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The
Distance Education
Clearing House at
UW Extension
Media
Services •
Information Techology
University
of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Frequently asked questions
Interactive
video • On line learning for the student
On
line learning for the instructor
Interactive video
How do I
learn the specifics of teaching effectively in a Distance Learning video
based environment
Typically
faculty are engaged in 5-7 one hour training sessions, offered by Media
Services, that begin four months before the start of the course.
What are
the primary topics/exercises covered in the training sessions?
This one on one training addresses operation of technology located
at the teaching podium, retrofitting graphics for television and suggestions
for teaching interactively that allows for "community" between
sites
What factors
must be considered when contemplating to offer a two way interactive video
course?
Beyond department approval it is necessary to enroll your distant
students and make certain that both the local and distant sites are available
during the hours /days of your proposed class.
How many
students does a distance education video based classroom accommodate?
Typically there is seating for 15-20 students in this highly interactive
setting that is viewed on multiple banks of large monitors. Camera movement,
graphic presentation and final shot selection are controlled by the instructor
in this boardless/chalk free environment.
Is there
media development help available for instructors as they prepare and reconfigure
course materials?
The Instructional Resource Center (Polk Library) offers both
graphic and multimedia services to faculty who teach in both traditional
and nontraditional classrooms. Call 424-2191.
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Online Learning for the Student
Do you offer
any fully online degrees?
Both the College of Nursing and the College of Business Administration
offer online programs, some in collaboration with other UW Institutions.
Most courses at UW Oshkosh using online courseware us it as an enhancement
to a regular classroom course. A few are fully online and a few are hybrid
courses, using online aspects to reduce the amount of classroom time.
How do I register for an online course?
The same way you register for any other course at UW Oshkosh. Please see
your department or contact the Registration Office (920-424-0303).
Online Learning for the Instructor
I'm interested
in offering a course completely online. How do I get started?
First, talk with your department chair to see if there are any departmental
regulations regarding offering courses online. The next step is taking
a training seminar. For upcoming dates, or to schedule a one-on-one training,
contact AnnMarie Johnson (920-424-2210).
I've heard online courses cost the university less money to offer.
Is this true?
Probably not. If the course is simply text or media with no interaction
among participants, then yes. But few online courses have no interaction.
Interaction (discussion boards, email, chat) is one of the things that
makes online courses different from correspondence courses! An online
course actually takes more time and effort to create as well as when live.
Since material has to be put online, it all needs to be prepared as far
in advance as possible. Management of an active course can also take up
more time because you are interacting with students throughout the day
and week instead of during class or office hour times. It also takes more
effort to establish rapport, write lectures, respond to discussions, etc.,
than it would in a face-to-face classroom. Outside of your time and effort,
the university also has to employ technical support and instructional
support staff that might not be there for regular classroom courses.
Can I see a demo of an on-line course?
At this time, we do not have any sample courses available.Contact AnnMarie
Johnson (920-424-2210) for a personal demonstration.
How long does it take to put a course online?
It all depends! How many credits is the course? How much of the material
is already in digital format? How much text do you plan to write? Will
the course be lecture-based or discussion based? We recommend you plan
to being working on the course at LEAST one semester before offering it.
Ideally, you should start a year in advance. While you might be transfering
a course you have taught for many years, you are essentially creating
a new course, and in an environment in which you have not taught before.
Imagine if you had never taken a class in a classroom before and now had
to. And imagine if your students never had either! You have to learn a
lot about how things work in the environment, what students might expect,
how activities can be reworked, how to implement various technologies,
etc.
I feel so overwhelmed! How can I possibly put a course together?
Talk to AnnMarie
Johnson (920-424-2210. She really can help you. Technical training
and support. Just-in-time training when you need to learn a new feature.
Organization of materials. Digitizing of paper, video, or audio materials.
Copyright clearance. Design of online materials. Design of the course
as a whole. Tips on engaging students in online discussions. Ideas on
activities that work well virtually. Assistance in transfering your materials
and activities from one environment to the other. Creation of mulitmedia
objects (movies, animations, etc.).
I use videos all the time in my classroom. Can I use them online?
Are there copyright issues?
Copyright law and the Web is in a hazy legal area right now. Essentially,
if you can use an item in the classroom under fair use guidelines, you
can use it on the Web--IF the area is a password protected site to which
only enrolled students have access. For the most part, this is true of
on-line courses. You will need to disable guest and non-enrolled student
access to any part of your course in which copyrighted material is placed.
(Contact AnnMarie Johnson for
assistance with this.) It is generally accepted that 3 minutes or less
of a video or audio recording is considered fair use. Beyond that is fairly
grey. AnnMarie can also give you further guidance in whether to seek copyright
clearance for your materials. She can assist you with getting this clearance.
Any associated fees are the responsibility of your department. The Instructional
Resources Center can help with the digitizing of video and audio.
My students have difficulty getting to the library for reserve
materials. Can I just scan them in and put them online for them?
Technically, no. If you know in advance that you want students read a
particular article or book chapter, you should put these into a course
pack, with copyright clearance and fees paid for each item. The library
can also arrange for E-reserves of
some materials. However, copyright law and the Web is in a hazy legal
area right now. Essentially, if you can use an item in the classroom under
fair use guidelines, you can use it on the Web--IF the area is a password
protected site to which only enrolled students have access. For the most
part, this is true of on-line courses. You will need to disable guest
and non-enrolled student access to any part of your course in which copyrighted
material is placed. (Contact AnnMarie
Johnson for assistance with this.) AnnMarie can also give you further
guidance in whether to seek copyright clearance for your materials. She
can assist you with getting this clearance. Any associated fees are the
responsibility of your department. Scanners (including a multi-page feeder)
are available in the IDEA Lab.
Do I need to know HTML to create a course? What *is* HTML, anyway?
No, you do not need to know HTML to use our course management system,
Desire to Learn (D2L). If you do know HTML, you can add coding tomore
specifially format your content. HyperText Markup Language, is the coding
used for web pages. The codes of HTML tell the browser what font and size
of text to display, whether to make sections of text bold, italicized,
indented, numbered lists, etc.
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