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There is currently a tremendous opportunity to leverage technology to provide an online modality for courses in the College of Arts and Sciences. Several courses are said to be "online" at Drexel but there is not a uniform description of what that means. In order to understand the differences between online courses, it is useful to identify 3 categories of online modalities:
Interaction (chat, discussion boards, email)WebCT is currently available for all classes in the College of Arts and Sciences and provides an immediately available infrastructure to host content and supplement the interaction between faculty and students.
Content (files, links)IRT currently provides help to upload materials and learn the basic functions of WebCT. This is the simplest to execute and is often what teachers have in mind when they think of an "online" component to a course.
Assessment (quizzes, tests, mock tests, surveys)The effectiveness of the first two components is difficult to evaluate if there is not an objective mechanism to provide feedback. Through several pilot studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, we have found that automated online assessment is an effective tool to provide feedback about the learning process throughout the course.
Based on the experience we have gathered using online assessment, we are seeking to expand the use of these tools to provide quantitative and objective measurement of the learning process within an online environment.
Any interested faculty should contact Jean-Claude.Bradley@drexel.edu.