Teaching a Distance Learning Course

1
Teaching a Distance Learning Course
Presented by David R. Maidment, Dept of Civil
Engineering University of Texas at Austin 20
January 1999

• Concepts of Distance Learning
• Description of GIS in Water Resources Course
• Future distance learning

2
Acknowledgements

• Instructional Media Laboratory (Sicily Dickinson,
  Derek Lee)
• College of Engineering (Bob Gloyd, Susan LaRonde,
  Sabine Bildstein
• Continuing Engineering Studies (Vicki Stratton,
  Han Le)

3
Distance Learning Models

• Industrial Model (e.g. ESRI Virtual Campus)
• computer is the learning environment
• uses a formal knowledge delivery system
• no online access to instructor or teaching
  assistance
• assessment with online multichoice questions

• Academic Model (e.g. my virtual course)
• parallels the regular academic course
• emphasizes relationship with the instructor
• computer is used as a communicating mechanism
• uses conventional computer tools (e.g.
  powerpoint)
• assessment is by grading assignments, quizzes

4
Why Do We Learn?

• Self-Improvement (education, enlightenment,
  intelligence)
• Skill Acquisition (reading, writing, arithmetic,
  software training)
• Enjoyment (fascination, fun, companionship)

5
How Do We Learn?

• Reading (books, class handouts)
• Seeing and Listening (lecture, seminar)
• Doing (homework exercises)
• Creating (research, term papers)
• Answering (questions, quizzes, exams)
• Participating (discussion, debate)
• Living (experience, synthesis)
• Discovering (deduction, experiment, intuition)

6
Where Do We Learn?

• Classroom (academic course, short course)
• Laboratory (computer, physical)
• Home (study, homework, reading)
• Library (books, journals, magazines)
• Internet (web search for knowledge islands)
• Meetings (conferences, workshops, ..)
• Informal (coffeeshop, dinner table, hallway)

7
Conclusion

• Learning is
• an enormously complex process
• a special kind of life experience

It will be very hard to encapsulate all of this
in a computer
8
Challenges for Distance Learning

• Remoteness (distance between student and
  instructor, student is not in the classroom)
• Isolation (student is alone, has little contact
  with other students, student is not on campus)
• Competition (day to day life and job demands,
  student is not full time)

9
Responses to These Challenges

• Remoteness (create a virtual classroom, using
  voice annotated powerpoint, videotape,
  internet-transmitted materials)
• Isolation (create a virtual community, student
  home pages, email, discussion forums, requires
  special effort and focus!)
• Competition (give academic credit to reward
  student for investing in the course)

10
GIS in Water Resources Course

• Introduces students to digital mapping and its
  use in water resources and environmental modeling
• Taught annually since 1991 as a graduate course
  in Civil Engineering (CE 394K.3)
• Contains computer exercises that I began putting
  on the web in 1996
• Taught as a distance learning course in Fall 1998

11
Continuing Engineering Studies

• CES enrolled remote students who were not regular
  UT students as if this were a short course
• Cost 895, like a short course
• Significant demand for this GIS in Water
  Resources course because its unique and uses
  globally leading GIS software (ArcView from ESRI)

12
Fall 1998 Course

• 38 students in course of whom 27 were in the
  classroom
• Other 11 students were remote, 3 at Marine
  Science Institute in Port Aransas connected via
  live video to Austin, others getting videotapes
  of lectures
• 1 remote UT student registered for regular
  academic credit, others as Continuing Engineering
  Studies course

13
Six Elements of the GIS Distance Learning Course

• Virtual lecture (videotapes, powerpoint slides,
  Realaudio commentary)
• 8 homework exercises (distributed via web and
  answered with electronic files sent to our ftp
  site )
• Reading materials (distributed via web)
• Term project in html on web (regular grad
  students only)
• Exams (regular grad students only)
• Student interaction via email and a chat server

14
Review of the Course Materials

• Web site http//www.engr.utexas.edu/giswr
• Material divided into 10 modules taught
  sequentially ( 1 week each)
• First module publicly available, remainder
  protected via an intranet for course participants
  only
• Web site prepared using MS FrontPage by the
  instructor

15
Reflections on the Experience

• Can convey a reasonable replica of the classroom
  instructional experience to a distance learning
  student
• Took a great effort to prepare all teaching
  materials in powerpoint
• Need to have a teaching assistant who is solely
  responsible for interaction with the distance
  learning students

16
More Reflections.

• Significant demand for distance learning
• from professionals in agencies and consulting
  firms who want to upgrade their skills
• from graduate students in other universities
• Difficult to achieve good interaction among
  remote students, and email interaction with them
  is time consuming

17
Academic Credit for Distance Learning

• What is a distance learning course
• (1) Equivalent of a regular semester-long
  graduate course?
• (2) Equivalent of a short course taken part-time
  at a remote location?
• My course in Fall 1998 was somewhere between (1)
  and (2)
• We need to offer regular academic credit to
  remote students if we want them to perform at (1)