Self Introductions.
- I am Assistant Professor David Holding.
- The Fall 1999 Term was the third term
for me to instruct Senior Project. I started using an ftp
server to provide students access to materials during my
first term teaching at DeVry and have continued to do so
due to positive response.
- The prior term, there were 41 students
in 13 projects, which used the Internet to deliver their
work and communicate.
- For the Fall 1999 Term, there were 77
students in 19 projects.
Topic Introduction and
Explanation
- The title for this seminar is "Applied
Technology in the Tracking of the DeVry TCM Senior
Project" and I will be introducing and covering
two topics and then covering how they relate.
-
- TCM490, Telecommunications
Management Degree Senior Project.
- Distance Learning (a.k.a.
Independent Learning, tele-courses,
Correspondence Courses)
- I chose this topic due to my current
work and focus with the Senior Project and TCM Assessment.
- Handouts your should have.
-
- TechExpo for K.C.P.D.C.
Applied Technology in the Tracking of the
DeVry TCM Senior Project
- Senior Project Course Outline
- Questions for thought
- How much technology has appeared in
the classroom over the past decade?
- How much more will appear and which
ones will be almost mandatory for a typical classroom?
- What are some of the general social
and professional skills that are technology based?
TCM490, Telecommunications
Management Degree Senior Project.
- Senior Project is a capstone course
for a management program specific to information
technology (IT). This capstone course provides the final
assessment point for the telecom program as a four-year
college degree.
- Senior Project allows student formed
teams to consult and perform in a live environment, often
on production networks. This course is conducted totally
different than any other course. The Senior Project
provides the closest experience to a real-world project
as possible.
- Senior Project is a minimal contact
course in which project teams work under their own
initiative to locate, design, track and report on a
project. Most all communications between the project
manager and the project coordinator is via the Internet:
ftp, email, instant messaging, chat, and possibly BBS.
-
- The current direction of this
course is best compared to a consulting scenario.
-
TCM490-org-chart.gif
- Project teams maximize their
effort by working on the project deliverables
which are not necessitated by a class room
attendance.
- Today's Internet and other
services provide effective tools for
communications and collaboration of projects and
learning.
- When each team communicates
with the Senior Project Coordinator and other
professors, it produces a virtual and small class
size to professor situation. The professor can
disseminate the collective learning through mass
communication tools.
- "The process of learning
is collaborative and uses tools common to the
business world." This fits in with the
Dean's Strategic Priorities to "increase the
use of appropriate technologies to enhance the
instructional delivery of our program and
increase student learning."
- Part of the TCM Goals include
"growth through new delivery methods."
These include the increase use of independent
study and the Internet for on-line delivery
methods.
Distance Learning (a.k.a.
Independent Learning, tele-courses, Correspondence Courses).
- In any course, your ability to write
and communicate well is important, but more so in
distance learning.
- Synchronous model of {distance}
learning vs. Asynchronous model of learning.
-
- Synchronous model of
{distance} learning follows the traditional
scenario of classroom learning with lectures.
- The synchronous model of
distance education is appealing to some because
it more closely matches the typical professor's
world view.
-
- Approximately 80% of
teaching is in the form of lecture.
- Significant
interaction is lacking in most lectures.
In classes under 40 students, four or
five students dominate the interactions.
In classes over 40 students, the number
or students who interact is even smaller.
- In a fifty-minute
lecture period, questions and interaction
comprises less than five minutes.
- Only 19% of students
ask a teacher for advice after class.
- Only one-third of
students leave the lecture with most of
the information "units"
recorded.
- Asynchronous models of learning puts
the professor as facilitator and places students with
greater responsibility and active roles in the teaching-learning
process.
-
- Eliminates direct lecture
transmission.
- Requires an altered role of
the instructor in distance education as well as
development of different ways of engaging,
supporting, and evaluating students.
- Knowledge is not passively
received, not by the lectures of professors or
the simple act of reading, but through active
cognitive actions of the student.
Distance Learning on the
Rise
- "A national survey of higher
education institutions (National Center for Educational
Statistics, 1997) reported that a third of higher
education institutions offered distance education courses
in fall 1995 and another quarter planned to offer such
courses in the next 3 years. An estimated 25,730 distance
education courses were offered in fall 1995 to 753,640
formally enrolled students. (National Center for
Educational Statistics, 1997, p. 4). These facts point to
a very serious situation. The plans to offer distance
education courses are increasing dramatically."
- "According to the 1995 National
Center for Education Statistics, about three quarters of
the institutions that offer distance learning courses or
have plans to offer distance education are planning to
increase their use of technologies to deliver their
distance education courses in the next three years."
- The International Data Corporation
predicts there will be 2.23 million distance learners by
2002, up from 1 million today. ….The National
Commission on the Cost of Higher Education (1998)
reported that between 1981 and 1995, tuition at 4-year
public colleges and universities increased 234%. If WBI
is used as the distance education model of choice, there
should be a net cost savings and no loss in "quality"
for lack of a lecture.
- Institutions must develop the
infrastructure to provide: technical training, technical
support, administrative support, time for faculty to
develop and teach these courses, a revised faculty reward
system, and reliable computer hardware.
- The enrollment of students in the
Accelerated (Weekend) college at DeVry is growing and
will require a well developed DE course for Senior
Project when that time comes. We can place a deadline on
this development as early as Fall 2000
-
Total TCM enrollment.gif
Course Migration
- Most educators have a utilitarian view
of technology with the following progression depicted in
evolutionary phases:
-
- An instructor achieves some
level of basic computer literacy.
- The instructor uses computers
for personal productivity.
- Venturing into instruction,
the instructor uses technology to enhance lecture
presentation.
- E-mail is used more widely to
interact with colleagues and students, along with
Internet searches.
- The instructor decides to re-purpose
a course as an imitation of the conventional
class requiring live, real-time interaction.
- There are three scenarios for a course
migration from a synchronous model to an asynchronous
model.
-
- Scenario 1: a faculty member
re-purposes an existing course for online
delivery, which involves a textbook and e-mail
communications.
- Scenario 2: a faculty member
decides to re-purpose an existing course and
deliver it via videoconferencing using graphic
production software, video editing, PowerPoint,
and perhaps e-mail and the Web.
- Scenario 3: a department
decides to put a series of courses, comprising a
certificate program, online. Faculty adopts a
commercial course development tool.
Tools, Terms, Concepts and
Preps.
- Course Development, testing and
debugging. (Distance Learning Administration)
-
- "Planning and designing a
virtual university or a virtual campus is a
complex task involving many different aspects of
higher education administration and instructional
delivery. … Nowadays many online courses are
offered using a combination of asynchronous and
synchronous computer conferencing, slide
presentation on the Web, and file transfer
systems. Though course delivery is an important
component of virtual university, it is not the
only component. In order to create a successful
academic environment for a distance learner,
various support services to students and faculty
members have to be included in the plan as
integral part of a virtual university."
- The Virtual University
Reference Model (VURM) "model is intended to
be a guideline or a framework for colleges and
universities which plan to deliver instruction
and support services to distance learners or to
be a checklist to evaluate existing distance
learning programs. It should assist in quickly
identifying necessary service elements and
mechanisms for offering a various degree of
online distance learning programs."
vurnpic.gif
- ISP: Internet Service Provider for all
parties
-
- Equipment and connection
requirements.
- Web Page technologies (HTML, streaming
audio & video such as realaudio from www.readlaudio.com)
-
blog400.gif
- FTP: File Transfer protocol (WS_FTP
from www.cnet.com)
-
ftppic.gif
- Electronic Mail (distribution lists,
list servers)
- Instant Messaging (ICQ, Yahoo I-Messenger)
-
icqmain.gif _______icqmessage.gif
- Internet Chat (computer conferencing)
-
icqchat.gif
- CBBS: Computerized Bulletin Board
System
-
newsgroup2.gif
- Internet collaborating tools such as
whiteboards, MS Net Meeting with video conferencing and
group decision support systems (GDSS) are hybrid systems
to facilitate decision-making and other collaborative
activities.
msnetmetting.gif __ msnetmeetingvideo.gif - Remote Control Applications (look@me
from www.faralon.com)
- Online testing (ExamMaker)
quiz.gif - Win-Frame or Meta-Frame(on-line Labs)
Senior Project Course and
Assessment under Independent Learning
- As mentioned, the Senior Project is
the capstone and final opportunity to assess the telecom
program as a well-rounded, four-year degree. DeVry
Corporate developed a five-area assessment for the TCM
program.
- Objective #1: Develop a network
solution that is matched to the needs of the business.
-
- Analyze the problem logically
- Design the solution
- Implement the solution
- Objective #2: Manage technologies to
support business objectives.
-
- Control or Contain Cost
- Support Productivity
Improvements
- Enhance Competitive Advantage
- Objective #3: Communicate effectively
-
- Communicate effectively in
writing
- Communicate effectively in
oral presentation
- Objective #4: Demonstrate Project
Management Skills.
-
- Perform role effectively, as a
member or a leader of a project team
- Perform Project planning to
ensure successful project completion
- Exercise control over Project
elements to ensure on-time completion
- Utilize appropriate tools,
techniques and methodologies to ensure the
quality of the final product
- Objective #5: Apply research and
problem-solving skills
-
- Gather and synthesize
information necessary into the solution of a
problem
- Use problem-solving
methodology in solving problems
- With a course that has minimal in-person
student-to-professor contact, student assessment becomes
a challenge. A rigid structure for students to establish
and maintain project data and meet deadlines under a
professional communications and report writing system has
been adopted to assist in such assessment.
-
- Reference "Senior Project
Course Outline."
How the Senior Project and
Technology is currently merged and where it is going.
- Being a capstone course, Senior
Project pulls a lot from previous classes; especially,
specific general education classes can be very important.
- Senior Project is still a course in
which learning occurs by pulling together various skills
necessary to manage and report on a project as well as
investigate and learn skills not acquired in previous
courses.
- A major part of the learning is
student designed and the experience of designing,
implementing and reporting on a project.
-
- All projects maintain an FTP
site, which is accessible for the Coordinator and
members of the TCM Assessment.
- All project members maintain a
professional journal of their contribution, which
are accessible from the FTP Site.
- All students subscribe to a
list server that is used to distribute
information to "the class."
- All students use email as a
professional correspondence and receiving graded
materials.
- All students use ICQ for
messaging and chatting.
- No textbooks are used in the
course. Students do spend about 50% - 60% of
their time conducting research.
- Eventually, a CBBS will be
used with threads for each project.
- Eventually, a collaboration
tool (such as MS NetMeeting) will be used for
teams and professor collaborations.
Resources