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Creating a Course Web SiteMany faculty members are looking at ways to use new technology to enhance their classes. An easy first step is providing course materials such as lecture notes or supplementary readings on a Web site. Your account on bama.ua.edu can host your Web site, with room for personal and professional information (such as research interests and your vita) as well as material for your students to use. If you don't have a bama account, bring your valid ACTion card to the HelpDesk in A-203 Gordon Palmer Hall. You can get an account in about 5-10 minutes. There are many resources available to help you create your course site. If you want to learn how to create a site on your own, there are links and resources at helpdesk.ua.edu/bama/web. That section also contains the instructions for publishing a site on your bama account. If you want more personal instruction, you could attend one or more of the seminars offered by the Faculty Resource Center (FRC) or the Web Page Production classes provided through Human Resource Development. For a schedule of upcoming FRC seminars please see their Web site at www.frc.ua.edu. Human Resource Development publishes a training calendar every semester, or you can visit their Web site (bama.ua.edu/~hr/st-dev). In addition to the scheduled seminars, the Faculty Resource Center offers individual assistance in planning, developing, and deploying your course site; see their site for more information. Please remember that your personal bama account is for your use alone; you should never give your password to anyone else. If you are developing course materials for a site in collaboration with other faculty members or graduate assistants, please contact the HelpDesk about creating a special account for that class. Providing class materials online often involves the question of copyright. Sometimes faculty members use materials to which they have the copyright, while other times they use materials under the "fair use" copyright exception or other agreements that may specify terms of use. Whenever you deal with copyrighted material, you should take steps to ensure only authorized individuals have access to it. For example, it is generally accepted that the fair use exception only allows you to make a small portion of a work available to a limited number of people for a limited time. For course material that you are putting on your bama account, you may need to restrict access to only those people in that course at that time. More information about restricting access to a Web site (including a more detailed discussion of copyright and fair use) is available at helpdesk.ua.edu/bama/web/protect.shtml. Also at that location is a link to a Web tool to assist you in protecting your Web pages. If you need more than static course material online, you may be interested in WebCT. With WebCT you can create an entire learning environment, either to supplement an existing course or to create a separate online class. In addition to publishing course notes and syllabi, WebCT can also help you create online tests and quizzes, which can be timed and automatically graded. Your class materials are restricted to the user names and passwords of your students, enabling student and page tracking. Classes can have both live chats and threaded discussions (bulletin boards). It is also easy to insert audio or video into the learning environment. As the instructor, you choose what you want in your class area; for example, if you don't want a chat area, you don't have to have one. If you want more information about WebCT or are interested in creating a WebCT course, please see webct.ua.edu or contact Susan Lucas at 348-0216 or susan@frc.ua.edu. |
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