
•Customised didactic planning: this supplies the student with a customized study programme and the didactic activities planning referring to each course. Every student can find the planning of his didactic activities, divided into four didactic periods, on the Internet. The inclusion in the online study classes is structured in such a way as to grant the student the possibility of attending two subjects for each didactic period while being guided by a professor/tutor. The result of the intermediate assessment that can also be checked by each individual student along with the tracking of his Internet-based learning , so allowing admission to the exams Getting through the exams of the attended didactic modules allows getting enrolled and included into the classes of the following courses.
•Learning process check: each individual student can check, for each Internet-based didactic activity, his own self-assessment and compare it with that one given by his tutor. He can check by himself if there are some gaps in his learning and develop new learning strategies with the support of not only the professor/tutor, but also of his own classmates.
•Agenda (planning of didactic activities): This displays the rendezvous fixed by the tutors or by the professor in the Chat-room, Forum and in the Virtual Classroom; it is possible to use the Agenda to include personal memos or ask for the professor/tutor’s support to overcome any learning difficulties. •My lessons on TV today: This displays the video lessons programming schedule being broadcast on the satellite television channel for the subjects being currently delivered.
2.4 The Learning Environments
2.4.1 The Video Library
The Video Library contains the lessons taught by the professor, namely the digitalized video lessons and their relative slides.
The use of the digitalized video lessons allows the student to activate learning processes of a symbolic and reconstructive kind. These are linked to a Classical linear approach to teaching. In addition, the modular layout of the contents and the indexing of topics together with bookmarks help the student to develop a hyper-textual and multimedia approach to the learning process. This results in improved meta-cognitive strategies that lead to a more personalized learning path.
Each video-lesson is created with a predefined indexing system that allows the professor to structure the program according to the topics presented, and then point out the tools that allow the student to study diverse topics in an in-depth fashion. Thus the video lesson is conceptualized as a hyper-textual itinerary
During the Learning Process the bookmarks allow the student to connect various topics presented in the video lesson to learning materials that are found in the Media Library. In this way, the student can find contextual study resources in the form of books, articles, CD-ROMs, bibliographic references, site link references, exercises and virtual laboratories. These give the student the opportunity to combine practical and theoretical study methods in a Learning Process known as learning by doing.
2.4.2 The Media Library
The Media Library contains didactic materials (Learning Objects) connected to the video lessons – for example study sheets, films, images, diagrams, animated material which are all gathered under an Intelligent Bibliographic System.
The elements that make up the Media Library represent in-depth study materials connected to the contents of the video lessons. They can be associated with a topic, a series of topics, an entire video lesson, a series of video lessons or the entire course.
The objects that make up the Media Library are categorized as follows: books and articles, CD-ROMs, bibliographical references and site link references.
The Media Library does not contain the Virtual Laboratories or exercises connected to the video lessons. These are made available (without answers) in the Virtual Laboratory..
The in-depth study materials developed in an ad hoc fashion by the Tutor (or Appointed Teaching Professor) for the students in their class and those study materials sent by students and selected by the Tutor (or Appointed Teaching Professor) are only made available on the Tutor Page (or that of the Appointed Teaching Professor), as they refer to a specific class of students.
2.4.3 The Virtual Laboratory
In the Virtual Laboratory you can check your progress and expand your knowledge thanks to the approach of learning by doing, which is by an on-going Socratic tutoring method which is carried out in two ways: individual and group exercises.
Individual Exercises: You can access the dedicated learning environment and find a series of exercises on the topic being studied. These can be completed on line or down-loaded onto your computer. The exercises made available on line are minus the answers. This way you can check the results with your Tutor later on.
Group Exercises: you can complete an exercise with the help and support of your Tutor or Appointed Teaching Professor, in which case you will have to schedule a laboratory session. The tool used is the Video Chat Room, where the Tutor or Appointed Teaching Professor and the students are connected to one another and can interact.
Other types of Virtual Laboratories can be activated as proposed by the Tutor or Appointed Teaching Professor.
2.4.4 Tutoring On Line
In the learning environment dedicated to Tutoring On Line, which makes available all of the tools necessary for long distance tutoring, you can:
•access collaborative and cooperative learning environments on the web with other students;
•open a Socratic dialogue with your Tutor, which helps and guides the learning process;
•interact in the educational process with other participants from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, so creating a learning opportunity that is no longer local but global.
http://www.uninettunouniversity.net/e/main.asp?id=040001010000000001000000010300000000
Agreement between EELU and UTIU
A cooperation agreement was signed between the Egyptian E-learning University and the International Telematic University (UNINETTUNO) Italy. The EELU and UTIU jointly realise distance university programs, master programs and highly specialised programs and vocational training programs to deliver double degrees starting with the following university programs:
Economics and Business Management
Telecommunications Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer and Information Technology
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Engineering Management
Communication Sciences
Law and Internationalisation of Enterprises
The study will be through (the internet,virtual classes ,and video conference systems).
The students will have a double degree recognized by both universities ,and In order to get the double degree , the students have to make a double enrollment, one to the EELU and the other one to the UTIU.
EELU and UTIU will appoint a General Academic Coordinator for each side to assure applying the quality assurance standards according to Egyptian and Italian standards.
Both parties agreed to apply the agreement starting with September 2009.
Dear Student of the International Telematic UNINETTUNO,
this document has been drawn up by your tutors in the hope that your path to learning and professional growth will prove in an engaging and enyoyable experience that will be enriched on a daily basis with new stimuli and contents.
The primeobjective of our university is to facilitate access to knowledge for all citizens of the world, without space or time limitations.
This goal is pursued through the carrying out of adidactic model, which has been developed through years of research in the field by Prof. Maria Amata Garito, full professor of "Technologies of Education and Learning", Psychology Faculty, at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rector of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO and Director of Network Nettuno.
The present guidelines are presented in two parts:
•in thefirst part, you will learn how the Learning Process is developed within the didactic model of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, in which teaching materials are presented in modules and the didactic activities are carried out in both a traditional and long distance fashion;
•in the second part, you will learn how the Didactic Cyberspace, is laid out. This is where all of the distance learning activities are carried out.
1. The Learning Process
1.1 How the teaching materials are delivered
The didactic approach of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO does not follow a traditional semester plan. Instead, it unfolds as teaching materials are presented. All of the teaching activities of the Degree Courses at the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO are delivered in modules of a variable duration based on the academic credits of the given course. These are repeated four times each academic year.
Right by your side, to guide you along your study path, there will be two professional figures:
•the Mentor, who is concerned with making you feel at home and offering support for the duration of your degree course. Your mentor will listen to your needs and guarantee optimum conditions for the learning process;
•theTutor, specific for each teaching subject, has the task of facilitating your learning process and communication on the web. Your tutor will provide you with the necessary instruments in order to get the most out of your studies, guiding you up to the final exam.
For each teaching subject the students are divided into classes on the basis of individual profiles that are the result of the Entrance Questionnaire that students fill out at the moment of enrolment. A tutor is assigned to each class, which can contain up to 30 students. This applies to all of the Faculties, with the exception of the Degree Course of the Engineering Faculty where the classes can contain a maximum of 20 students.
During the period of time in which teaching is carried out, your tutor will follow your progress as the didactic activity unfolds, furnishing you with ad hoc learning materials and interacting with you through the available systems of communication. These you will find on theTutor Page of the Didactic Cyberspace.
To earn1 academic credit,remember that according to the rules currently in effect one must carry out 25 hours of activity. These are broken down as follows:
•5 hours of videolessons that you will find in digitalized format in the Video Library of the Didactic Cyberspace; these video lessons will take 10 hours of your time, as we think it is appropriate that you follow each lesson twice;
•10 hours of individual study on texts and exercises that you will find in the Media Library and the Virtual Laboratory of the Didactic Cyberspace;
•5 hours of activity assisted by the Tutor.
For example, if a teaching subject comprises 25 video-lessons (of 1 hour each), you will earn 5 academic credits through:
•50 total hours of viewing of the video lessons (2 hours for each video lesson);
•50 hours of individual study;
•25 hours of activity assisted by the Tutor.
When the teaching subject has been persented in its entirety, exam sessions will be organized.
1.2 Traditional and long distance didactic activities
For each teaching subject, the starting point of your learning process is the viewing of academic video lessons, which are available on the Internet in the Didactic Cyberspace – Video Library Sections – and broadcasted on the satellite channel RAI NETTUNO SAT 1.
The videolessons present the following characteristics:
•modular contents;
•indexing of the themes treated in the lesson;
•bookmark, that is to say a graphic icon representing a link to the learning object.
Each video-lesson is divided into topics and created with a predefined indexing system which allows for flexible use. You can see an entire video lesson in a linear fashion or follow a non-linear itinerary, thus choosing the topics that you wish to study in greater depth along with the connected study materials.
The slide presented by the Video Professor during the video lesson constitute an important support tool for your studies: you can use them as a basis for your notes, a means by which you can create your own network of links between topics and write your personal notebook.
The video lessons, furnished with their relative slides, are enriched with didactic materials known as a learning object, these are signaled during the course of the video lesson by an icon link (bookmark) and are made available in the Didactic Cyberspace of the Internet site.
Such materials can comprise the following:
•books and articles (extracts, study activity sheets, etc.);
•Cd-Rom (or DVD);
•Exercises (with answers);
•Virtual laboratories;
•Annotated bibliographies;
•Annotated site links.
The modular organization of the course contents, the indexing of the topics and the bookmarks allow you to develop multimedia and hyper-textual learning processes, leading to a more personalized study path.
The consultation and study of didactic teaching materials will enable you to prepare yourself more thoroughly through studying in greater depth the various topics introduced in the video lesson and through practical application of the concepts learned.
The television interface through which the video lessons are transmitted is structured in the following way:
The web interface for the transmission of the video lessons is structured in the following way instead:
The didactic model of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO allows you to integrate the many advantages of the above-mentioned long distance didactic activities with the benefits that only “face to face” contact can guarantee.
The traditional didactic activities are comprised of the following:
•Direct interaction with the professor and tutor, through “face to face” meetings at the main site and at the Technological Centres;
•Practice activities and seminars, with the assistance of professors and tutors;
•Evaluations and exam sessions at the main site and at the technological centres.
1.3. Tutoring activities
In the proposed Educational Psychology model, the student is at the centre of the educational process, guided however by a new figure known as theTelematic Professor-Tutor, who represents a guide as well as a constant presence during your Learning Process.
The Tutor works in close contact with you and his or her activities are aimed at creating a collaborative and helpful context for your path of study and professional growth.
The long distance Tutoring activities can be carried out in two ways:
- in a synchronic manner;
- in a diachronic manner
The On Line Tutoring or Long distance Tutoring is organized into classes of students, with an advanced agenda system that is able to recognize each individual. The Agenda is the instrument used by both the Tutor and the student in order to fix appointments as well as on line and “face to face” meetings. Using the course agenda as a basis, you can also manage your own personal agenda.
1.3.1. Long distance synchronic Tutoring
You can have a dialogue with your Tutor in real time (Synchronic Tutoring) by using the telephone, the chat room, the video-chat room, video and audio-conference systems activated in the Didactic Cyberspace.
The telephone is traditionally considered by the students to be the most direct and simple means of communication with the Tutor. Also the Tutors maintain that conversing via telephone is still valid for carrying out their role as guide and for supporting the learning process.
The audio and video-conference systems facilitate collaborative learning processes and are therefore well-suited to exercises and group work at a distance.
You can carry out this activity on an individual basis as well through the chat rooms and video-chat rooms that enable you to have a dialogue with the Tutors and with the other students in real time, thus creating true virtual encounters.
1.3.2 Diachronic long distance Tutoring
When communication in real time is not necessary, you can activate a Diachronic Tutoring Session through tools such as e mail and discussion forums on the Internet.
Email allows a rapid exchange of information, documents and materials at a distance.
The discussion forums, related to the topics of a given teaching subject, allow you to extend the dialogue and activate a collaborative learning process. This approach is different compared to the audio and video-conference systems, which rely on oral communication. Here the focus is on writing, which gives you the chance to reflect and organize your thoughts regarding the discussion topic and study activity that you are engaged in.
1.3.3 Face-to-face Tutoring
In Traditional Tutoring, the interaction with the tutor is direct, through individual or group meetings at the main site or at University Technological Centres. These involve seminars and moments of discussion.
They are important occasions where you can benefit from your tutors’ elucidations and more detailed information on subjects that have been previously explained and perhaps were not understood during the long distance tutoring sessions.
The Tutor, during these “face to face” meetings, can discover the depth and breadth of your knowledge and identify eventual problems and weak points in your learning. This is all in the interest of making sure you are on the right study path.
2. The Didactic Cyberspace
The fulcrum of didactic activity on the Internet is represented by the WEB macro-area known as the Didactic Cyberspace, which allows those who participate in this learning process to access the areas relating to their area of study.
In the Didactic Cyberspace a learning and developmental process is implemented through a new approach to communicating knowledge.
There are various ways to access the Didactic Cyberspace through login and passwords on the basis of the three different roles of those who participate in the learning process: Professors, Tutors and Students.
The three categories of those who utilize the service can access information linked to each teaching subject. In particular, the Professor and Tutor can modify or substitute didactic materials and add new ones for the duration of the teaching period, while the student has his or her own area where data, information and personal notes can be inserted.
When you enter the Didactic Cyberspace, you can choose your Faculty and your Degree Course.. Then, through the window entitled List of Teaching Subjects, you can access:
- the The Page of the Appointed Teaching Professor
- the Tutor Page
Within these pages you will find the Learning Environments.
2.1 The Appointed Teaching Professor Page
This contains all of the functions of the Appointed Teaching Professor and allows access to the following areas:
•Curriculum vitae;
•Teaching Program;
•Conceptual Map;
•Didactic Material;
•Didactic Planning;
•Exam Guide;
•Exam Calendar;
•Learning Environments;
•Links to the Tutor Pages
The Teaching Programme is stuctured in such a way as to contain:
•The description, objectives and contents of the subject being taught;
•The specification of necessary prerequisites;
•The reference to exercises relative to the video lessons;
•The indexing of textbooks;
•Key words of the subject being taught;
•Indications as to the methodology along with study suggestions for the subject being taught.
The Concept Map for the teaching subject presents the title of each lesson, a listing of the topics within each lesson along with bookmarks that connect the didactic materials (books and articles, CD-ROM, bibliographies, site links, exercises and virtual laboratories) relating to the various topics that are treated.
The Didactic Material is comprised of elements that have been prepared upon in an ad hoc fashion by the Appointed Teaching Professor. These can include articles, study sheets, exercises, CD-ROM/DVDs and slides. Select materials prepared by students during their collaborative studies may be included at the discretion of the Appointed Teaching Professor.
The Didactic Planning section depends on the number of academic credits, as relates to the amount of work the student does. All of the Teaching Subjects of the Degree Courses at the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO are presented as a series of modules that have a predefined duration according to the number of academic credits attributed to the course, as has been illustrated before. In the Didactic Planning section, the Appointed Teaching Professor will indicate the approach and timing as to his or her teaching programme, the parameters regarding academic credits and other information relative to the teaching subject.
The Exam Guide specifies the following:
•How the exam wil be carried out;
•Prerequisites for admission to the exam;
•The way in which you can reserve a place in order to sit the exam;
•Documents that must be presented in order to take the exam;
•The way in which results are communicated;
•The way in which results are recorded.
The Exam Calendar displays the following:
•dates, schedules and places where exams are held;
•the composition of the exam commission.
The didactic activities unfold within the Learning Environments: the Video library, Media library, Virtual Laboratory and Tutoring On Line. For a detailed description of the different environments, please refer to the dedicated paragraph.
The Links to the Tutor Pages allow the appointed Teaching Professor to have at his or her disposal all of the materials, information and tools relative to his or her own subject.
2.1.1 The Functions of the Appointed teaching Professor
The main activities of the Appointed teaching Professor can be summarized as follows:
•structure the teaching programme or update/adapt the existing one;
•invent or revise the conceptual map of the subject being taught;
•furnish didactic materials for in-depth study;
•didactic planning of the subject;
•make the exam guide available;
•coordinate work with the Tutor;
•organize and lead discussion forums on topical themes of particular relevance to his or her subject;
•test the students at the conclusion of each teaching module.
In particular, the Appointed Teaching Professor, collaboration with the Tutor:
•evaluates the topics of the existing lessons and revises them (by reducing them or by integrating new material) if necessary;
•indexes the video-lessons (available on video cassette) for the dvd layout;
•if necessary, entrusts one or more of the Video Professors with the task of recording new video lessons;
•analyses the existing teaching materials in order to select those that he or she still considers to be valid;
•defines the contents and type of teaching materials to be produced ex novo;
•specifies, for all of the video lessons, the count in minutes in order to signal the bookmarks relating to the didactic material.
In the case of recording new video lessons, each Video Professor,, where collaboration with the Tutor is necessary, is mainly occupied with:
•preparing the professorial lesson slides and recording the video lessons;
•indexing his or her own video lessons for the dvd layout;
•completing the conceptual map of the subject being taught, connecting several types of didactic materials for in-depth study to the video lesson topics. These materials can include books and articles, CD-ROMs, bibliographies, site links and exercises;
•specifying, for all of the video lessons, the minute count details in order to signal the bookmarks relative to the didactic materials.
2.2 The Tutor Page
The on line page for each Tutor of the subject being taught will communicate his or her availabilty (dates and schedules) along with contact details (e-mail, telephone and fax number), whilst in addition allowing access to the following areas:
•Curriculum vitae;;
•Teaching Program;
•Conceptual Map;
•Didactic Materials;
•Didactic Planning;
•Agenda;
•Evaluation and Statistics;
•Learning Environments;
•Links to the Page of the Appointed Teaching Professor;
The Program, Conceptual Map and Didactic Planning of the subject being taught are the same documents that can be found on the Appointed Teaching Professor Page.
The Didactic Material is comprised of:
•subjects that have been explained in an ad hoc fashion by the Tutor on the basis of student profiles and on the results of the qualitative evaluations that the Tutor periodically administers to the students;
•a selection, made by the Tutor, of materials developed by students during their activities with the Tutor or with other students during collaborative learning tasks.
The materials developed or selected by the Tutor represent an integral part of the Media Library and of the Virtual Laboratory, and are aimed at a specific class of students.
The Agenda is the tool that the Tutor uses in order to fix appointments and on line meetings, confirm meeting requests made by students and manage his or her personal agenda.
In the area of Evaluation and Statistics the following are made available:
•the tools of quantitative evaluation, or the statistics tracking the activity of the students (at both the individual and aggregate level). This is done in terms of the number of access times and time of use in the Learning environments on the part of the students as well as by tracking the use of the Tutoring On Line tools, number of exercises completed and the mean average of evaluation and self-evaluation;
•the tools of qualitative evaluation, or the evaluation of each student based on evaluation sheets (with open questions and/or exercise), developed by the Tutor in order to monitor the learning progress of the student in his or her class.
The Tutor Page, as with the Appointed teaching Professor Page, allows access to the four Learning Environments: Video Library, Media Library, Virtual Laboratory and Tutoring On Line.
The Tutor Page contains links to the Appointed Teaching Professor Page in order to facilitate navigating the Didactic Cyberspace..
The Appointed teaching Professor and Tutor can know about the composition of their own classes of students and have access to the pages of single students through the List of Teaching Subjects for Degree Courses window.
As stated before, in the Educational Psychology Model of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, the student is at the centre of the learning process, which is designed on the basis of his or her needs and created through a high level of interactivity between the Professor, Tutor and Student
The professors’ and the tutors’ knowledge of their students is possible by several diverse means, including the entrance Questionnaire, which is filled out during enrolment, and the frequent virtual and face to face meetings with the Mentors and Tutors during the entire course of study.
Each and every student has at his or her disposal a page, called My student page”, that can be personalized at will in such a way as to allow the student to use the various didactic support materials available to better meet his or her needs. This makes it easier for the student to actively contribute to the collaborative educational process.
Your home page offers the following possibilities:
•to personalize your study itinerary by choosing the teaching activities to follow and making note of the last lesson that you have visited in each pf the chosen teaching subjects;
•verify your progress by checking your self-evaluations as well as those of your Tutor and viewing, for every lesson, which didactic materials you have used, how many times and for how long;
•plan your didactic activities, by mean of an Agenda, in order to view appointments in the Chat Rooms, Forums and Virtual Classrooms set by your Tutors, to insert reminders and request intervention on the part of your Tutors;
•send your didactic materials to your Tutors or to your Appointed Teaching Professor which, if selected, can be published on the site and thus made available to the entire scientific community;
•always have at your disposal your Tutors by accessing the Tutor Page with a simple click.
2.2.1 The functions of the Tutor
Within the didactic model adopted by the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, the Tutor plays a crucial role, acting as mediator between the participants in the Learning Process, so that a Network of Knowledge Exchange (NEKE) is created.
The tutoring activity represents one of the most significant moments of learning input and requires a high level of interactivity between Tutor and Student. It has been noted that the student learns through the continuous integration of theoretical knowledge (through the professor’s lessons), concepts that are acquired thanks to examples and advice provided by experts (through discussions and comparing ideas in the Forums) and practice in the field (through exercises guided by the Professor and/or Tutor that are offered singularly and personally to the student).
The Tutoring phase is therefore a necessary complement to the lessons of the professor and to the period of self study that follows.
The Tutor is presented as a “planner” for the learning experiences of the students, a consultant and guide to the Learning Process; thus he becomes a member of the learning team, reducing the risk of isolation on the part of the student.
The Tutor has the task of organizing and making available to the students a series of materials and tools. These match the lessons given telematically and, taken altogether, give a precise picture of the individual topics being taught.
As shown in various studies conducted in the field, the role of the Tutor is considered by the learners to be a sort of interface between the student and the teaching subject; his or her activity should be aimed at creating the interactivity between student and professor that is missing in the video-lessons.
In addition, an undeniable characteristic is the quickness of response. This underlines the need of the students to have someone who represents a constant and reliable presence. The contribution of the Tutor will be even more appreciated with the preparation and correction of written exercises in preparation for the exam. In this way, a didactic ‘semi-guided’ itinerary is created, taking the student up to the final exam with a preparation suited to the needs of each and every program.
The tasks of the Tutor at the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO are orientated towards organization, both their own and that of the students.
The tasks geared towards organization consist of the following:
1.Selecting/adapting learning materials:
◦Selecting supplementary learning resources;
◦Organizing the access of the learner to learning resources.
2.Giving an evaluation/some feedback:
◦Regarding the results of the learner and his or her experiences in the program and the course;
◦Regarding the materials and the organizational aspects;
◦Regarding the students’ problems.
The tasks of the Tutor where the learner is concerned are the following:
1.Help the student stay motivated:
◦Actively bring about and maintain motivation;
◦Create an open and positive climate;
◦Help fill the gap in a student’s social needs.
2.Provide help concerning the course contents:
◦Connect the contents to the previous knowledge of the student;
◦Solve problems regarding content;
◦Stimulate the application of the course contents in a professional context.
3.Develop study skills:
◦Promote a critical spirit;
◦Develop learning styles and cognitive strategies;
◦Help the student to self-regulate his or her study and learning;
◦Promote knowledge of contextual factors in learning;
◦Introduce the student to the use of new technology (e-mail, chat rooms, videoconferencing and Internet).
4.Give an evaluation/ feedback
◦Inform the learner about his or her progress;
◦Prepare the learner for exams;
◦Help the learner to develop realistic self-evaluation skills.
To these tasks are added other functions specific to tutoring.
At the beginning of the course, for example, the Tutor:
defines what the learner is to expect from the course;
- verifies previously acquired knowledge;
- offers suggestions and materials to strengthen any weak spots in the student’s preparation and, if necessary, offers training to improve study skills (especially time management).
During the next phase, which begins at the start of the course itself, the Tutor’s role as mediator comes into play. In fact, during the course the Tutor carries out a series of tasks with the precise aim of guiding the various aspects of learning and laying the basis for the exchange of knowledge between the participants in the Learning Process.
These tasks are to:
- enrich the materials of the course and provide access to the learning resources (by creating Internet site links, exercises on the web, etc.);
- identify study problems and find eventual solutions;
- instill specific study skills and improve learning capacity;
- lend support in practice activities;
- “try” the contents of the course;
- give objective and constructive feedback on the results of the learning process in the interest of ensuring success on the part of the student;
- help the student to apply the contents of the course in real life situations;
- instill a spirit of cooperation among the students (functioning in this way as mediator); - monitor (evaluate) performance.
As the teaching modules are presented, the Tutor provides qualitative and quantitative evaluations on the student’s learning so as to constantly monitor the results of the Process of Learning, as well as giving the students personalized support in preparation for the exam at the end of the module.
The quantitative evaluation of the student’s participation is given by the Tutor on the basis of statistics regarding the student’s navigation through the Didactic Cyberspace. These are defined as follows: number of access times throughout the time of use on the part of the student within the Learning Environments, the Tutoring On Line tools, the number of exercises completed and the average of the evaluations/self-evaluations.
In order to integrate this level of monitoring, the Tutor administers evaluation sheets to all the students (preferably with questions and open answers and/or exercises) in order to check and see how well the student has assimilated the contents of the professor’s lessons.
The results of the qualitative and quantitative evaluations constitute the basis for carrying out the aims of the Tutor, namely strengthening the student’s cognitive abilities along with preparing him for the exam.
The Tutor’s offering of supplementary learning materials serves two purposes: on one hand to strengthen any weak spots in the Learning Process of the single student or group of students and on the other hand to satisfy eventual requests for study in greater depth. These materials can be: books and articles (therefore study sheets and projects), CD-ROMs, bibliographical or site link references, exercises and and virtual laboratories.
The Tutor’s role as mediator involves a last phase that coincides with the end of the presentation of teaching materials. Here the Tutor helps the student review the teaching contents and prepare for the exam. The Tutor also asks the student for their evaluation of the teaching itself, thus obtaining valuable feedback on the teaching/training process from the student.
As has been previously stated, the Tutor works in close contact with the students and his/her activity is aimed at creating a collaborative environment characterized by direct support for the students through two complementary approaches: the long distance (synchronic and diachronic) method and the traditional one.
In order to carry out such an important and complex role, the Tutor must possess a combination of abilities. These can be boiled down to five fundamental areas:
•specific ability to control and direct;
•specific professional ability;
•organizational ability;
•communicative and relational abilities;
•pedagogical and didactic abilities.
Naturally the content of the Tutoring activity and the combination of abilities necessary to carry it out will vary based on various factors, including the aims to be reached, the specific needs of the students, the characteristics of the Degree Course, the type of subject beingtaught, etc.
2.3 The Student’s Page
It includes the functions at the students’ disposal and allows access to the following areas:
•Customised didactic planning: this supplies the student with a customized study programme and the didactic activities planning referring to each course. Every student can find the planning of his didactic activities, divided into four didactic periods, on the Internet. The inclusion in the online study classes is structured in such a way as to grant the student the possibility of attending two subjects for each didactic period while being guided by a professor/tutor. The result of the intermediate assessment that can also be checked by each individual student along with the tracking of his Internet-based learning , so allowing admission to the exams Getting through the exams of the attended didactic modules allows getting enrolled and included into the classes of the following courses.
•Learning process check: each individual student can check, for each Internet-based didactic activity, his own self-assessment and compare it with that one given by his tutor. He can check by himself if there are some gaps in his learning and develop new learning strategies with the support of not only the professor/tutor, but also of his own classmates.
•Agenda (planning of didactic activities): This displays the rendezvous fixed by the tutors or by the professor in the Chat-room, Forum and in the Virtual Classroom; it is possible to use the Agenda to include personal memos or ask for the professor/tutor’s support to overcome any learning difficulties. •My lessons on TV today: This displays the video lessons programming schedule being broadcast on the satellite television channel for the subjects being currently delivered.
2.4 The Learning Environments
2.4.1 The Video Library
The Video Library contains the lessons taught by the professor, namely the digitalized video lessons and their relative slides.
The use of the digitalized video lessons allows the student to activate learning processes of a symbolic and reconstructive kind. These are linked to a Classical linear approach to teaching. In addition, the modular layout of the contents and the indexing of topics together with bookmarks help the student to develop a hyper-textual and multimedia approach to the learning process. This results in improved meta-cognitive strategies that lead to a more personalized learning path.
Each video-lesson is created with a predefined indexing system that allows the professor to structure the program according to the topics presented, and then point out the tools that allow the student to study diverse topics in an in-depth fashion. Thus the video lesson is conceptualized as a hyper-textual itinerary
During the Learning Process the bookmarks allow the student to connect various topics presented in the video lesson to learning materials that are found in the Media Library. In this way, the student can find contextual study resources in the form of books, articles, CD-ROMs, bibliographic references, site link references, exercises and virtual laboratories. These give the student the opportunity to combine practical and theoretical study methods in a Learning Process known as learning by doing.
2.4.2 The Media Library
The Media Library contains didactic materials (Learning Objects) connected to the video lessons – for example study sheets, films, images, diagrams, animated material which are all gathered under an Intelligent Bibliographic System.
The elements that make up the Media Library represent in-depth study materials connected to the contents of the video lessons. They can be associated with a topic, a series of topics, an entire video lesson, a series of video lessons or the entire course.
The objects that make up the Media Library are categorized as follows: books and articles, CD-ROMs, bibliographical references and site link references.
The Media Library does not contain the Virtual Laboratories or exercises connected to the video lessons. These are made available (without answers) in the Virtual Laboratory..
The in-depth study materials developed in an ad hoc fashion by the Tutor (or Appointed Teaching Professor) for the students in their class and those study materials sent by students and selected by the Tutor (or Appointed Teaching Professor) are only made available on the Tutor Page (or that of the Appointed Teaching Professor), as they refer to a specific class of students.
2.4.3 The Virtual Laboratory
In the Virtual Laboratory you can check your progress and expand your knowledge thanks to the approach of learning by doing, which is by an on-going Socratic tutoring method which is carried out in two ways: individual and group exercises.
Individual Exercises: You can access the dedicated learning environment and find a series of exercises on the topic being studied. These can be completed on line or down-loaded onto your computer. The exercises made available on line are minus the answers. This way you can check the results with your Tutor later on.
Group Exercises: you can complete an exercise with the help and support of your Tutor or Appointed Teaching Professor, in which case you will have to schedule a laboratory session. The tool used is the Video Chat Room, where the Tutor or Appointed Teaching Professor and the students are connected to one another and can interact.
Other types of Virtual Laboratories can be activated as proposed by the Tutor or Appointed Teaching Professor.
2.4.4 Tutoring On Line
In the learning environment dedicated to Tutoring On Line, which makes available all of the tools necessary for long distance tutoring, you can:
•access collaborative and cooperative learning environments on the web with other students;
•open a Socratic dialogue with your Tutor, which helps and guides the learning process;
•interact in the educational process with other participants from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, so creating a learning opportunity that is no longer local but global.
http://www.uninettunouniversity.net/e/main.asp?id=040001010000000001000000010300000000
Agreement between EELU and UTIU
A cooperation agreement was signed between the Egyptian E-learning University and the International Telematic University (UNINETTUNO) Italy. The EELU and UTIU jointly realise distance university programs, master programs and highly specialised programs and vocational training programs to deliver double degrees starting with the following university programs:
Economics and Business Management
Telecommunications Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer and Information Technology
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Engineering Management
Communication Sciences
Law and Internationalisation of Enterprises
The study will be through (the internet,virtual classes ,and video conference systems).
The students will have a double degree recognized by both universities ,and In order to get the double degree , the students have to make a double enrollment, one to the EELU and the other one to the UTIU.
EELU and UTIU will appoint a General Academic Coordinator for each side to assure applying the quality assurance standards according to Egyptian and Italian standards.
Both parties agreed to apply the agreement starting with September 2009.
Egyptian e-Learning University and Course Authoring Competition
http://www.eelu.edu.eg/wps/portal
Courses Planned:
List of Courses
Course Name Course Code View Outline
Report Writing & Presentation MIS 201
or
GEN 213 outline
Human Rights & Ethics HUM 202
or
GEN 215 outline
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY HUM301 Outline
COMPARATIVE POLITICAL SYSTEMS HUM203 outline
EARTH AND THE UNIVERSE SCI302 Outline
BUSINESS LAW BUS202 outline
INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT BUS301 Outline
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE & DEVELOPMENT MGT301 Outline
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT MGT302 Outline
MANAGEMENT OF SPECIALIZED INSTITUTIONS MGT303 Outline
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT MGT304 Outline
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION MGT306 Outline
PUBLIC RELATIONS MGT401 Outline
MANAGEMENT OF SMALL BUSINESS MGT402 Outline
BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS MGT403 Outline
STRATEGIC COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS MGT404 Outline
PROJECT FEASIBILITY STUDY MGT405 Outline
MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING ACC404 Outline
INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERCE ECM301 Outline
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (1) MIS301 Outline
MONEY AND BANKING ECN201 outline
MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS ECN301 Outline
CAPITAL MARKETS FIN305 Outline
MATERIALS MANAGEMENT MKT301 Outline
MARKETING RESEARCH MKT302 Outline
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR MKT303 Outline
SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT MKT304 Outline
CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION MKT305 Outline
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MKT306 Outline
SERVICES MARKETING MKT307 Outline
MARKETING IN NON- PROFIT ORGANIZATION MKT308 Outline
PRICING STRATEGY MKT309 Outline
GLOBAL MARKETING MKT401 Outline
STRATEGIC MARKETING MKT404 Outline
E-MARKETING MKT402 Outline
SELECTED TOPICS IN MARKETING MKT403 Outline
INFORMATION ECONOMY GEN214 outline
INFORMATION ETHICS GEN315 Outline
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (2) SFT305 Outline
MODELING AND SIMULATION CAS 406 Outline
VHDL CAS 407 Outline
DATABASE SYSTEMS ITF302 Outline
INTELLIGENT DATABASES ITF303 Outline
LANGUAGE ENGINEERING ITF306 Outline
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ITF308 Outline
DATA MINING ITF307 Outline
INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEMS ITF 405 Outline
INFORMATION ASSURANCE AND SECURITY ITF 404 Outline
COMPUTER NETWORKS (1) NWE302 Outline
COMPUTER NETWORKS (2) NWE303 Outline
WEB ENGINEERING (1) NWE304 Outline
WEB ENGINEERING (2) NWE305 Outline
WEB ENGINEERING (3) NWE306 Outline
MOBILE AND SENSOR NETWORKS NWE 407 Outline
MOBILE INTERNETWORKING PROTOCOL NWE 408 Outline
OPTICAL NETWORKS NWE 409 Outline
HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION HCI 401 Outline
MULTIMEDIA AND VIRTUAL REALITY HCI 403 Outline
SYSTEM AND OPERATIONS RESEARCHES GEN211 Outline
EELU AT GLANCE
EELU is a private non-profit University established with the Decree, No. 233, of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt in the 16th, August, 2008 to provide distance education through 24-hour online learning with a vision to be a leading university providing e-learning nationally, regionally, and internationally. EELU gives educational opportunity to learners who cannot attend a campus university.
EELU Educational Services:
•Distributed learning: EELU plans to cover all the governorates in Egypt, Arab world and other countries.
•E-learning: Students can access courses' materials, lectures, virtual classrooms, and any information through both the EELU Intranet and the Internet.
This type of learning allows for interactive collaboration among the students and the instructors.
•Distance learning: Students can learn remotely from different geographical distant locations.
•Video Conferencing: This service allows for conducting meetings, lectures, interviews between the EELU main campus and its learning centers in an interactive real-time environment supported by video and audio communication. Lectures are also available to be downloaded using video on-demand (VOD) service.
•Virtual Classrooms: This service enables students to attend classes anywhere. Also, these classes are recorded to be replayed later on by students to follow-up their lectures through the Internet anytime and anywhere.
Course Authoring Competition
(Course Description. Objectives and Outcomes)
Courses Planned:
List of Courses
Course Name Course Code View Outline
Report Writing & Presentation MIS 201
or
GEN 213 outline
Human Rights & Ethics HUM 202
or
GEN 215 outline
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY HUM301 Outline
COMPARATIVE POLITICAL SYSTEMS HUM203 outline
EARTH AND THE UNIVERSE SCI302 Outline
BUSINESS LAW BUS202 outline
INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT BUS301 Outline
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE & DEVELOPMENT MGT301 Outline
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT MGT302 Outline
MANAGEMENT OF SPECIALIZED INSTITUTIONS MGT303 Outline
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT MGT304 Outline
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION MGT306 Outline
PUBLIC RELATIONS MGT401 Outline
MANAGEMENT OF SMALL BUSINESS MGT402 Outline
BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS MGT403 Outline
STRATEGIC COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS MGT404 Outline
PROJECT FEASIBILITY STUDY MGT405 Outline
MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING ACC404 Outline
INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERCE ECM301 Outline
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (1) MIS301 Outline
MONEY AND BANKING ECN201 outline
MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS ECN301 Outline
CAPITAL MARKETS FIN305 Outline
MATERIALS MANAGEMENT MKT301 Outline
MARKETING RESEARCH MKT302 Outline
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR MKT303 Outline
SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT MKT304 Outline
CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION MKT305 Outline
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MKT306 Outline
SERVICES MARKETING MKT307 Outline
MARKETING IN NON- PROFIT ORGANIZATION MKT308 Outline
PRICING STRATEGY MKT309 Outline
GLOBAL MARKETING MKT401 Outline
STRATEGIC MARKETING MKT404 Outline
E-MARKETING MKT402 Outline
SELECTED TOPICS IN MARKETING MKT403 Outline
INFORMATION ECONOMY GEN214 outline
INFORMATION ETHICS GEN315 Outline
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (2) SFT305 Outline
MODELING AND SIMULATION CAS 406 Outline
VHDL CAS 407 Outline
DATABASE SYSTEMS ITF302 Outline
INTELLIGENT DATABASES ITF303 Outline
LANGUAGE ENGINEERING ITF306 Outline
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ITF308 Outline
DATA MINING ITF307 Outline
INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEMS ITF 405 Outline
INFORMATION ASSURANCE AND SECURITY ITF 404 Outline
COMPUTER NETWORKS (1) NWE302 Outline
COMPUTER NETWORKS (2) NWE303 Outline
WEB ENGINEERING (1) NWE304 Outline
WEB ENGINEERING (2) NWE305 Outline
WEB ENGINEERING (3) NWE306 Outline
MOBILE AND SENSOR NETWORKS NWE 407 Outline
MOBILE INTERNETWORKING PROTOCOL NWE 408 Outline
OPTICAL NETWORKS NWE 409 Outline
HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION HCI 401 Outline
MULTIMEDIA AND VIRTUAL REALITY HCI 403 Outline
SYSTEM AND OPERATIONS RESEARCHES GEN211 Outline
EELU AT GLANCE
EELU is a private non-profit University established with the Decree, No. 233, of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt in the 16th, August, 2008 to provide distance education through 24-hour online learning with a vision to be a leading university providing e-learning nationally, regionally, and internationally. EELU gives educational opportunity to learners who cannot attend a campus university.
EELU Educational Services:
•Distributed learning: EELU plans to cover all the governorates in Egypt, Arab world and other countries.
•E-learning: Students can access courses' materials, lectures, virtual classrooms, and any information through both the EELU Intranet and the Internet.
This type of learning allows for interactive collaboration among the students and the instructors.
•Distance learning: Students can learn remotely from different geographical distant locations.
•Video Conferencing: This service allows for conducting meetings, lectures, interviews between the EELU main campus and its learning centers in an interactive real-time environment supported by video and audio communication. Lectures are also available to be downloaded using video on-demand (VOD) service.
•Virtual Classrooms: This service enables students to attend classes anywhere. Also, these classes are recorded to be replayed later on by students to follow-up their lectures through the Internet anytime and anywhere.
Course Authoring Competition
(Course Description. Objectives and Outcomes)
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Skillport logon
Hi Mr. Chris,
Please use the below ID for login at SkillPort (SkillSoft):
Usename: sijaz
Password: sijuly05
Please let me know in case of any problem.
Regards,
Sajjad Ahmad Ijaz
Please use the below ID for login at SkillPort (SkillSoft):
Usename: sijaz
Password: sijuly05
Please let me know in case of any problem.
Regards,
Sajjad Ahmad Ijaz
Monday, October 26, 2009
Coastal Contacts
WAEL MANSOUR
Coastal DuPont™
ADNEC, Abu Dhabi
UAE
Phone: +971 2 4064363
Mobile: +971 50 4537912
Fax: +971 4 3211533
E-mail: wael.mansour@coastal.com
Mr. Michael Conroy, our Managing Director who is based in Singapore .
Charlie Baldonado
Account Manager
Middle East & Africa
Coastal Training Technologies Corp.
500 Studio Drive, Virginia Beach
VA 23452 , USA
Email: charlieb@coastal.com
Tel.: 00-1-800-828-8190 Ext. 1728
Tel.: 00-1-757-498-9014 Ext. 1728
Mobile: 0063-9228135639
Fax: 00-1-757-631-3299
Visit us On-Line:
http://www.coastal.com/
http://www.coastaltraining.com.au/
Philippines Office:
20th Floor Raffles Corporate Center
Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Centre
Pasig City , Metro Manila , Philippines
Coastal DuPont™
ADNEC, Abu Dhabi
UAE
Phone: +971 2 4064363
Mobile: +971 50 4537912
Fax: +971 4 3211533
E-mail: wael.mansour@coastal.com
Mr. Michael Conroy, our Managing Director who is based in Singapore .
Charlie Baldonado
Account Manager
Middle East & Africa
Coastal Training Technologies Corp.
500 Studio Drive, Virginia Beach
VA 23452 , USA
Email: charlieb@coastal.com
Tel.: 00-1-800-828-8190 Ext. 1728
Tel.: 00-1-757-498-9014 Ext. 1728
Mobile: 0063-9228135639
Fax: 00-1-757-631-3299
Visit us On-Line:
http://www.coastal.com/
http://www.coastaltraining.com.au/
Philippines Office:
20th Floor Raffles Corporate Center
Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Centre
Pasig City , Metro Manila , Philippines
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Tomoye Community and Social Platform for Sharepoint
http://www.tomoye.com/
The quickest way to build thriving enterprise communities. We take care of everything - software, strategic advice, hosting, security, hardware, look and feel. You can focus on the thing that adds the most value - execution.
open source?
http://www.tomoye.com/Communities/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=19256
Popular Tags 2.0 analyst army award best best-practice "case study" collaboration communities "communities of practice" community "community of practice" customer design employment enterprise enterprise2.0 event generic government health km "knowledge management" learning look-and-feel metrics networks newsletter practice presentation process roi sales sharepoint slideshow social software "software design" statistics strategy thoughts tools training "training materials" "training video" video wiki
The quickest way to build thriving enterprise communities. We take care of everything - software, strategic advice, hosting, security, hardware, look and feel. You can focus on the thing that adds the most value - execution.
open source?
http://www.tomoye.com/Communities/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=19256
Popular Tags 2.0 analyst army award best best-practice "case study" collaboration communities "communities of practice" community "community of practice" customer design employment enterprise enterprise2.0 event generic government health km "knowledge management" learning look-and-feel metrics networks newsletter practice presentation process roi sales sharepoint slideshow social software "software design" statistics strategy thoughts tools training "training materials" "training video" video wiki
Monday, October 19, 2009
Uncle Sam and Advanced Distributed Learning
Special Google Web site for US Gov:
http://www.google.com/unclesam?hl=en&q=distributed+learning&btnG=Search
Advanced Distributed Learning Home Page
http://www.adlnet.gov/Pages/Default.aspx
The US Army Distributed Learning System:
http://www.dls.army.mil/
What is DLS?
The U.S. Army Distributed Learning System (DLS) acquires, deploys and maintains a worldwide learning infrastructure that innovatively combines hardware, software and telecommunications resources with training facilities and course content to deliver a cohesive, Web-based solution.
http://www.google.com/unclesam?hl=en&q=distributed+learning&btnG=Search
Advanced Distributed Learning Home Page
http://www.adlnet.gov/Pages/Default.aspx
The US Army Distributed Learning System:
http://www.dls.army.mil/
What is DLS?
The U.S. Army Distributed Learning System (DLS) acquires, deploys and maintains a worldwide learning infrastructure that innovatively combines hardware, software and telecommunications resources with training facilities and course content to deliver a cohesive, Web-based solution.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Google Directory of Instructional Technology
http://www.google.com/Top/Reference/Education/Instructional_Technology/
Spreadsheet of top 50:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtDHz5l5ckMudGc4dGUwdjBLOEktQW1YQldrdGFWSnc&hl=en
Spreadsheet of top 50:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtDHz5l5ckMudGc4dGUwdjBLOEktQW1YQldrdGFWSnc&hl=en
Google Directory - Educational Software
http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Educational/
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtDHz5l5ckMudHJQQTJBQ0p6enBkRmozQnpSaDlIWWc&hl=en
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtDHz5l5ckMudHJQQTJBQ0p6enBkRmozQnpSaDlIWWc&hl=en
Skype extension tool (Pamela)
http://www.pamela.biz/en/
Skype Call Recording
Skype Video Recording
Skype Chat Recording
Skype Call Transfer
Rich Mood Editor
Answering Machine
VideoMail
Mega Emotion Sounds
Auto Chat Reply
Birthday Reminders
Email Forwarding
Contact Personalization
Auto Start Applications
Skype Publishing
and many other cool things to explore.
Manage your Skype calls efficiently and professionally!
Read here why we named this application Pamela.
Pamela for Skype — Professional Edition 4.6
30 day trial. Version: 4.6.0.28 | Released: October, 09 2009
Filename: PamelaSetup_Pro.exe
Filesize: 6.5 MB
Supported platforms: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (32 or 64-bit)
Click here to download other Pamela versions (including freeware Pamela Basic).
New in Pamela 4.6
Completely reworked Skype Video Recording system
Record a custom video directly from your Webcam
Many further improvements and changes
Since of Pamela 4.5 we have
Call Scheduler system (Pamela reminds you of calls)
Skype Conference Call manager (auto start conference calls)
Improved video recording
Even more simple audio configuration
Updated & improved user interface
Added status icons of Skype 4.0
Ability to import Pamela recordings
much more to mention here...
Existing users: Download and run the installer which will update your Pamela to the newest version, retaining all your data and settings.
Skype Call Recording
Skype Video Recording
Skype Chat Recording
Skype Call Transfer
Rich Mood Editor
Answering Machine
VideoMail
Mega Emotion Sounds
Auto Chat Reply
Birthday Reminders
Email Forwarding
Contact Personalization
Auto Start Applications
Skype Publishing
and many other cool things to explore.
Manage your Skype calls efficiently and professionally!
Read here why we named this application Pamela.
Pamela for Skype — Professional Edition 4.6
30 day trial. Version: 4.6.0.28 | Released: October, 09 2009
Filename: PamelaSetup_Pro.exe
Filesize: 6.5 MB
Supported platforms: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (32 or 64-bit)
Click here to download other Pamela versions (including freeware Pamela Basic).
New in Pamela 4.6
Completely reworked Skype Video Recording system
Record a custom video directly from your Webcam
Many further improvements and changes
Since of Pamela 4.5 we have
Call Scheduler system (Pamela reminds you of calls)
Skype Conference Call manager (auto start conference calls)
Improved video recording
Even more simple audio configuration
Updated & improved user interface
Added status icons of Skype 4.0
Ability to import Pamela recordings
much more to mention here...
Existing users: Download and run the installer which will update your Pamela to the newest version, retaining all your data and settings.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
E-Learning Tools for Stem (JING etc,,)
http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=97-1
3. Jing
Jing, a free program built by TechSmith, has made more of a difference in my online courses than any other. It allows the user to capture screenshots or record short videos, and then share these quickly and painlessly with other people via the Internet.
In the technical fields, teaching tends to center around solving problems (chemistry, physics, math), and it can be difficult to mimic online the student experience of going to a professor's office and getting help solving a specific problem. With Jing, my students can send me a link to an annotated screenshot of a problem they are struggling with--and the work they've tried so far. Then I can respond by recording a 1- to 2-minute video with some hints, and send them a link to the video.
Once my students got the hang of using Jing, they started using it to help each other, posting questions about specific problems, and posting hints toward solutions to each other in both screen capture and video form. Here's an example of how collaboration happens using Jing (a second example is shown further down the page):
3. Jing
Jing, a free program built by TechSmith, has made more of a difference in my online courses than any other. It allows the user to capture screenshots or record short videos, and then share these quickly and painlessly with other people via the Internet.
In the technical fields, teaching tends to center around solving problems (chemistry, physics, math), and it can be difficult to mimic online the student experience of going to a professor's office and getting help solving a specific problem. With Jing, my students can send me a link to an annotated screenshot of a problem they are struggling with--and the work they've tried so far. Then I can respond by recording a 1- to 2-minute video with some hints, and send them a link to the video.
Once my students got the hang of using Jing, they started using it to help each other, posting questions about specific problems, and posting hints toward solutions to each other in both screen capture and video form. Here's an example of how collaboration happens using Jing (a second example is shown further down the page):
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
New ways to search
http://www.exalead.com/search/web/results/?q=action+research&last_link_type=submit_search
exalead has a very neat drop-down box to aid rapid search
exalead has a very neat drop-down box to aid rapid search
CNET's Tests for PCs and all Intel Processor Families
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6603_7-5020816-1.html
http://ark.intel.com/Default.aspx
For Quad core processors:
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=28398
(from $163 - $316
Processors By Family
Intel® Atom™ Processor Intel® Core™2 Extreme Desktop Processor
Intel® Celeron® D Processor Intel® Core™2 Extreme Mobile Processor
Intel® Celeron® Desktop Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Desktop Processor
Intel® Celeron® M Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Mobile Processor
Intel® Celeron® Mobile Processor Intel® Core™2 Solo Processor
Intel® Core™ Duo Processor Intel® EP80579 Integrated Processor
Intel® Core™ i5 Desktop Processor Intel® Itanium® Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Desktop Processor Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Desktop Processor Extreme Edition Intel® Pentium® Desktop Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Intel® Pentium® III Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Extreme Edition Intel® Pentium® Mobile Processor
Intel® Core™ Solo Processor Intel® Xeon® Processor
Intel® Core™2 Duo Desktop Processor Storage Processor Family
Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile Processor
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Desktop Processor
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Mobile Processor
Intel® Core™2 Quad Desktop Processor
Intel® Core™2 Quad Mobile Processor
Intel® Core™2 Solo Processor
Intel® EP80579 Integrated Processor
Intel® Itanium® Processor
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor
Intel® Pentium® Desktop Processor
Intel® Pentium® III Processor
Intel® Pentium® Mobile Processor
Intel® Xeon® Processor
Storage Processor Family
http://ark.intel.com/Default.aspx
For Quad core processors:
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=28398
(from $163 - $316
Processors By Family
Intel® Atom™ Processor Intel® Core™2 Extreme Desktop Processor
Intel® Celeron® D Processor Intel® Core™2 Extreme Mobile Processor
Intel® Celeron® Desktop Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Desktop Processor
Intel® Celeron® M Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Mobile Processor
Intel® Celeron® Mobile Processor Intel® Core™2 Solo Processor
Intel® Core™ Duo Processor Intel® EP80579 Integrated Processor
Intel® Core™ i5 Desktop Processor Intel® Itanium® Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Desktop Processor Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Desktop Processor Extreme Edition Intel® Pentium® Desktop Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Intel® Pentium® III Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Extreme Edition Intel® Pentium® Mobile Processor
Intel® Core™ Solo Processor Intel® Xeon® Processor
Intel® Core™2 Duo Desktop Processor Storage Processor Family
Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile Processor
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Desktop Processor
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Mobile Processor
Intel® Core™2 Quad Desktop Processor
Intel® Core™2 Quad Mobile Processor
Intel® Core™2 Solo Processor
Intel® EP80579 Integrated Processor
Intel® Itanium® Processor
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor
Intel® Pentium® Desktop Processor
Intel® Pentium® III Processor
Intel® Pentium® Mobile Processor
Intel® Xeon® Processor
Storage Processor Family
CNETS Best 5 Desktops: (inc Vaio!)
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-desktops/?tag=nav;component.0
Sony Vaio JS250J
Instead of succumbing to the latest fads, Sony's Vaio's JS250J all-in-one PC stays the course pioneered by its models from last year, delivering capable performance and best-of-breed home entertainment features at a better price than its all-in-one competition. The Vaio JS250J will appeal to anyone in need of a multipurpose home PC.
Price:$892.82 - $1,010.29 (check prices)
Filed in: Best mainstream desktops
Read full review
Sony Vaio JS250J
Instead of succumbing to the latest fads, Sony's Vaio's JS250J all-in-one PC stays the course pioneered by its models from last year, delivering capable performance and best-of-breed home entertainment features at a better price than its all-in-one competition. The Vaio JS250J will appeal to anyone in need of a multipurpose home PC.
Price:$892.82 - $1,010.29 (check prices)
Filed in: Best mainstream desktops
Read full review
E-Learning Guild's DevLearn 2009 Enterprise2.0
http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.1267
Keynote is MIT Sloan's McAfee. His latest book is out in Nov.
Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges (Hardcover)
http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-2-0-Collaborative-Organizations-Challenges/dp/1422125874/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254879279&sr=8-2
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
"Web 2.0" is the portion of the Internet that's interactively produced by many people; it includes Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and prediction markets. In just a few years, Web 2.0 communities have demonstrated astonishing levels of innovation, knowledge accumulation, collaboration, and collective intelligence.
Now, leading organizations are bringing the Web's novel tools and philosophies inside, creating Enterprise 2.0. In this book, Andrew McAfee shows how they're doing this, and why it's benefiting them. Enterprise 2.0 makes clear that the new technologies are good for much more than just socializing-when properly applied, they help businesses solve pressing problems, capture dispersed and fast-changing knowledge, highlight and leverage expertise, generate and refine ideas, and harness the wisdom of crowds.
Most organizations, however, don't find it easy or natural to use these new tools initially. And executives see many possible pitfalls associated with them. Enterprise 2.0 explores these concerns, and shows how business leaders can overcome them.
McAfee brings together case studies and examples with key concepts from economics, sociology, computer science, consumer psychology, and management studies and presents them all in a clear, accessible, and entertaining style. Enterprise 2.0 is a must-have resource for all C-suite executives seeking to make technology decisions that are simultaneously powerful, popular, and pragmatic.
About the Author
Andrew McAfee coined the phrase "Enterprise 2.0" in a 2006 Sloan Management Review article. He is on the faculty of Harvard Business School's Technology and Operations Management department. His research investigates IT's impact on organizations' performance and competitive position. He has authored more than fifty case studies as well as articles in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and other journals.
Led to IT SAvvy:
http://www.amazon.com/Savvy-What-Executives-Must-Know/dp/1422181014/ref=pd_sim_b_3
and Driving Results through Social Networks http://www.amazon.com/Driving-Results-Through-Social-Networks/dp/0470392495/ref=pd_sim_b_4
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book about how to measure results of your network building work, April 1, 2009
By C. Gallagher - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
If you have ever been tasked to build a network as part of your work responsibility -- and I have -- this book will be very instructive as to how you can begin to go about doing this and importantly, how you measure and document, and visualize the network.
For people in law enforcement, the type of network analysis described in the book can also help you to understand and make sense of the gazillion gang member cards and e-documentation you may be gathering, put that informatin together in an easy-to-understand visual framework, and identify critical nodes in the criminal network that you wouldn't otherwise know were people critical to maintaining the criminal network. Arrest / remove those nodes and you'll be on your way to measurably deconstructing criminal networks - and being able to succinctly report the MEASURABLE results of your work to your Police Chief. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book - about organizational networks, not social networks, July 19, 2009
By Dorian Gray (VA USA) - See all my reviews
First, this book is *not* to be confused with social networking as used typically in the context of linkedin or facebook etc. I think a better title would have been 'Organizational Networks'
This is about the combination of explicit and implicit organizational networks and how organizations should consider evaluating, re-defining these organizational networks to maximize organizational performance.
It will help you understand how *your* organization is actually functioning, the drawbacks that hinder your personal performance because of organizational network bottlenecks, and suggests models for improved organizational performance.
Organizational performance is related to getting the level of collaboration just right. You may be surprised to learn that the problem might not be too little collaboration but too much of inefficient collaboration.
The book is very good. The only reason I am not giving it a 5-star is because I think the book takes considerable effort to read. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)
4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction to applying social network analysis in organizations, June 27, 2009
By Robert Boutilier - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Cross and Thomas have given us a good introduction to the appplication of social network analysis inside organizations. It focuses on how this technique can discover and solve problems. Rather than explain 'how to' analyze networks, it concentrates on the 'why'.
Keynote is MIT Sloan's McAfee. His latest book is out in Nov.
Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges (Hardcover)
http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-2-0-Collaborative-Organizations-Challenges/dp/1422125874/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254879279&sr=8-2
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
"Web 2.0" is the portion of the Internet that's interactively produced by many people; it includes Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and prediction markets. In just a few years, Web 2.0 communities have demonstrated astonishing levels of innovation, knowledge accumulation, collaboration, and collective intelligence.
Now, leading organizations are bringing the Web's novel tools and philosophies inside, creating Enterprise 2.0. In this book, Andrew McAfee shows how they're doing this, and why it's benefiting them. Enterprise 2.0 makes clear that the new technologies are good for much more than just socializing-when properly applied, they help businesses solve pressing problems, capture dispersed and fast-changing knowledge, highlight and leverage expertise, generate and refine ideas, and harness the wisdom of crowds.
Most organizations, however, don't find it easy or natural to use these new tools initially. And executives see many possible pitfalls associated with them. Enterprise 2.0 explores these concerns, and shows how business leaders can overcome them.
McAfee brings together case studies and examples with key concepts from economics, sociology, computer science, consumer psychology, and management studies and presents them all in a clear, accessible, and entertaining style. Enterprise 2.0 is a must-have resource for all C-suite executives seeking to make technology decisions that are simultaneously powerful, popular, and pragmatic.
About the Author
Andrew McAfee coined the phrase "Enterprise 2.0" in a 2006 Sloan Management Review article. He is on the faculty of Harvard Business School's Technology and Operations Management department. His research investigates IT's impact on organizations' performance and competitive position. He has authored more than fifty case studies as well as articles in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and other journals.
Led to IT SAvvy:
http://www.amazon.com/Savvy-What-Executives-Must-Know/dp/1422181014/ref=pd_sim_b_3
and Driving Results through Social Networks http://www.amazon.com/Driving-Results-Through-Social-Networks/dp/0470392495/ref=pd_sim_b_4
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book about how to measure results of your network building work, April 1, 2009
By C. Gallagher - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
If you have ever been tasked to build a network as part of your work responsibility -- and I have -- this book will be very instructive as to how you can begin to go about doing this and importantly, how you measure and document, and visualize the network.
For people in law enforcement, the type of network analysis described in the book can also help you to understand and make sense of the gazillion gang member cards and e-documentation you may be gathering, put that informatin together in an easy-to-understand visual framework, and identify critical nodes in the criminal network that you wouldn't otherwise know were people critical to maintaining the criminal network. Arrest / remove those nodes and you'll be on your way to measurably deconstructing criminal networks - and being able to succinctly report the MEASURABLE results of your work to your Police Chief. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book - about organizational networks, not social networks, July 19, 2009
By Dorian Gray (VA USA) - See all my reviews
First, this book is *not* to be confused with social networking as used typically in the context of linkedin or facebook etc. I think a better title would have been 'Organizational Networks'
This is about the combination of explicit and implicit organizational networks and how organizations should consider evaluating, re-defining these organizational networks to maximize organizational performance.
It will help you understand how *your* organization is actually functioning, the drawbacks that hinder your personal performance because of organizational network bottlenecks, and suggests models for improved organizational performance.
Organizational performance is related to getting the level of collaboration just right. You may be surprised to learn that the problem might not be too little collaboration but too much of inefficient collaboration.
The book is very good. The only reason I am not giving it a 5-star is because I think the book takes considerable effort to read. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)
4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction to applying social network analysis in organizations, June 27, 2009
By Robert Boutilier - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Cross and Thomas have given us a good introduction to the appplication of social network analysis inside organizations. It focuses on how this technique can discover and solve problems. Rather than explain 'how to' analyze networks, it concentrates on the 'why'.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Websites with neat features
http://www.alhokairgroup.com/
Interesting rollover effect..
http://www.right.com/
keeps viewer interested by changing images, although text remains the same
Interesting rollover effect..
http://www.right.com/
keeps viewer interested by changing images, although text remains the same
Monday, October 5, 2009
Putting a table into a wiki
http://knowledgeservices.wikispaces.com/Pasting+In
More info on available wiki features:
http://blog.wikispaces.com/
More info on available wiki features:
http://blog.wikispaces.com/
Sunday, October 4, 2009
The Brint Portal
http://portal.brint.com/
http://www.brint.com/km/
"First on the list for company and industry research
"Top website for useful training and workplace-related issues..." - American Society for Training and Development
"Best web site in comprehensiveness, creativity, and relevance for educators interested in technology..." - Syllabus
"Practitioner's and academic's paradise..." - MBA Magazine
"A practical guidepost..." - Chief Executive
"What every CEO should know..." - Business Week
"First on the list for company and industry research..." - San Jose Mercury News
"Best site for information technology and business information..." - Computerworld
"Best business information source..." - Business Week
"Unparalleled in depth and relevance for business research..." - Information Week
"Best source for knowledge management and intellectual capital..." - Fast Company
"Top frequently visited 'knowledge economy' site..." - Business 2.0
"Contemporary business, management and technology issues..." - Wall Street Journal
"One of the best HR sites on the Internet..." - Wall Street Journal: Career Journal
"If BRINT doesn't have it, then you probably don't need it..." - Fast Company
"A pretty powerful portal. Smart stop on the web..." - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
"Thumbs up for this serious surfer's tool useful for managers..." - Fortune
"Tool for raising your company's IQ..." - Forbes
"Best web site for keeping up with hi-tech industry developments..." - InfoWorld
"Wealth of incredibly rich, useful and interesting information..." - CIO Magazine
"Invaluable for applying complexity theory to business management..." - New York Times
"Complexity theory made easy..." - Wall Street Journal
"Probaly the largest collection of knowledge management literature..." - Wall Street Journal
"Best web site on the topic of knowledge management..." - InfoWorld
"Perhaps the best KM resource site out there..." - KM World
"Will keep enthusiasts of Knowledge Management entertained for hours...." - Harvard Business Publishing
http://www.brint.com/km/
"First on the list for company and industry research
"Top website for useful training and workplace-related issues..." - American Society for Training and Development
"Best web site in comprehensiveness, creativity, and relevance for educators interested in technology..." - Syllabus
"Practitioner's and academic's paradise..." - MBA Magazine
"A practical guidepost..." - Chief Executive
"What every CEO should know..." - Business Week
"First on the list for company and industry research..." - San Jose Mercury News
"Best site for information technology and business information..." - Computerworld
"Best business information source..." - Business Week
"Unparalleled in depth and relevance for business research..." - Information Week
"Best source for knowledge management and intellectual capital..." - Fast Company
"Top frequently visited 'knowledge economy' site..." - Business 2.0
"Contemporary business, management and technology issues..." - Wall Street Journal
"One of the best HR sites on the Internet..." - Wall Street Journal: Career Journal
"If BRINT doesn't have it, then you probably don't need it..." - Fast Company
"A pretty powerful portal. Smart stop on the web..." - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
"Thumbs up for this serious surfer's tool useful for managers..." - Fortune
"Tool for raising your company's IQ..." - Forbes
"Best web site for keeping up with hi-tech industry developments..." - InfoWorld
"Wealth of incredibly rich, useful and interesting information..." - CIO Magazine
"Invaluable for applying complexity theory to business management..." - New York Times
"Complexity theory made easy..." - Wall Street Journal
"Probaly the largest collection of knowledge management literature..." - Wall Street Journal
"Best web site on the topic of knowledge management..." - InfoWorld
"Perhaps the best KM resource site out there..." - KM World
"Will keep enthusiasts of Knowledge Management entertained for hours...." - Harvard Business Publishing
Alexa Web rankings
Free web traffic metrics, top sites lists, site demographics, hot urls, and more..
http://www.alexa.com/
put in an URL and click on "sites linking in" This combined with google hits should be a good indicator
http://www.alexa.com/
put in an URL and click on "sites linking in" This combined with google hits should be a good indicator
Sharepoint and Protosphere Integration
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090923005947&newsLang=en
Conversation on the Virtual Worlds Industry:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=videos&search_query=chuck+hamilton&search_sort=video_recently_uploaded
Conversation on the Virtual Worlds Industry:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=videos&search_query=chuck+hamilton&search_sort=video_recently_uploaded
Zantaz (Autonomy) e-discovery
e-mail archiving and e-discovery/compliance provider
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/Autonomy-Acquires-Zantaz-for-375-Million/
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/Autonomy-Acquires-Zantaz-for-375-Million/
Autonomy
http://www.autonomy.com/
Came across the because recommended by the Motley Fool ( Joe..)
NOT to be confused with intuition
Details of Autonomy Company: http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/company-comment/2009/07/07/how-to-miss-out-on-a-five-bagger.aspx?source=ufwflwlnk0000001
All Autonomy articles: http://www.fool.co.uk/search/index.aspx?as_q=autonomy&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&site=UKMF&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_occt=any&num=10&sort=date:D:S:d1
THe Information Week article “the worlds hottest enterprise software company”:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217400613&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb
NYSE uses Zamtaz:
http://www.zantaz.com/customers/regulatory-intelligence/index.htm
more on meaning-based computing: http://www.etalk.com/technology/meaning-based-computing/index.htm
Came across the because recommended by the Motley Fool ( Joe..)
NOT to be confused with intuition
Details of Autonomy Company: http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/company-comment/2009/07/07/how-to-miss-out-on-a-five-bagger.aspx?source=ufwflwlnk0000001
All Autonomy articles: http://www.fool.co.uk/search/index.aspx?as_q=autonomy&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&site=UKMF&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_occt=any&num=10&sort=date:D:S:d1
THe Information Week article “the worlds hottest enterprise software company”:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217400613&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb
NYSE uses Zamtaz:
http://www.zantaz.com/customers/regulatory-intelligence/index.htm
more on meaning-based computing: http://www.etalk.com/technology/meaning-based-computing/index.htm
Javascipt and Techencyclopedia
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia?term=javascript&x=31&y=8
JavaScript
A popular scripting language that is widely supported in Web browsers and other Web tools. It adds interactive functions to HTML pages, which are otherwise static, since HTML is a display language, not a programming language. JavaScript is easier to use than Java, but not as powerful and deals mainly with the elements on the Web page. On the client, JavaScript is maintained as source code embedded into an HTML page. On the server, it is compiled into bytecode (intermediate language), similar to Java programs.
JavaScript evolved from Netscape's LiveScript language. First released with Navigator 2.0, it was made more compatible with Java. JavaScript does not have the programming overhead of Java, but can be used in conjunction with it. For example, a JavaScript script could be used to display a data entry form and validate the input, while a Java applet or Java servlet more thoroughly processes the information. JavaScript is also used to tie Java applets together. See JScript, Dojo, Java, Java applet, servlet and VBScript.
JavaScript
A popular scripting language that is widely supported in Web browsers and other Web tools. It adds interactive functions to HTML pages, which are otherwise static, since HTML is a display language, not a programming language. JavaScript is easier to use than Java, but not as powerful and deals mainly with the elements on the Web page. On the client, JavaScript is maintained as source code embedded into an HTML page. On the server, it is compiled into bytecode (intermediate language), similar to Java programs.
JavaScript evolved from Netscape's LiveScript language. First released with Navigator 2.0, it was made more compatible with Java. JavaScript does not have the programming overhead of Java, but can be used in conjunction with it. For example, a JavaScript script could be used to display a data entry form and validate the input, while a Java applet or Java servlet more thoroughly processes the information. JavaScript is also used to tie Java applets together. See JScript, Dojo, Java, Java applet, servlet and VBScript.
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