In the fall semester of 1994, I (Robert Minch) am planning to teach a
course which will be highly reliant on the World Wide Web and the
Internet. The topical area is business data
communications/telecommunications technology and applications, and it
will be offered through the College of Business at Boise State University,
Boise, Idaho, USA. Three paper books will be used as reference:
Keen/Cummings' Networks in Action, Rains/Palmer's Local Area
Networking with Novell Software, and Armbruster's Internet Essentials.
At present I anticipate the following:
1. A list server will be set up here at BSU for use by the students to
discuss homework assignments, projects, questions that come up, etc.
2. All documentation of students' work will be prepared with HTML
(hypertext mark-up language) and put up on an existing machine with an
HTTP (hypertext transport protocol) server so that anyone on the Internet
can access student projects and other written work. This will also extend
the DELTA (Distributed ELectronic Telecommunications Archive project
already in place (point your Mosaic or other WWW client to
http://gozer.idbsu.edu/business/nethome.html to see the current version)
with many kinds of links including everything from those between local
student project materials to those pointing to various network and
telecommunications-related resources anywhere on the Internet. The
emphasis will be on a sort of constructive learning where student teams
create their own tutorials and project reports on the WWW.
3. Many of the class materials (e.g., the syllabus) also will be prepared
with HTML & made available over the WWW. Also, lecture slides will
probably be prepared using PowerPoint, & will be conveniently viewable
by anyone who uses the PowerPoint run-time viewer (freely available) as
a viewer under Mosaic or other compatible WWW client. This capability
is already demonstrated in DELTA.
4. We will be investigating various tools for collaborative writing, group
knowledge management, etc.--probably with a bias toward tools that
operate over the Internet rather than just over a LAN.
For the next step I am soliciting ideas from anyone and participation from
other groups such as similar classes at other universities. Replies may
be posted to the list where this appears, or may be e-mailed directly to
me at [email protected]. Responses I am looking for include:
1. Does anyone have salient experience with the techniques I plan to
use, and wish to share some do's and don'ts?
2. Would anyone like to establish one or more "sister classes," which
might involve innovative experiments such as group projects where
members of a group are at different universities?
3. Is anyone familiar with additional technologies which might be
appropriate and helpful?
4. Are there any other suggestions for how to promote student learning
and a successful class experience in a context such as this?
5. Are there any other similar efforts going on which I should know about
(I'm somewhat familiar with the Globewide Network Academy already)?
Thanks in advance! Notes: this message is being cross-posted to these
lists: CIS-L (computer information systems), GSS-L (group support
systems), NetEd-L (network education), WWW-courseware (world wide
web courseware), and COMP-BSU (a local list at Boise State University).
Also, I will be unreachable by e-mail from about August 15 to August 21,
but will read replies & respond as soon as possible afterward.
Robert P. Minch, Professor, College of Business
Boise State University Boise, ID 83725
Ph. 208-385-3491 Sec. 208-385-1181, Fax 208-385-3779
URL http://gozer.idbsu.edu/business/minch.html