Robotic character Max Headroom might not be teaching classes next semester, but online courses at the University could appear on monitors at computer labs across campus.
Although Director of the Media Union Barbara O'Keefe said the University does not have plans to centralize online courses like Eastern Michigan University and Michigan State University, the Media Union is currently developing tools that will allow departments and schools to individually create more Internet courses.
The Media Union is creating items of Internet infrastructure such as online discussion groups, virtual office hours and online lessons.
O'Keefe said students can expect such innovations to show up in their traditional courses.
"This should be faculty driven and allowed to evolve naturally," O'Keefe said. "Eventually you end up with a course that could be offered equally well to distance learning students," she said.
O'Keefe explained that the University is not interested in developing an isolated online curriculum. Instead integration of technology and traditional teaching methods are the University's chief goals.
"We want to obtain a quality of education where the online programs are fully integrated with the regular programs," she said.
Academic and technological integration rears its head in many of the University's classes.
Prof. J. David Velleman, who teaches Philosophy 361, titled "Ethics," has utilized the Internet in an effort to help students pay more attention to comments made on assignments. "My hope is that by giving the paper back on the Website with the comments connected to their writing with a link, I can structure the activity of viewing the paper and the comments," Velleman said.
O'Keefe added that enhancing technology to courses can offer teaching opportunities unavailable in traditional classroom atmospheres.
"Many of the faculty are convinced you get better results," she said. "They help in getting shy students to participate and allow instructors more time to devote to class," O'Keefe added.
Amidst the technological advances the University is undertaking, some question whether the online academic route leaves the human interaction skill on the wayside.
LSA senior Jennifer Ellison, who is taking two online courses at EMU, said online courses have in fact helped her appreciate her Internet classmates. "It's more personal because you get to really see how a person thinks," Ellison said. "I understand how they see the world."
But O'Keefe insists that both forums, technological and personal, must be included to provide a quality learning experience.
11-05-99
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