Wednesday, March 17, 2004

The UNC Distance Learning Forum is a self-organized semi-annual meeting of UNC personnel (administrators, faculty, technical support staff, librarians, and others) involved in distance education activities. Issues of common interest are discussed and presentations are given on new developments. With the generous cooperation of the TLT Collaborative, the 2004 Spring UNC Distance Learning Forum is being held in conjunction with the TLT Conference as a means to foster greater exchange and collaboration between the distance education and the teaching and learning with technology communities.

Increasingly, educators in all disciplines are re-examining the complexities of the learning process and asking themselves how information technology can be used to expand and re-define classroom teaching. Many educators believe the most significant contribution of IT lies in the growth of “hybrid” classroom courses, which blend the personal touch of face-to-face instruction with the high-tech benefits of the Internet, the Web, and other technological resources in meaningful ways. These “hybrids” offer new opportunities for enhancing both teaching and learning, while leaving the professor in control of the creation of this new—but not completely “untraditional”—paradigm. This video provides how-to skills and strategies faculty need for this evolving classroom environment. Expert panelists will address key issues and present effective techniques for teaching a dynamic “hybrid” course. The program will use specific examples and illustrations to actually demonstrate the creative infusion of IT into traditional classrooms.

President Broad will deliver opening welcome remarks via videoconference, and will offer some brief observations on the increasing importance of information technology in higher education. Frank Prochaska, Executive Director of the TLT Collaborative, and other UNC representatives will summarize highlights of the conference program.

New concepts and principles are evolving with the development of e-Journals. Concepts like Open Access Journals are a reality and research suggests OA articles are cited ten times more than articles in traditionally published journals. Traditional journal publishers will often permit authors to retain rights to post their articles in OAI sources, (Institutional Archives), personal web pages, disciplinary Depositories. ISI’s Citation Index now includes 21 web only journals, and Web of Science is developing a new initiative to capture web citations. Author fees to provide perpetual free access world wide to articles has become an option from some publishers and societies. Come join us and discuss the changes, learn about PLOS and BMC models and your increasing rights as an author submitting articles to today’s journals. TA journals, OA journals, Gold and Green journals - what’s it all about?

This presentation will begin with the basics for copyright use in higher education, including exclusive rights, infringement, fair use, and defenses. The presentation will then analyze the UNC copyright ownership policy and the application of that policy at constituent institutions.

Leading faculty to better teaching with technology requires resources and support. At NC State University, an internal grant program has been developed by the Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) organization. The Innovation in Distributed Education Applications (IDEA) grants are organized into five project categories and provide faculty with both financial and personnel support. Each grant provides assistance from DELTA staff (instructional designers, web application developers, web content developers, marketing specialists, etc). The program’s yearly cycle consists of electronic proposal submission and review, award notification, transfer of funds, assignment of project managers, and project implementation. During this session, presenters will share lessons learned from developing all aspects of the grant program: the online submission and review systems, the implementation of funded projects, and the ongoing communication with faculty and staff. There will also be open discussion to solicit thoughts from the audience on enhancements to the program and application to other institutions.

Does technology serve to enhance educational opportunities, or are we limiting our educational environments to fit the constraints of technology? Modern computers and communication networks are stimulating the creation and spreading of new knowledge about the world around us, helping us to gain deeper insights into even the most complex of systems. At the same time, it is becoming harder to distinguish the good, the bad and the ugly. Teaching with new technology thus involves much more than teaching techniques; we must learn how to function well in the world of cyberspace, making discerning judgments about what we find there. Several examples from recent work across the curriculum including mathematics, physics, chemistry, social sciences, will be explored. We will examine the impact of numerical modeling and scientific visualization in the classroom, with special emphasis on verification and validation: how do you know if it is right?

Tanner and Tanner’s (1995) model of “Curricular Sources and Influences” shows the curriculum in the center of a circle. Around the circumference are political influences, social influences, economic influences, and technological influences. These influences affect each other as they help determine the decisions made by professors. This project uses that model to study three teacher education courses, taught by three different professors, over a ten year period. Results indicate that integrating technology into teacher education courses was not simply a function of adapting technology for student learning. Professors must be cognizant of the social, political, and economic influences that advance or retard the process. Highly specialized professors may not be sufficiently aware of the panoply of influences that could affect curricular reform. For those reformers, preparation for technology integration should therefore include colleagues who are more attuned to social, political, and economic trends.

With the advent of technologically mediated distance education, UNC campuses are able to collaborate in offering and sharing courses and degree programs much more extensively than before. With this collaboration come many opportunities for innovative programs and resource-saving alliances, but a number of organizational and administrative issues arise as well. Dr. Sadler will provide an update on distance education in the UNC system and an overview of various issues that are being addressed by the Office of the President and by UNC constituent institutions. The presentation should be useful for individuals involved with distance education or who are contemplating collaboration with other UNC campuses in offering courses and degree programs. Through the work of administrators and staff at East Carolina University, and with the involvement of the UNC Office of the President, a CD is being developed that is designed to portray distance education in the UNC system to a general audience. One segment of the CD will be shown during this presentation. This session will serve as the interest group meeting for the Distance Education Interest Group.

This is an entry-level workshop for anyone seeking to define and develop an effective, personal approach to designing and teaching hybrid or online courses. We will open the session by looking at and discussing several examples of hybrid and online courses reflecting diverse teaching styles (i.e., constructivist vs. stand-and-deliver approaches) and subject matter areas (i.e., sciences and humanities). The purpose of the examples will be to demonstrate that there are many ways to design and build an effective hybrid or online course! Then, through completing an online survey and taking part in online discussion with one another, participants will continue the process of defining and developing their own personal approaches by choosing the aspects of hybrid or online instruction (i.e., content-delivery options, discussion options) they would like to focus on and develop, and determining the benefits and challenges they might encounter. Each participant will complete an Action Plan document that lays out their next steps and lists the resources and/or training they will need to take those steps. Participants will have online access to narrated PowerPoint overviews, several handouts that can help guide hybrid or online course development, and references for further study.

This workshop will show you how you can use Camtasia Studio 2 to record, edit and publish rich screen video presentations. Whether it is a simple PowerPoint presentation for a lecture, or an instructional video on how to use a specific desktop application, Camtasia has tools that will allow you to deliver these videos on CD or via the web in Flash format directly from your desktop. Hardware requirements will be covered as well as microphone/headphone selection. Several examples of how Camtasia can be used will be shown, including how it can be incorporated into Blackboard to enhance online or web-enhanced courses. Also covered will be storyboarding, comparison of video/audio codecs for different delivery methods, and batch production.

If you are an Instructional Technologist and want to join in a conversation about the professional development opportunities that the Collaborative can provide PLEASE attend this meeting. Rob Owens will give the results of a survey of the needs of IT personnel and then we will have a group discussion to determine what other kinds of and how we would like to take advantage of professional development resources.

The purpose of this roundtable discussion is to gauge interest and discuss the promise and pitfalls of developing a system-level process for peer review of digital scholarship/TLT. UNC has an opportunity to work with MERLOT to develop a process for peer review of TLT learning objects for faculty being reviewed for reappointment, tenure and promotion. UNC could provide an important service to its faculty and to the scholarship of teaching and learning by developing a process for an optional “external review” process for faculty members involved in personnel evaluations. How would such a process work? Would faculty use it? Would it be sustainable? These questions need to be explored before we decide on developing a peer review process. This roundtable will provide a forum for this exploration.

Do you need to develop a new TLT training workshop for your campus? Would it be helpful to see what other UNC campuses have created on the topic first? The UNC Compendium of Training, launching online in spring 2004, will provide a single access point to workshop syllabi, online tutorials, and relevant training materials that the 16 UNC campuses are willing to share with each other. See a demonstration of the Compendium and learn the process the TLTC used to collect, index, and publish the training materials, including gaining permissions to reuse the content.

Since 1998 the presenters have evolved an undergraduate interdisciplinary integrated media studies, research and community services project at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. For six years the “Media Integration project” (MI) has linked three departments (Art, Mass Communications and Music) within the College of Arts and Sciences together with university support services (UNCP University Computing and information Services and the UNCP Sampson-Livermore Library) in order to more effectively promote digital cognition and digital literacy across a broad range of campus constituencies. Now an “academic academy”, the UNC Pembroke Digital Academy is developing plans toward an interdisciplinary major in new media studies. This presentation describes key steps in this history, footnotes, and significant learnings gleaned along this information rich, non-linear path.

As technology needs increase throughout our campuses most of us are experiencing little growth in staffing to sustain these needs. In order to provide support for faculty teaching online and prepare instructors for version upgrades, UNCW has composed an online training course. This training is accessed through WebCT and incorporates Camtasia videos to augment learning. Those enrolled learn to use the tool while experiencing online learning from their students’ perspective. The course is twofold in that it introduces the seasoned WebCT-er to what’s coming down the pike with upgrades, while leading the new online instructor through development steps in WebCT. Course content includes online learning styles modules and provides resources for establishing online learning communities. Participants will see an overview of this course and have the opportunity to be enrolled as a learner as well as participate in a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of using this approach to faculty training.

MERLOT is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. Links to online learning materials are collected there along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments. This presentation will be an overview of MERLOT with emphasis on the new MERLOT initiatives.

In Fall 2003, freshmen enrolled in a pilot section of First Year Experience at UNC Asheville were taught information literacy skills by way of a semester-long, hands-on Web project. The content and theme of this section, Jazz and Blues in American Culture, provided a vehicle for students to research African American blues musicians from the Southeast region and showcase their research on a collaborative course Website featuring sound files and other media (see). In addition to learning basic library research skills (how to find books, articles, and media), how to identify quality Web-based information, and how to format a bibliography, students received basic instruction in Web design and how to present their findings visually. Because this class project involved the use of MP3 audio files, images, and other materials borrowed (with permission) from other sources, a significant portion of the project and course focused on intellectual property and copyright issues. In conclusion, the presenter emphasizes the need for more creative and engaging approaches to teaching information literacy.

This poster promotes the WebCT IG and provides information for those individuals interested in participating in the group. Lorraine Stanton and Jana Avery will be present to answer questions, etc.

Session Objectives: Businesses and universities are now capturing the mobile environment in their corporate conference rooms, travels, and campuses. Organizations can send their memos, documents, and even presentations to an individual’s handheld device. Organizations realize that content portability contributes to their business processes and to the bottom line. With this portability of content, companies can leverage source documents and reuse them on PDAs. This article looks at current PDA applications, shows samples of PDA presentations, and touches on the technologies related to PDA presentations. Session Topics include: Using mLearning in Universities, Looking at mLearning Applications in Other Areas, Studying mLearning, and Trends Looking at PDA Presentation Technologies.

This poster session will provide participants with an opportunity to view a method used to provide editorial feedback on student products in distance learning settings electronically.

Is a “hybrid” course the same as a “blended” course? Could a “wiki” be right for you? What in the world are “SCORM” and “MERLOT”? Many of us have asked similar questions that relate to the ever-broadening vocabulary of technology-enhanced instruction. At this session, you can assist the TLT Collaborative in developing a glossary of teaching and learning with technology terms. We’ll be collecting words, phrases, and acronyms that you want to know about, asking for your definitions, and sharing what we know.

Many information technology employees and technology writers mistakenly think catchphrases, acronyms and buzzwords add a sophisticated spin to their verbiage. When developing presentations, articles and other informational material, the most important objective is often overlooked: empowering your non-technical audience with a clear understanding of and appreciation for technology. Non-technical staff, faculty, administrators and decision makers develop a cynical attitude toward technology they don’t understand. As a result, these individuals don’t readily support or adopt new technologies. Technical and non-technical groups find it increasingly difficult to work together from different sides of the fence. We’d like to share several writing tips we’ve learned from communicating with ECU’s campus, its surrounding community and national partners. We’ll suggest simple, easy-to-apply strategies that will help conference participants become more effective communicators while forming and strengthening collaborative relationships. We’ll also share a compilation of online and print resources that offer valuable insight and new perspectives on communicating technical information successfully.

Over the past 7 years, web based teaching materials have been introduced into the laboratory (60 contact hours) portion of the medical pathology course at the Brody School of Medicine. These materials have been designed to increase the retention of lecture acquired knowledge and to make the laboratories more self-directed and student centered. They have also been designed to improve the quality of the material presented and to be more cost effective in terms of faculty time and materials used. There will be an emphasis on how student acceptance and suggestions influenced the design of these learning materials. Changes in the technology available also influenced design, which will also be discussed.

This session will address the formation of partnerships with the College of Education, Eastern North Carolina educators, pre-service teachers, and educators around the world through innovative uses of technology. The session will include an overview of the lesson plan component of our Eastern North Carolina Digital History exhibits available online at http://www.lib.ecu.edu/exhibits/, the planning and implementing of a Instructional Technology Center in the Teaching Resources Center of Joyner Library, and the development of an outreach program to promote continued collaboration among Joyner Library, the ECU College of Education, Eastern North Carolina educators, and preservice teachers. Techniques, strategies and pitfalls will be shared with participants. Resources will be made available via the web so that colleagues who are interested in the topic may consult them after the conference.

Faculty members and administrators from various UNC institutions will discuss recognition and rewards for incorporating technology into the classroom. Each panel member will give a short overview of current practices in this area at his or her campus and offer suggestions for new forms of recognition and rewards where they do not exist. The discussion will then be open for input from the audience. Concerns, ideas, and suggestions from this session will be circulated to the TLT Collaborative Board, Teaching and Learning Centers, and Faculty Assembly committees in an effort to develop new ways to encourage, recognize, and reward innovative use of technology for teaching and learning.

Students in an introductory chemistry class often have difficulty conceptualizing the three-dimensional shapes of atoms and molecules using the two-dimensional illustrations and images presented in traditional textbooks. To assist the students with the task of conceptualizing, numerous models of electron orbital configurations, molecular geometries, hydrogen bonding and intra-atomic forces are presented to the class using a 3D stereovision display. These models illustrate the different shapes of molecules that result from differences in electron configurations around atoms. The molecular geometries are based on valence shell electron pair repulsion theory, VSEPR, as presented in the introductory class lectures. The displays were generated using different modeling codes (Gaussian and DMOL3). The three dimensional models use the AVS/Express visualization tool from AVS, Inc., and the Full Circle Solution from VRCO, Inc. for the display.

Under the direction of Winston-Salem State University’s Distance Learning Strategic Planning Committee, CITTLE (Center for Innovative Teaching, Technology, Learning and Evaluation) was charged with providing the faculty at WSSU with a systematic process of creating and evaluating web-based instruction. This “design template” incorporates procedures and materials that are useful in analyzing and organizing a course, designing a syllabus, specifying learning outcomes and goals and objectives, connecting objectives to instructional strategies, aligning those objectives with technologies, and also provides some evaluative methodologies. We will share our learning experiences, both positive and negative, in using a collaborative approach to overseeing the design of the template and its development and implementation. Our original team consisted of the staff of CITTLE, the School of Education and Arts and Sciences DL Program Coordinators, the Director of DL, and faculty and staff from a number of other academic programs.

The College of Arts & Sciences Technology Solutions Team at UNC Charlotte has been working with open source technologies to provide low-cost tools to faculty and staff. Developing open source solutions has its own collection of pros and cons, however, including establishing a development team with appropriate skill sets, ongoing support of tools once established, and legal issues (especially when contributing back to an open source project). This session will be an open forum for discussion of issues related to open source software development in higher education.

The North Carolina Gerontology Consortium, a multi-campus collaborative operational since May 2003, uses distance education technologies to offer more and better education and training opportunities to gerontology students and the aging services workforce across the state. The presenters, who were involved in the Consortium’s design and implementation, will discuss initial TLT successes, failures, and unresolved issues that range from course-specific to UNC-systemwide. Most items are illustrative examples which pertain to distance education initiatives in general. The information presented and subsequent discussion should benefit distance education faculty, program coordinators, and campus/system administrators.

This presentation will provide an update on current IT initiatives within the UNC Division of Information Resources. Projects to be discussed include: grid computing, NCREN3, Banner implementation, Teaching and Learning with Technology initiatives, data warehousing, network security, music distribution pilot projects, and coordinated technology management activities. The Board of Governors Task Force on the Future of Information Technology is now examining issues for consideration under Phase II of the UNC IT Strategy, and possible future projects to be undertaken by the Division of Information Resources will also be discussed.

The UNC Professional Development Portal (PDP), launched in 2000 by the TLTC, is a database including over 2,500 resources submitted by and for UNC faculty, administrators, librarians, and staff (http://unctlt.org/pdp/home.cfm). The PDP is in the planning stages of a redesign that will include enhancements to push relevant content to users and connect UNC colleagues who share similar interests. Learn more about the current plans for the redesign and the challenges we face in the project. We will invite you to share your feedback on the changes we are planning.

In a recent article published in the Educause Quarterly, Scott Howell charges that, due to technological advances, student expectations have risen and educators’ methods have changed, but assessment has utterly failed to keep pace. As more and more institutions adopt new, technology-rich approaches to instructional delivery, shouldn’t we consider whether or not our students who live and learn in a multimedia environment at home, in the workplace, and at the university should continue to have their learning assessed and measured through traditional pencil-and-paper based methods? At Chapel Hill, we are very interested in developing, investigating, and applying assessment techniques that are more consistent with the current learning environment. Toward this end, we have been evaluating several electronic testing applications that allow instructors to create, distribute, administer, and collect assessments in a secure electronic form. This presentation will examine how these products are moving assessment beyond the blue book.

I am using the Classroom Performance System in my Principles of Accounting class. CPS was created by e Instruction and involves student held devices similar to remote controls. The instructor has software that flashes questions on a screen so students can answer using their remotes. There is a receiver so the answers are compiled. The students see the total number of correct and incorrect answers, but no one other than the individual student and the teacher knows who was correct or incorrect. (The instructor has access to reports showing each student’s progress.) So far, the students and faculty are pleased. It works and provides instant feedback so students know where they stand within the class. After I lecture, I ask questions. If several students answer incorrectly, I know I have to give a better explanation. It is also helping to make me more organized in my teaching.

Learn how the new UNCG Interdisciplinary Center for e-Learning is facilitating innovative faculty-generated and Center generated research projects in the intersection of technology and pedagogy. Track #1: Faculty-generated pedagogically oriented projects that put the horse (pedagogy) before the cart (technology), message before medium. Guiding questions for this fairly straightforward-yet-edgy track include: How can technology help instructors do the good pedagogical things they have always done, only better? How can technology enable instructors to do good pedagogical things that they have always wanted to do, but couldn’t? How can leading edge, “bladerunning” instructors translate interest and involvement in techno-pedagogy into recognized academic markers for promotion and tenure? Track #2: Center-generated techno-pedagogically oriented projects that assert message is medium (and vice versa). Guiding questions for this more avowedly complex-and-edgy track include: How can we build carts that teach good pedagogical things to horses and their drivers? How can we build technological environments that create synergies and/or optimum conditions of interaction between horses, carts, and drivers? What does it mean to work within what Donna Haraway calls “the integrated circuit?” What types of projects do only Centers enable us to engage in, and what types of projects are truly worthwhile at this point in time? In the presentation I provide examples of projects currently under way in each subcategory of the above tracks, and briefly outline the initial spark, mission, and strategic plan for ICE.

ECU is using the regular internet to bring students together from Africa, Europe, Asia, and ECU in a common, synchronous classroom. This project is based on last summer’s China Seminar. Technology, pedagogy, cultural, and administrative issues of this initiative will be discussed.

Students continue to plagiarize. This is old news, but the Internet Term Paper Mill Sites continue to grind away. (We visited many of them!) Plagiarism is an ethical/legal violation of intellectual property rights, but more relevant to us is its interference with learning. Detection is not enough, our pedagogy must be designed to deter. Some of the traditional deterrence methods (e.g. working with students on outlines and drafts) are somewhat more difficult in an online education format than in face-to-face education. A more direct approach, suitable for online use, is discussing plagiarism up front and educating about the ethical, legal and learning environments. We provide links to resources to support this approach. Additionally, detection can play a role in an integrated approach to decreasing plagiarism. There are many commercial services, and a few free approaches. UNCC has used a commercial service for a year, and we will discuss this experience.

Online course syllabi provide a convenient source of information about library use. This presentation will discuss the strategies used by Randall Library to retrieve syllabi, analyze library use and develop new opportunities to collaborate with faculty. Randall Library looked at the types of projects students are assigned for which library use or information searching is required. We then considered additional services and service improvements to offer such as web-based library guides, offers of instructional sessions, and collection development projects. The findings from this study encouraged us to create a new web-based service to pull course and library related materials into a convenient package. This service called Syllabus Plus concentrates on the courses that use library services. Once the courses have been selected web pages are created to make direct links to the syllabus, electronic reserve reading links, assignment specific instructional guides, subject resource guides, and if available, class homepage.

This demonstration complements the longer presentation on the bioMovies “project”. The demonstration will feature examples of short video clips of animals locally and worldwide as well as longer, interactive movies on biological themes. Participants will have the opportunity to try the interactive features on a laptop computer. Feedback on usability and usefulness in education will be solicited. A demonstration CD and handouts describing the project and the bioMovies website will be distributed, and collaborations for future production of videos will be sought.

I will give a demonstration of Maya 5.0 by constructing 3D Animation of a Teapot. Maya 5.0 is a character animation and visual effects system designed for the professional animator. Maya is used in the production of computer games, visualization, web media, print media film and video. Maya is available as a Personal Leaning Edition from Alias | Wavefront. Personal Learning Edition is a special version of the Maya Software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use.

Educo Learning System is an integrated instructional delivery system that provides content, and technology tools on both, Web and LAN, platforms. Its main features include: Multimedia Lecture notes for teachers and compatible tutorials for students, assessment system both in free response and multiple choice formats, grade book, record management and report generation, surveys, and several other components to empower the teachers and support the students. The system covers all the content areas in mathematics from arithmetic to three-dimensional calculus. Several national surveys and well documented studies have validated its effectiveness in terms of reduction in attrition and higher level of student performance.

Students in an introductory chemistry class often have difficulty conceptualizing the three-dimensional shapes of atoms and molecules using the two-dimensional illustrations and images presented in traditional textbooks. To assist the students with the task of conceptualizing, numerous models of electron orbital configurations, molecular geometries, hydrogen bonding and intra-atomic forces are presented to the class using a 3D stereovision display. These models illustrate the different shapes of molecules that result from differences in electron configurations around atoms. The molecular geometries are based on valence shell electron pair repulsion theory, VSEPR, as presented in the introductory class lectures. The displays were generated using different modeling codes (Gaussian and DMOL3). The three dimensional models use the AVS/Express visualization tool from AVS, Inc., and the Full Circle Solution from VRCO, Inc. for the display.

“Learning anytime anywhere” has been a long-sought goal for learners and instructors as well. Several attempts have been made to reach learners and make knowledge more available and accessible to them. Electronic media have been a major venue for such approaches, and have facilitated the delivery of rich interactive material, allowing for the interaction between instructor and learner, as well as self-paced learning for the latter. The tool presented in this demonstration is an electronic interactive book dealing with the topic of construction planning and scheduling. It was broken down into several modules including: Project management framework, Project time management lectures and course information, Glossary of frequently used terms, Exercises and solutions, and Scheduling software tutorial. The navigation within the application follows a non-linear pattern, allowing the users to select their own path and move freely at their own pace.

This presentation uses data in an Excel file to demonstrate that a correlation can be represented as ellipse. By changing the data in the file, it is shown that as the figure becomes more elliptical the correlation increases. This file can also be used to demonstrate the concepts of true positives, true negatives, false positives, and false negatives. Finally the file can demonstrate that the effectiveness of a test increases as the predictor validity (i.e., correlation) increases, as the selection ratio decreases, and as the base rate approaches .5.

This is a demonstration of the Classroom Performance System known as e-Instruction. I will have five individual handheld remotes and will show how they are used in the classroom.

Last year we presented information about our use of weblog technologies to facilitate team-based and cross-campus collaboration. In this session we will share our experiences in another year of weblog use, including both successes and failures. We have also incorporated the use of other collaborative technologies, including wikis and instant messaging. A brief overview of the technologies will be included, but the focus will be on our particular methods for using this technology in a distributed support unit.

TLT Assessment Resources will be shown. Participant feedback is expected.

Thursday, March 18, 2004

The meeting will be an opportunity for conference attendees to learn more about the Web Accessibility Interest Group, discuss issues regarding web accessibility on their campuses, and make contacts with other people interested in web accessibility issues.

The e-Learning Support Interest Group serves as a community of practitioners who share ideas and methodologies related to the support of technology-rich instructional programs. The group discusses topics such as how to: (1) design, administer and evaluate programs that support instructional technology (i.e. grant initiatives, training, release time, awards, recognition, hardware and software), (2) think strategically during tough budget times, (3) reduce the barriers to entry for using new technologies in instruction, (4) provide support to all levels of an instructional program, including program-level support (i.e. getting buy-in from program administrators), course-level support (i.e. providing incentives and training for faculty), and student-level support (i.e. providing access to resources), (5) look for and secure internal and external resources, (6), remove potential obstacles faced by those teaching with technology (i.e., TEACH Act, plagiarism, workload management), and (7) be innovative while supporting the ongoing needs of faculty and students in programs.

Using a library-provided link server, patrons can use open URL linking to go from one database to a corresponding location in another database. For example, OpenURL can automatically link from a journal article citation in one database directly to the full text of that article in another database. This presentation will demonstrate different ways to use OpenURL and will give an overview of the technology, including its strengths, weaknesses, and implementation options.

The UNCG School of Health and Human Performance Teaching Innovations Program (2003-2004) invites instructors to develop, implement, and assess an innovative teaching project utilizing technology. Upon completion, instructors are given $500 to use for professional expenses. This two-part presentation will provide program specifics and suggest elements that have contributed to a high rate of participation and it will describe a successful project using asynchronous discussion. This project resulted in greater student preparedness for face-to-face class, more substantive discussion online and in class, greater instructor knowledge of student understanding, opportunity for more creative activities in class, and greater instructor satisfaction with the class. This session is useful for administrators interested in developing effective incentive programs, instructional technology consultants seeking to encourage faculty to use technology and learner-centered pedagogy, and faculty who want to learn about using asynchronous discussion to enhance learning outcomes. All presentation materials will be posted to the web.

Participants will hear four presenters with different experiences and participate in a discussion to look for patterns among the experiences. Topics to be addressed include the following. Internet-based learning is fast becoming an integral part of the academic environment. The question at hand is how students are likely to react to such pedagogical changes. It is helpful to examine the everyday situations related to teaching online. A set of questions commonly experienced by novice online instructors guides the discussion. Students enrolled in a distance learning internet-based introductory statistics course were given specific assignments to facilitate learning. Outcomes of this pedagogical effort will be shared. Many of the items that make online teaching problematic can be avoided by prior planning and knowledge. These experiences and pitfalls will be shared as well as methods of improving the experience for those who are reticent about teaching online.

WebCT is the leader in innovative technology for distance education. During this presentation, Barb Ross, WebCT Chief Operating Officer, will discuss WebCT’s product strategy, WebCT’s competitive advantages, and how some of WebCT’s system and consortia customers are utilizing this technology to their strategic advantage.

Several initiatives are underway to measure and manage electronic resources, such as the ARL e-metrics project, the ICOLC proposed guidelines, and the COUNTER project. The aim of these projects is to assist librarians in their efforts to accurately assess usage of online resources. To date, best practices have not evolved, guidelines are not clear, and all vendors are not compliant. Today, librarians are stepping into the breach, as we need reliable and accurate means of measuring electronic usage in our individual libraries. A panel of librarians from UNC Greensboro and UNC Pembroke will discuss how they have responded to the challenge of compiling and evaluating usage statistics, using their findings in subsequent planning at their respective institutions. A former vendor representative will provide insight from the aggregator’s prospective.

Librarians from NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and NC Central University are creating a modular, Web-based library tutorial for introductory biology courses. This cooperative effort involves collaboration both within libraries and across campuses. Subject specialist librarians are writing the content, and instruction librarians are providing feedback on pedagogy and best practices related to online library instruction. Web librarians and computing staff are looking at content structure and systems, including standards and best practices, portability and shared use, and systems-related issues. The tutorial will include reusable learning objects. Some of its content will be shared by all four participating universities; other sections will be customized for the different campuses. In addition to providing a sneak peek at the developing tutorial, team members will provide their perspectives and insights about some of the benefits, challenges, and technical issues involved in an intra- and inter-institutional collaboration.

This is an open, drop-in session for participants to discuss different ways that faculty can communicate with students using technology. Advice will be provided by Chris Weaver, Lead Technology Consultant for East Carolina University. Chris is facilitator of the IT Professional Development Interest Group.

The purpose of this workshop is to show how instructors can use Flash to present instructional content and enhance the learning experience. Topics include: 1) Why use Flash? [Brief presentation prior to workshop.] 2) Getting Started with Flash [Quick demonstration and hands on overview of main components of Flash.] 3) Using Flash Templates to create instructional content [Presentation followed by hands-on, guided practice; Why use Flash Templates to create instructional content? (1) Flash has built-in templates that can assist instructors in developing learning objects quickly. (2) Flash templates are available for a variety of purposes (quizzes, slide shows, presentations, etc.). (3) Flash content developed via templates can be distributed easily on the Web, by e-mail, or on CD-ROM.] 4) Converting narrated PowerPoint to Flash by hand or using products like RoboPresenter or Articulate Presenter. [Presentation followed by hands-on, guided practice; Why convert PP to Flash? (1) Flash is already installed in 98% of Web browsers, student do not have to own PowerPoint or a Windows computer. (2) Flash can reduce the file size of presentations so they download fast. (3) Presentations may be distributed easily on the Web, by e-mail, or on CD-ROM.]

This working session supports the continuing discussions among the support teams from institutions already involved in the UNC pilot project on Large Enrollment Course Redesign. The goal of this session is to share concerns, issues and successes in the development of the draft statements on Institutional Readiness Criteria and the Course Readiness Criteria that were distributed at the workshop at Office of the President in early February and also to discuss the next steps in the process. The anticipated outcomes from this session include: 1) enhanced understanding of the readiness of the 12 campuses to support redesign activities on their campuses; 2) strategies for expanding institutional support on campus for redesign; 3) overview of the process for redesign that the faculty will need to follow and their likely support needs; 4) tentative timeline. Each team is requested to bring 20 copies of their draft documents to share with the TLT Collaborative Staff and the other institutions.

As greater numbers of faculty members generate more electronic instructional content for online and blended/hybrid courses, the topic of faculty intellectual property rights concerning this content is gaining increased attention on UNC campuses. On Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 pm, David Harrison, Associate Vice President for Legal Affairs in the UNC Office of the President, will analyze the UNC copyright ownership policy and the application of that policy at constituent institutions. This panel of campus administrators and faculty members, representing several UNC campuses, will discuss and compare their respective campus policies concerning faculty ownership of electronic instructional content.

Adult learners involved in distance education often return to the real or virtual classroom having spent many years away from an academic library. Information literacy for these students involves not only learning to use discipline-appropriate resources for their research, but also to use a library effectively from a distance. At the North Carolina State University Libraries, the Distance Learning Services department has worked with faculty in an online graduate degree program in training and development to create library instruction opportunities for students. Developments include a library portal of program-specific library resources, which incorporates instructional content, and an animated tutorial that serves as a surrogate for a librarian teaching students. Students also meet one-on-one or in groups with a librarian in a virtual reference meeting room, allowing real-time instruction. These services suggest a variety of ways the library can work to increase information literacy skills while tailoring instruction to the specific needs of a distance education program.

The e-Portfolio has emerged as a revolutionary tool for education and training. New accreditation standards require student performance-based assessments instead of student grades in courses, to demonstrate that students are meeting acceptable standards as they progress through school. Many institutions of higher education are requiring students to collect their work (artifacts) that demonstrates their efforts, progress, and achievement over time. Requiring students to produce e-Portfolios means faculty and staff have to make major decisions about the process (e.g., purpose, technologies, audience), as well as foresee potential problems. This session will present the implementation of the student e-Portfolio at UNC Charlotte. Topics covered will include (a) planning, (b) implementation, (c) assessment, and (d) obstacles and challenges.

The UNC School of Dentistry recently instituted The Center for Educational Development and Informatics in which one of the primary goals is to produce novel educational materials. The school presently delivers curriculum and content management using a calendar based electronic syllabus. A primary focus of The Center is to improve content delivery. Investigation of tools for content creation has led the Center to use Macromedia products including Director, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Freehand. Being industry standards, these tools allow the author to produce animation, navigation, dynamic communication, and implementation of video clips in a file size conducive to narrowband as well as broadband connections. Also, testing is taking place using server-side software, Macromedia Breeze, to easily add audio, quizzes, Flash animations, and slide notes to existing teaching delivery modes, PowerPoint. The solution is delivered in a small file size deliverable over a narrowband connection. Examples of content delivery using Macromedia products will be demonstrated.

Barb Ross, WebCT’s Chief Operating Officer, will take questions from the audience regarding WebCT’s corporate and product directions, its customer activity, industry affiliations, support, services and other relevant topics.

After more than 20 years of unrelenting change, what is next on the horizon for colleges and universities? If there is one thing we’ve learned, it is that the road to the future is paved with hyperbole and too many of the “next big things” turn out to have been so much wasted time. How can an instructional technologist today stay abreast of emerging technology without taking time away from the pressing demands of the real work that needs to be done? The Horizon Project, a project launched two years ago by the NMC, is an effort to ease that task somewhat. The hope is to try to distinguish those new technologies that may offer considerable opportunity to advance teaching, learning, and creative expression in higher education from those which may have very little impact, and to then identify promising educational applications and ideas worthy of further exploration. In this address, Larry will draw on the first set of findings of the Horizon Project to set the stage for a discussion of key technology trends and issues — and emerging technologies to watch. Looking through the dark lens that characterizes technology prognostication, he’ll share his perceptions on where the long and winding road of technology integration will take us next, and share some insights about technology use in teaching and learning.

Informal interest group meeting during lunch to discuss the needs of the group and how we want to proceed.

Join other public services librarians during lunch to discuss technology issues and to provide input to the Librarians Interest Group on potential programs and workshops.

Join other technical services librarians during lunch to discuss technology issues and to provide input to the Librarians Interest Group on potential programs and workshops.

This will be an informal lunch discussion concerning the possibilities and implications of implementing WebCT Vista.

This meeting provides an opportunity for the campus liaisons to the UNC Professional Development Portal to see new developments with the PDP and discuss ways to keep their campus information up to date.

An ongoing challenge for distance educators is how to create learning experiences for students that are interactive, authentic and engaging. To help meet this challenge, instructors often rely on the suite of communication and content delivery tools offered by Learning Management Systems such as WebCT and Blackboard. However, instructors often find that the synchronous tools in these systems [chat, whiteboard] are lacking in both design and functionality. A product that can help fill this gap in the technology toolkit is Centra Symposium, a real-time virtual classroom system. In this presentation, participants will hear stories and learn strategies about how two UNC system schools deployed this technology on their campuses to support synchronous distance-learning activities. A short demonstration is included to highlight the various features of Centra Symposium: two-way audio and video, interactive whiteboards, polling, quizzing, breakout rooms, application sharing and Web Safaris.

This session is sponsored by the e-Learning Support Interest Group. Often, e-learning support staff face tough deadlines, competing priorities, and unfunded initiatives. Under these circumstances, how can we introduce new innovative teaching methods and technologies? Panel members from several institutions in the UNC system will discuss the challenges and solutions they have encountered at their own campuses. An open discussion will allow the audience to ask questions and share ideas about experiences at their own institutions.

OneMBA is a standard-setting new model for global education. The program is a collaboration of five schools: Kenan-Flagler, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Rotterdam School of Management, Fundagco Getulio Vargas and Monterrey Tech in Monterrey, Mexico. OneMBA requires teamwork and collaboration on a variety of levels: teams of faculty from all five schools work on the content and delivery of core courses; educational technology teams work together to provide the most effective methodologies for program delivery and support to the faculty and students. They use a variety of forms of web-based instruction and communication including video conferencing, web casting, voice chats, and web-based learning environments. Mabel Miguel will lead off describing the development and delivery of the course for which she is faculty team leader. Then representatives from the Kenan-Flagler and EGADE cohort of the Global Educational Technology group will describe how they provide technological delivery and coordination.

Participants will hear three presenters with different experiences and participate in a discussion to look for patterns among the experiences. Topics to be addressed include the following. An instructional technology program decided to enhance its portfolio requirement and change from a print portfolio to an electronic portfolio. The presenter will share how this expanded student opportunities and promoted creativity in design and development. Initial experiences with the Open Source Portfolio Initiative toolset will be shared, including efforts to integrate the system with the existing campus portal. Information about various platforms will be shared. The final project in an undergraduate Spanish phonetics course is an e-Portfolio in the form of a web site that includes streaming media, still images, phonetic transcription, etc. presenter will share how to prepare and incorporate audio files into a web-based learning module, assign and assess e-Portfolios, and the benefits of these in teaching/learning projects.

Mr. Pittinsky will cover the impact of the internet on higher education. With this will be a high level overview of Blackboard’s product strategy, including the Academic and Transaction Suites. Pittinsky will note that online learning brings administrators, faculty, and students from every part of the institution into new relationships. Through the development of virtual learning communities, educators are beginning to use the power of technology to strengthen leadership, pedagogy, faculty knowledge, and institutional organization to accelerate student success. Pittinsky will note that change and improvement must include the use of technology to maximize the potential of professional learning to achieve scale and results.

The J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte collaborated with the Association of Research Libraries to assess library services at UNC Charlotte by participating in the national LibQUAL+ survey initiative. In Spring 2003, Atkins Library asked a random sampling of its faculty and students to respond electronically to 25 questions about library service. The survey questions were developed by the Association of Research Libraries to measure library service quality in the areas of reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, and tangibles (facilities and equipment). UNC Charlotte faculty and students who responded to the survey stated (on a 1-9 scale) their minimal service level, ideal service level, and perceived service performance for each question. The format of the questions was as follows: When it comes to employees who have the knowledge to answer user questions, my minimum service level is (1—9); my desired service level is (1—9); the perceived service performance at Atkins Library is (1—9). Other parts of the survey collected demographics about the respondents, such as age, gender, discipline and status. In addition, the survey collected information about the respondent’s library usage patterns and allowed the respondent to enter narrative remarks about his/her perceptions of library services. ARL tabulated survey responses and distributed results to participating libraries in June 2003. The results allow library administrators and staff to assess their services collaboratively with their faculty and students—as well as to compare their ratings with all other participating academic libraries and peer institutions.

A team of dual-role teaching faculty/WebCT administrators from Appalachian will host a practical workshop on how to implement the research-based principle called ‘mastery learning’ (Carroll, 1963) into the design of a WebCT course. This technique relies heavily on WebCT’s selective release capabilities; course resources become available based on instructor-defined prerequisites, and multiple instructional paths become available based upon online evaluations – e.g., students see remedial or progressive course content, depending on how well they succeed with earlier assignments or quizzes. Teaching faculty and instructional designers can benefit from this approach to course design by acquiring the ability to automate delivery of customized curricula to students based on their demonstrated proficiency. Attendees will receive access to a ‘live’ WebCT course containing the workshop materials and examples (which they may then backup/download for use at their own institution), and work through a sample unit of content designed to reflect this pedagogical approach.

Participants will examine instructional methods and implications for learning in electronic environments. This session will also serve as the meeting of the e-Learning Pedagogy Interest Group.

It is important for all students to understand that technology deals with more than just computers. This presentation will show how students at UNCP are using PDAs and probeware as a part of their science and math methods classes in elementary education. Through the UNCP Distance Education Program, this technology is also being used in neighboring county public school classrooms. Elementary school students and their teachers are using the PDAs and probeware to conduct experiments and gather data enhancing their science and mathematics curriculum. Participants in this workshop will be able to conduct a simple science experiment using the PDAs and probeware. Participants will also learn more about how the equipment is being used as part of our outreach to public schools. Specific information about the hardware will also be provided.

This presentation compares the teaching of an introductory deductive logic course under three conditions: traditional, asynchronous, and hybrid approaches. The traditional instruction (TI) approach consisted of standard classroom instruction with no electronic technology involved. The asynchronous version (a type of distance education (DE)) consisted of no classroom instruction and all learning occurring across the internet (via Java applets in a WebCT environment). The hybrid approach (HYB) consisted of classroom instruction supplemented with the same electronic resources provided to the DE students. Results from two course sections of each type of instruction are compared in respect to learning (pretest and posttest), exam performance, attitudes (30 item questionnaire), and persistence (drop out rate). These results are taken as preliminary and as early steps in a long process of evaluating and incrementally improving the quality of teaching in the deductive logic course. At this stage it is clear that the HYB students surpass the DE and TI students on almost all measures. Nevertheless, the issue of how exactly to proportion various instructional modes across course offerings within one department is not easily settled even when quantitative comparisons are available.

Our presentation will cover the design and implementation of teacher-designed assignments using software found in the typical computer classroom (PowerPoint, Publisher, Word, Excel, etc.). The audience for this thirty minute presentation will be teachers who want to use computers in the classroom and want the ability to design effective assignments. Upon completion of the presentation, participants will be able to download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation used in the presentation from a website we will disseminate in class or from the copy we will make available to the conference organizers. We will also need the computer to be loaded with Microsoft Office. The participants will have the following question answered during the presentation: What can be done with software in the classroom? How can assignments be designed that use available software while accomplishing course goals?

Recent trends in academia include the increased compilation of electronic portfolios by students. The portfolio functions as an academic resume and can include text and audio, as well as visual images. The portfolio also suggests how well the student has learned the core skills and material covered in a particular course. In a larger sense, of course, e-portfolios can be used to evaluate information literacy. Librarian and departmental faculty collaboration in assessing information literacy from e-portfolios has been most common in teacher education and communication courses. As e-portfolios become more widely used, librarian/departmental faculty collaboration in assessing e-portfolios will likely extend to other programs. This paper presents information gathered on the topic and discusses how e-portfolios may shape future instructional goals. The paper also seeks feedback on a proposed set of rubrics that can be used in collaborative e-portfolio assessment of student progress toward information literacy.

This presentation will discuss the development of an online masters program at Appalachian State University. The online program of study faced many challenges and obstacles in its development and delivery. The program, now in its 4th year is international in scope serving students and faculty from four countries. Challenges to program development range from institutional support to collaboration with other NC institutions.

This will be an informal session where the audience will have the opportunity to pick the brain of Matthew Pittinksy, co-Founder and Chairman of Blackboard Inc. in an open forum. Matthew is considered an industry expert and will be able to cover a broad scope of topics dealing with technology’s effects on higher education.

Nobody wants to create extra work for themselves and sometimes, that’s just how technology feels to faculty. This session will share several examples of innovative, easy ways to integrate PDA technology into the classroom, as well as a vision for a mobile learning environment that implements a convenient, consistent interface with which to perform operations such as communication, rich data sharing and printing. The presenter will share the pedagogical approaches along with the technology solutions.

The staff of the UNC-CH Writing Center would like to demonstrate the advantages and potential of our innovative writing support service: the Online Tutor (http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb). Through an asynchronous, form-based interface, students submit drafts and tutors respond with feedback in a password-protected, archive-supported environment that integrates links and online resources. Our virtual writing center attracts on-campus students who seek alternative avenues for writing assistance and allows distance-education students otherwise unavailable access to writing services. In operation for six years, we recently redesigned the software as a result of student and tutor input. Our content-driven technology capitalizes on the effective writing pedagogy employed in our onsite service. We’d like to share this scalable software as a model for online writing support adaptable within the statewide university system.

This poster reports on a research project to integrate a digital library into a traditional research library catalog. The iLumina Digital Library, a collection of over 1,600 undergraduate teaching materials for science and mathematics, is one of 275 collections that make up the National Science Digital Library, or NSDL (http://www.nsdl.org). Librarians are working with the biology, chemistry, computer science, and mathematics faculty who created iLumina to develop a model for migrating and sustaining the digital resources in the Randall Library catalog. Topics addressed include an overview of iLumina, the issues involved in converting the iLumina metadata to MARC format using the Innovative XML Harvester, and the dynamics involved in working on a team of librarians and scientists.

Medical students at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University are required to have a wireless capable laptop and to use as they desire during lectures. The use of laptop computers by students during lectures and the impact on student performance have not been well studied. An online survey of first year medical students in a gross anatomy and embryology course was conducted. Students were asked about their frequency of use, type of use, and prior use of laptops during lectures. Sixty-four students responded, and their answers were then correlated to their mean test scores in the course. Students who reported that they never used their laptops in class formed a control group. No correlation was found between frequency of laptop use, prior laptop use and student performance. An interesting correlation was found between types of applications used and performance. Students who primarily and secondarily used their laptops to assist instruction tended to perform less well. Students who never used their laptops to assist instruction performed better. This might indicate that students performing poorly are more attentive to instruction in the classroom.

Hunter Library offers a Library Orientation to all sections of English 101. The orientation is composed of two sessions. In the first session, students learn how to use the Library’s online resources. The second session features an interactive tour of the library. The freshman class grew 22% last year and WCU expects future growth. Hunter Library must reevaluate the effectiveness of Library Orientation and decide whether to continue with the two-session program in the future. In response to this need, Librarians at Hunter conducted a pre-test/post-test evaluation of half of the students in English 101 during the Fall Semester 2003. 101 instructors were given questionnaires to record their opinions about the orientation. The poster session will feature descriptive pictures and charts explaining both the Library Orientation and the results of our ongoing study, including copies of the pre and post-tests and the questionnaires.

In this study, the case of one course delivered in 100% online format and the other delivered in 50/50 classroom/online hybrid format via Blackboard were compared and analyzed for the purpose of investigating the factors that affect students’ evaluation of learning and teaching effectiveness. A 7-scale Liker style survey instrument was developed for obtaining quantitative data, and qualitative information was also obtained via thematic analysis from students essay about online learning and teaching in which they compared online format with classroom learning format. The findings of the study show that online format does not affect students’ performance in comparison with traditional classroom format teaching. Teaching effectiveness evaluation does not correlate with students’ performance but with students learning style characteristics and their perceptions about learning. The results of this study also suggest other possible measures about teaching and learning effectiveness, such as computer skills, teamwork skills, self-management improvement, and problem-solving skills.

The UNC Professional Development Portal (PDP) is an online database including over 2,500 professional development resources submitted by and for the UNC community. The user interface for the PDP is undergoing a redesign, and we want to test the new functionality with faculty, librarians, administrators, and IT staff at the UNC TLT conference. Stop by this session to trial the new interface and give us invaluable feedback. No prior knowledge of the PDP is necessary.

East Carolina University is exploring new avenues for increasing partnerships that will decrease geographic barriers for medical education in rural communities. Alliances with the private wireless communication company, Sprint PCS, will provide an opportunity for medical students to test use of the PDA Phone to access educational evidence based information for use in clinical training in rural underserved communities. Clinical logs have been kept in hand written text by medical students and then submitted for data entry. This has proved a timely process, creating lags in access to analysis that could assist medical educators with indicators for areas in which the learner is in need of improvement. Use of the PDA Phone to collect and transfer this important evaluative data promises to augment the ability of medical educators to respond to students and preceptors in more learner centered model.

East Carolina University Office of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences piloted IRHE 6000 Introduction to Virtual Health Care Teams. The course combined students from six health sciences disciplines, two universities, and a community college in engaging in exploration of cultural and rural health issues. The students explored practice styles defining and identifying unidisciplinary, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary clinical practice in observed clinical rotation settings. Students were assigned team membership and developed case studies for interdisciplinary care planning. Team building exercises included creation of a rural pictorial collage and drawing a picture of a patient environment as a team. Challenges to integration of diverse disciplines from various institutions at various learner levels will be discussed.

One goal of teaching is to make connections. Changes in the tools available change how we try to make those connections in the teaching of chemistry. Traditional physical chemistry laboratory experiments at UNCA have been changed or extended to include Computational Chemistry tools. An example, which will be presented, demonstrates how the traditional Particle in a Box visible spectrum experiment, has been extended using CAChe software. By including a student Computational Chemistry aspect into this experiment the students can make the connections with a more realistic view of molecular structure and the physical properties of the compound. The original experiment did try to show the relationship between a simple picture of structure and experiment but now the changed experiment also allows the prediction of the physical properties based on theory. The presentation will address the changes in goals and student involvement in making the connections in the experiment.

Controversies over the impact and role of computer in early childhood classrooms abound. On the one hand, it is viewed that computer can support and extend learning in valuable ways and increase educational opportunities for young children. On the other hand, inclusion of computers in early childhood classrooms is seen as having detrimental effects on young children’s development, including replacing many developmentally appropriate activities, pushing children to acquire and apply skills they are not ready to learn, causing social isolation, and reducing children’s creativity and feelings. Whether computer impedes or enhances our children’s development and learning is a critical issue. Computers can be active or passive agents for learning. However, when used appropriately by skilled teachers, computers can be a powerful tool to help children reach their full potentials as learners. This presentation will demonstrate the impact of developmental computer experiences and appropriate software programs on young children’s learning specifically on language and literacy. This project was conducted as a part of a partnership agreement between a university and a public Pre-K program in a small town in Southeast North Carolina. Computers with interactive software were integrated into the typical learning environment to provide children with opportunities to explore, experiment, problem solve and learn early literacy concepts. Children’s learning outcome (language usage, concepts and literacy skills) were assessed using pre and post selected performance criteria over a period of 12 weeks. The results demonstrate strong evidence for the potential benefits of appropriate use of technology in early childhood classrooms. Potential explanations for the findings and implications will be discussed.

This poster session presents 12 online resources that instructors can use to create and post instructional games in a variety of formats. Clustered into three categories (i.e., online game templates, online game creation & hosting services, game creation software) the poster will graphically bring to light 12 gaming resources. Game templates will enable visitors to quickly create PowerPoint versions of popular game shows like Jeopardy, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, and Hollywood Squares. Online game creation and hosting sites will include such free sites as Create Your Own Adventure, ELibs, and Interactive Games, and QuizStar. Among the free software resources is the Hot Potatoes web site. The Hot Potatoes software suite includes six free applications, enabling teachers to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises. Poster session participants will receive a copy of a paper titled “A Brief Introduction to Online Games.” The paper will contain a listing of all the resources shown on the poster.

A teacher preparation program group formed in the early spring of 2003 to address issues and concerns raised by students and faculty related to electronic portfolios and the NC education program approval standards. This faculty task force has members from secondary, K12 and elementary education programs. The conditions and assumptions for a pilot telefolio project have been explored, draft program frameworks developed and essential partners and conditions for success identified. A major goal now is to provide sustainable support for digital networked text and multimedia products as candidates collect, organize and share evidence of their knowledge, skills and dispositions. A Netware 6 sever is configured to support the cohorts of students with secure access to and control of their products of learning. The server also provides a simple way to publish world wide to the Web. Templates and scaffolding are provided for students as they build teaching and technology telefolios.

The USDA-funded “bioMovies” project is a collaborative effort to develop and distribute high quality digital video with interactive features to enhance learning in biology. A team of faculty and IT consultants has produced original videos illustrating laboratory procedures, anatomy, embryology, and behavior of animals in local and worldwide habitats. Short videos are designed to illustrate lectures or provide material for discussion sessions. Longer videos utilize QuickTime tracks to add chapters, moving arrows, pop-up labels, text, diagrams, supporting animations and/or “hotspots” that serve as links. These interactive videos are designed as learning objects and should prove especially useful in e-learning. Short clips may now be downloaded from the bioMovies web site. Interactive videos are available on a free CD. As the bioMovies inventory grows, customized CDs will be provided at low cost to the academic community. Feedback and establishment of collaborative efforts to further expand the project will be solicited.

Meet with other librarians to discuss potential programs and activities of the Librarians Interest Group. We will also provide a brief update on the Libraries Portal Project.

This presentation will showcase several tools UNC Greensboro uses to manage and monitor their Blackboard installation. These tools allow support staff across the University to perform various administrative tasks in blackboard that would otherwise be accessible only to the Blackboard Administrator. They are not part of the Blackboard installation itself, but have been locally developed either at UNC Greensboro or at other universities. This presentation is hosted by the TLT Blackboard Interest Group.

Growing evidence strongly suggests that faculty do not reap maximized benefits from end-of-course student evaluations. Typically data is gathered under hastily administered conditions, may take weeks to analyze, and occasionally, is misplaced altogether. Rarely is the data used to facilitate formative evaluation and, under some circumstances, may serve as the basis for punitive or disciplinary action. This session will present results from an experimental project involving the use of PDAs to evaluate classroom instruction. Group Opinion is a hybrid (Web/PDA) application developed in-house, using standard HTML, XML, and Cold Fusion software tools. The software is designed to provide instructors with real-time, dynamically generated, graphical feedback regarding the quality of their classroom instruction. Results from a pilot-test of the application as well as implications for course evaluation alternatives, instructor performance measures/indicators (both short-term/long-term), teaching and learning enhancements, tenure/promotion issues, and the like will be discussed.

For a solution to work, one needs to consider the problems to be solved, the needs of the audience that are looking for a solution to a problem, the products that form the basis of the solutions and resources that customize the solution to meet the specific requirements of a given situation. Macromedia Education Solutions cover a full range of digital learning in education from teaching digital skills to creating learning experiences, from building learning content to managing infrastructure. Please join us to see how some Macromedia customers are putting these solutions to work using Macromedia products: Dreamweaver MX, Studio MX , Flash MX and Contribute!

What is all the discussion about Learning Objects, SCORM, and Learning Content Management Systems? This presentation will cover the broad scope of what creation, storage, categorization, and deployment of learning objects entail.

Many distance education students report that, despite improvements in text-based communication tools, they miss the community and spontaneity engendered by face-to-face contact. Demand is growing for a distance course format that combines the convenience of internet delivery with the more complex interpersonal dynamics facilitated by audio and video interaction. One technology that has shown promise for bridging these demands is Internet Video (often referred to by the technical protocol H.323), which allows geographically dispersed students to meet and collaborate with synchronous audio and video. The School of Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill recently completed a pilot to evaluate the technical and pedagogical possibilities of this technology for a variety of interactions lecture sessions, in-class discussion, and both in-class and independent group collaboration. The response from students was overwhelmingly positive. This presentation will provide an overview of the H.323 Internet Video technology, discuss the technical, pedagogical, and support issues addressed in the pilot, and look ahead to the ways that this technology may reshape the possibilities for distance interaction and learning.

This general session is open to anyone who wants an overview of the preliminary steps that UNC is taking to enhance the learning experience of students in Large Enrollment classes in resource effective ways. The Pilot Project for Large Enrollment Course Redesign is examining the use of a nationally recognized methodology for course redesign that was initially tested in a three year project funded through the Pew Foundation on courses from 30 institutions in higher education in a variety of subject areas, including science and math, English composition and Spanish, Psychology and Political Science, as well as others. Many other colleges and systems have used the methodology to plan and implement course redesign. Support teams from twelve institutions within UNC are currently examining the process with the hopes of developing a network that would provide local expertise in supporting institutional and cross-institutional redesign. The goal of this presentation is to : 1) describe the learning and management issues that are associated with large enrollment courses; 2) explain why the Pew methodology was selected for review; 3) summarize the Pilot Project process.

Computer-mediated communication has made possible the exchange of knowledge and information, and community-building through previously unheard of long distance collaborations. The Bilingual Chat Community brings together students of Spanish from NC State University and students of English from the University of Puerto Rico in weekly one-hour chat sessions (half hour in English and half hour in Spanish) hosted by the WebCT server at NCSU. The objectives of the community are to unite language learners with native speakers of the language they are learning, in order to promote social ties and reciprocal linguistic and cultural growth and development among them. This presentation will highlight some of the pedagogical and personal benefits derived from such collaboration, as well as implications and suggestions for similar collaborations in other disciplines. Excerpts from chat logs and student questionnaires will illustrate the unique learning and growth opportunities provided by this new mode of electronic communication.

Grid computing describes using computers connected on the Internet at different sites collectively to solve problems. Usually, the computers are grouped together at each site into clusters and have different owners. Grid computing has become one of the most important areas for high performance computations and resource sharing in science, technology, engineering, and business. We are developing a course on grid computing that will be first offered during the Fall 2004 semester. The target audience is undergraduate Computer Science and Engineering students at the junior-senior level. In this presentation I will discuss our current plans for the content of the course. Topics include tools to make grid computing a reality (for example, Globus), security and management, how to write computational programs for grid computing using grid-enabled MPI, and algorithms for solving problems on the grid.

The use of hand held computers is a pedagogical tool that can assist in clinical instruction and learning. A pilot project was conducted during a 14 week, Fall semester - 2003, clinical course with a group of 46 senior nursing students using the hand held Dell Axim computer. Each student used a hand-held computer for a 2 week rotation on an oncology unit in an acute care institution. Students were able to use clinical reference software that included a Drug Guide, RN IV Drug Guide, Medical Dictionary, and faculty developed Clinical Data Forms. Results revealed that the hand held computer was convenient to use 83%, adjunctive to other resources 81%, recommended to future students 76%, and easy to manage over time 98%. However, the students continue to use other resources to prepare 81%, prefer to use traditional learning methods 36%, and find the computer difficulty to carry 57%. A current ongoing project uses the hand held computers with senior nursing students as they complete a 7 week rotation in critical care units.

In June, 2003 NC LIVE deployed a cross-database search utility as part of a redesigned interface. The engine, called “EZ Search”, uses the Z39.50 protocol to scan target vendor databases for the occurrence of search terms. The search engine itself was constructed using open-source software libraries and databases (Perl and MySQL), and is available as a packaged resource for libraries to use within their own environments. This presentation will describe the design decisions made during development, the requisite infrastructure needed to deploy the search engine, and the current and future directions being taken with respect to enhancing and improving the utility of the engine.

Faculty today face increased pressures to not only offer courses via distance education technologies, but also to demonstrate the quality of their distance education. While some of these pressures for distance education “evaluation” come from university administrators, much of the pressure is self-imposed by faculty themselves who are truly committed to providing the highest quality of teaching possible and view evaluation as an important tool. National organizations have criticized much of the evaluation research of distance education for its lack of rigor. Fortunately, evaluation research is getting increased scholarly attention and an impressive body of research and guiding principles are being developed. This session summarizes for participants the latest research addressing DE evaluation and highlights the common findings. Consistent with the conference’s theme, participants will be encouraged to share the evaluation approaches at their institution and consider the various “perspectives” and identify “intersections.” The session will also provide participants with internet resources for learning more and for continuing this important dialogue.

See a demonstration of upcoming enhancements to the Professional Development Portal (PDP). Learn how the PDP can help you connect with organizations, conferences, publications, UNC colleagues, and other resources in teaching and learning, libraries, administrative development, and staff development.

This session focuses on Fayetteville State University’s efficient use of video tutorials to address the “just-in-time” professional and instructional needs of faculty, staff, and students. We will show different examples of how Camtasia video tutorials can be used for teaching and learning in distance education or in a traditional course. There will be an actual presentation on how Camtasia Studio has been used to maximize different deliveries of instruction. Valuable handouts will be provided.

A practical presentation designed to enable faculty members to use WebCT for student assessment. After a quick overview of the basics, attendees will learn methods and functions designed to prevent academic dishonesty in resident courses.

This is a presentation of a Web-based computer simulation/role-play exercise developed for use in social science classrooms. It will cover the inspiration, development, production, and possible applications for the project. This turn-based system is based on fairly simple web development ideas, taking existing or widespread technologies and molding them to a useful simulation, including interactive databases, multiple interfaces, and multimedia resources. Because the project data is held in variable form, including troop numbers and strengths, economic details, maps, and technologies, it can be easily altered to model almost any conflict in Western or World history. Current complete applications include the origins of World War I and a Middle-Eastern conflict. Because it is accessible online, it is possible for schools in different locations to engage in competitive simulations with each other. This reinforces, indeed amplifies, its potential benefits in teaching leadership skills, written and oral communication, strategic and multi-dimensional cognitive processes, and research abilities.

This demonstration will focus on using the screen capture software Camtasia and Windows Media Encoder. These software packages can provide an interesting method of providing personalized instruction and feedback within the distance learning model currently in vogue in higher education. The primary emphasis of the demonstration will be using these software packages to evaluate student assignments, particularly in business communications and accounting, although the skills can be used with any subject. Teachers struggle with the conundrum of providing personalized instruction and feedback in a situation which usually precludes face-to-face communication. Although software has existed for providing the delivery of instruction, the use of audio and video software for personalized evaluation is a cutting-edge technology that should serve to improve both the quality of, and connectedness to, most distance learning courses.

This presentation discusses the use of WebCT as a course delivery tool that offers exciting opportunities for increased student participation in the distance-learning classroom. Using my course on 20th Berlin as a model, the presentation will provide concrete examples of materials and assignments geared toward enhancing student motivation and “ownership” of a distance-learning course. Examples include the use of WebCT’s bulletin board for creating group vocabulary lists, an assignment drop-box for delivering weekly compositions, a customized grade book for up-to-date feedback on student progress, as well as supplementary photo galleries and interviews. The presentation will address the special challenges of teaching a distance-learning course, but also highlights the unique potential of such courses to galvanize student interest and build a community of learners across diverse university campuses and programs.

Technology Enhanced Learning in Science(TELS)@NCCU includes a wide array of proven simulations and projects in genetics, thermodynamics, chemistry, mechanics, system dynamics, probeware, student model building, and graphical analysis. These resources were developed by University of California-Berkeley and The Concord Consortium. TELS@NCCU is enhancing these existing resources and building new simulations to create a set of sophisticated, innovative, free projects and units Learn how instructional technology can improve science education for students in grades 6-12. Our presentation will include a graduate student presenting a teaching module based on TELS principles. A classroom teacher, and TELS@NCCU fellow, will demonstrate the software he uses in his classroom. The project coordinators will demonstrate the professional development resources needed to implement this type of technology integration. This is a team presentation.

The demonstration will take participants on a tour of 10 web sites they can use for the creation and hosting of online instructional games. Most of the resources at the selected web sites are free and can be used with students of all ages. An accompanying handout will list each site visited along with a brief description and web address.

This presentation will demonstrate how QuickTime and Flash movies can be used to teach aspects of musical form (such as grouping structure, metric structure, melodic design, and phrase rhythm) to non-musicians and music majors. Some movies merely provide animations that are synchronized with significant musical events. Others provide various degrees of interactivity, such as the ability to disable/enable certain tracks, or the ability to construct grouping structure diagrams and identify cadence types.

Friday, March 19, 2004

The Assessment Interest Group is intended to serve as a clearinghouse for information related to and for tools used in the practice of TLT-related assessment. We hope to use this meeting as a springboard from which we can build significant momentum for collaborative solutions to assessment-related issues. Two important outcomes of this meeting will be (1) to gauge the degree of interest and commitment among attendees and (2) to establish a list of action items, on which we can begin to work collaboratively.

All attendees interested in the use and/or administration of Blackboard on their campuses are invited to attend this general meeting of the TLT Blackboard Interest Group.

Law School Technology is maximized when the end users take ownership of its intended use. NCCU School of Law retrofitted two classrooms, which were designed in the early 80s, into high tech smart classrooms. In this session you will hear from Professors who have taken ownership of the available technology and incorporated it into their work.

The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002 (the TEACH Act) is an effort to update copyright law as it applies to the transmissions of performances and displays of copyrighted works, particularly during digital distance education efforts. While TEACH provides specific exemptions for certain educational uses of copyrighted works during digital transmissions, there are rigorous requirements that must be met in order to qualify. Educators and institutions wishing to avail themselves of the advantages of TEACH will need to make informed and conscious choices in how they select and transmit copyrighted materials. At North Carolina State University, we forged a partnership between the NCSU Libraries Scholarly Communication Center (SCC), the Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA), the Information Technology Division (ITD), and the Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) to create The TEACH Toolkit: A one-stop online resource of copyright information and best practices for NC State University faculty, staff, and students involved in distance education efforts. The Toolkit provides valuable guides, tools, and advice necessary for campuses to implement TEACH and has been an enormously popular resource for campuses across the nation. It can be found at www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/legislative/teachkit/index.html.

As the nature and adoption of information technology in the learning environment changes, instructional technology professionals and faculty must work collaboratively to ensure that learning management systems (LMS’s) improve the quality of teaching and learning, contain or reduce rising costs, and provide greater access to higher education. Institutions of higher education will need to use learning-centered technologies to make instruction more convenient, accessible, and effective. To address these needs, the staff of Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) will develop an enterprise LMS transition plan. This plan will assess current needs at the institution, examine the various commercial and open source LMS products available, and describe the methods that will be used to implement and assess them. This presentation will both focus on emerging future technologies (Enterprise LMS Components and their implementation) and on sharing information about our plan and experience thus far in our implementation work at NC State.

The purposes of this presentation are to (1) analyze the student-centered, project-based assessment system and identify some of the implementation problems that instructors encounter in their face-to-face, on campus courses when applying an alternative, performance-based assessment system, (2) explain how and in what ways such implementation challenges influence the adoption of alternative and performance-based assessment systems in face-to-face courses in university settings, (3) analyze online learning environment to identify its potential for implementing alternative and performance-based assessment systems, (4) propose a design framework for applying alternative and performance-based assessment system in online courses, (5) demonstrate the application of the framework for the designing, developing, and implementing the model in online learning environment using an example online course, and finally (6) share some of the enablers and barriers, and the lessons that learned.

Students today are “digital natives” who have grown up with and are facile users of the current electronic communication technologies. Adult learners are likewise increasingly taking advantage of online activities to further their education. As the evolving universe of teaching, learning, and technology transforms higher education, the expectations and role of faculty members in providing educational opportunities for students are also changing. This presentation will provide an overview of this evolving universe and how it is transforming higher education today.

As technological capabilities continue to improve, videoteleconferencing (VTC) is becoming an increasingly viable option for effective synchronous classroom instruction. One powerful application of VTC instruction is offering distributed learning courses which would otherwise be unavailable at resource-limited institutions, such as the historically minority universities (HMUs) that make up the Partnership for Minority Advancement in the Biomolecular Sciences (PMABS). PMABS has connected its partner universities via a Distributed Learning Network (DLN) consisting of VTC classrooms, and has been using them for the last several years to ensure equity of access to cutting-edge Bioscience courses. This panel discussion will share perspectives of several PMABS associates who have taught these VTC courses, discussing strengths, limitations and lessons learned. The panel will also provide an overview of the various research projects we are conducting using the DLN to better understand best practices and principles associated with VTC instruction.

Weblogs are an exciting collection of stable technologies that enable low-effort, powerful publishing of web-based information. This workshop will demonstrate some of the key features of weblogs and allow participants to set up their own temporary weblog. Information will also be provided to all participants that will help determine the best weblog technology to use on their home campus, including technical details that can be given to local IT administrators for evaluation.

This working session provides an overview of the types of planning that faculty must do to effectively redesign a large enrollment course. In this session we will focus on individual course planning, using the steps developed by the Pew Project for Large Enrollment Course Redesign. Faculty teams who are interested in redesign are strongly encouraged to bring hard copies of their syllabi, course assignments, and assessment strategies (tests, written assignments, etc.) for an existing course that may be a likely candidate for redesign. In this session we will be doing hands-on activities that will lay a foundation for the three types of planning that are necessary for successful redesign: planning for learning, planning for sustainability (costing model), planning for assessment.

Participants will be introduced to Macromedia Contribute, the easiest way for individuals and teams to update, create, and publish web content to any HTML website. Contribute allows non-technical users to update web content while maintaining site standards for style, layout, and code. The workshop will provide an overview and hands on experience.

Some e-Learning methodologies overwhelm students with too much content to remember and use in online exams. Many learners sit patiently while content is unfolded bit by bit by their instructor. If each student is truly different, has different experiences and capabilities, then why do they all have to follow the same prescription for learning? Why not develop a system that allows learners to complete practice examinations, get instant feedback in terms of a prescription for learning, and access content on what they really need to know? The CWMC has developed a system called The Intelligent Responder, enabling assessment, prescription, and customized delivery of modules based on what students need to know. The presentation will teach participants how to get started developing their own AI-based Intelligent Responders stored on flash, Secure Digital and CD media. A Request for Collaboration (RFC) will be offered to faculty interested in IR e-Learning content development.

This session will give an overview of the USA PATRIOT Act provisions that are relevant to libraries, their patrons, and their privacy. Additionally, it will discuss library responses to this act, sources of support for developing policies and procedures and provide an overview of sample policies, guidelines, checklists, and other practical materials specifically created or updated by libraries.

Grid Computing is a new computer technology that uses modern computer network (i.e., Internet) and all kinds of computers and equipment to build a very large “virtual” computer. Bioinformatics Computing combines all aspects of computing capability to solve biological problems (e.g., DNA sequence alignment and sequence searching). Some bioinformatics solutions require High Performance Computing, and grid computing can nicely support bioinformatics problem solving methods with computational capabilities and large data storage. UNCP is planning a Grid for Bioinformatics Computing in its Department of Math and Computer Science. This presentation will be divided into four parts. First, overview of Grid Computing technology using Globus middleware developed by ANL. Second, overview of Bioinformatics Computing applied to solve bioinformatics problems, such as Genomics and Proteomics. Third, overview of available bioinformatics software, such as BLAST, and their operation. Fourth, overview of the grid planned at UNC Pembroke.

Humanities courses deal with information on Music, Literature, Religion, Philosophy and the Arts: subjects that contain emotional information that some might say require the “personal” touch. In this session, the presenter will share personal technique, triumphs and challenges in keeping the Human in an Online Humanities course.

The purpose of this presentation is to explain how a university faculty and a high school English teacher collaborated in integrating handheld technology in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of an Advanced 10th grade English course. The presentation will specifically show how handheld, wireless computers were used to change the instruction from a teacher-centered, lecture-based, approach to a student-centered, interactive, and collaborative learning approach. It will provide some evidence of the effects of such integration on the quality of instruction, student attitude and learning, and their ability to work collaboratively. In addition, the presentation will attempt to answer the following questions: How and in what ways can handheld, wireless computers be used to enhance student learning and to improve student attitude and motivation in a high school setting?; How and in what ways the use of handheld, wireless computers influence the design and quality of a face-to-face instruction in an English high school course? What are the challenges and limitations in the implementation of such projects? What one can learn from this collaborative effort? The high school English teacher will be the co-presenter and will share her views and reflections with the participants.

When UNC moved to the SCH-based model, it was intended that the campuses would also move to an SCH-based model for tuition and fees. The SCH-based model was implemented for DE tuition and fees; however, tuition and fees for regular-term instruction remain on the FTE-based model. DE tuition is actually derived from the campus FTE tuition, and prorated based on the assumption that an average full-time DE student would pay the same total tuition as an average full-time regular-term student. While the legislative intent was that both enrollment funding and tuition load would be identical for regular term and DE, the structural differences between the FTE-based and SCH-based tuition and fee models create inequities. The result of these inequities is that full-time students who take a mixture of DE and regular-term courses generally pay more tuition and fees than they would if they took all of their coursework either on campus or by DE, while part-time students taking a mix of DE and regular-term courses generally pay less tuition and fees than they would otherwise. These inequities present a significant barrier to moving towards a blended learning model; i.e., a model in which students work towards their degree through a combination of on-campus and DE instruction. A method of eliminating the inequities is proposed.

With the growing push of the UNC system to utilize technology to make learning available to everyone, my dissertation work focused on developing an exercise and sport science (ESS) course that could be effectively taught online. Presently there is limited use of online technology for course delivery in the area of ESSmany are skeptical that courses designed to promote physical activity can be effectively taught via the Internet. This session will address my experience at UNC-Greensboro utilizing Blackboard 5 to teach a significant portion of a fitness course simultaneously to a group of students online and, another group face to face. In the process, I addressed six research questions, including academic performance, time spent on the course by students, instructor experience, changes in exercise self-efficacy and physical activity, and student opinions. I will share the design of my course, outcomes of my research, and suggestions about online instruction.

In this presentation we report on an online, inter-institutional course they are currently co-teaching that uses a provocative blend of distance learning technologies and pedagogical strategies to put instructional design students in collaborative service to the Center for New North Carolinians. Our students are benefiting from the experience of working collaboratively on a significant real-world instructional design project using state of the art online tools and pedagogical approaches, and the Center is benefiting from the knowledge and viewpoints brought by the students and instructors. Our presentation involves three sections: 1) A review of key elements in our course design, including: —An online “Instructors’ Blog” for preplanning, ongoing course planning/revising, and meta-commentary. —A service learning format for relevance and real-world contact. —Problem-based and dialogical-constructivist instructional strategies for optimal learning opportunities. —An attention to interactive detail for construction and maintenance a healthy overall learning environment/ecology. 2) A tour of the online course site and its specific resources (including narrated PowerPoint presentations, articles, threaded discussions, Blog, and materials from the Center for New North Carolinians). 3) A formative evaluation from instructor, student, and CNNC staff member perspectives.

The primary goal of this presentation is to increase understanding about the challenges that students with disabilities encounter when working with web-based and other electronic content. Content designers may also pick up some tips on strategies for making electronic content accessible. The main portion of the presentation will be led by Barb Riverdahl, a graduate student who has a severe visual disability. She interacts with web pages via screenreading software, a popular assistive technology for students with visual disabilities that reads aloud the text on a computer screen. During the presentation, she will use the software to compare accessible and inaccessible web pages. A workshop based on this model was conducted at UNC-CAUSE in November and was well-received by participants. We will also provide a brief overview of other accessibility-related initiatives at UNC-Chapel Hill.

LITRE, or Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment, is the topic of NC State’s quality enhancement plan for reaffirmation of accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, under the new accreditation guidelines. LITRE is an investigative, scholarly process through which new approaches to learning with technology are proposed, vetted, evaluated, and if the evaluation results indicate, deployed and routinely assessed. Like many structures with grassroots underpinnings, the instructional technology infrastructure at NC State is uneven. Excellent examples of facilities, programs, and services are offset by critical gaps. NC State’s choice of “Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment” as the theme of its quality enhancement plan seeks to buttress our learning environment by focusing our educational technology efforts on the goal of student learning.

Undertaking a digitization project can be a daunting task. While the benefits can be great, the costs (both in terms of time and money) can be substantial and the potential for failure is very real. It is therefore important to carefully plan before embarking on such a project. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of what is involved in digitizing library materials, looking at each step in the process. We will examine possible approaches, look at issues to be addressed, and investigate questions that need to be answered. We will explore areas such as defining the goals of the project, planning the process, selecting materials to include, addressing copyright issues, digitizing the materials, providing appropriate metadata, setting up delivery systems, and dealing with preservation concerns. The presentation will also include a bibliography of materials for further reading as well as a list of potential products and resources.

Last Modified April 22, 2004
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