Learn from these Award-Winning Courses
- CalculusQuest™
- Curriculum Development
- Integration of the Disciplines (K-12 teacher education)
- Murder on the Internet: Intermediate French (150) & Intermediate Spanish (150)
- The Paul Allen Virtual Education Foundation Outstanding Online Course Award
CalculusQuest™
A mountain climbing metaphor engages students in this alternate section of the standard differential calculus course at Oregon State University. Designed for science and engineering students, this course makes extensive use of online exercises and quizzes. The Web site contains a comprehensive interactive online textbook featuring 10 stages, each of which includes a lesson, a "practice area," and an "onward & upward area" that contains graded activities.
CalculusQuest™ students are encouraged to develop and share conceptual understanding. Online discussions and writings reveal levels of expertise that are difficult to detect within other educational activities. Students have demonstrated that they can master technical and skill-intensive material in an online course, but these additional insights into learning behaviors present exciting new areas of learning potential for all mathematics students.
Creators
William A. Bogley is an associate professor of mathematics at Oregon State University. Experience with the CalculusQuest™ Web-based differential calculus course has significantly influenced all his teaching efforts.
Robby Robson is an associate professor of mathematics at Oregon State University. In addition to co-authoring CalculusQuest™, he led a team that designed an online professional development environment in probability and statistics for middle school and high school teachers, and has given workshops and published papers on Web-based pedagogy.
Richard Schori is professor of mathematics at Oregon State University. His recent interests include turning epistemology into pedagogy, learning styles, cooperative learning, and calculus reform. He has taught calculus online and is writing a new calculus course for the Web.
Curriculum Development
This graduate-level course, intended for instructional personnel in schools, previously was taught in traditional formats and by two-way television. The goal of developing the online version was to create a fully online course without compromising the content or the experiences typically provided to students enrolled in the course.
The course is organized around 16 lessons. Each lesson includes features such as a glossary, readings, lecture outlines, notes, access to descriptive information about fellow students, and provisions for e-mail. The central feature of the course is the illustrated audio-streaming lectures that are included in each lesson and are rich in content. Activities embedded in each lesson require students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills learned. "Advance organizers" have been included to help students establish a learning set as they begin each lesson.
Creator
Ed Meyen is a professor of special education at the University of Kansas. For three years, with the assistance of students who share his interest in instructional design, he has taught all of his courses online. Meyen is principal investigator for the Online Academy, which is developing online instructional modules for teacher education programs.
Integration of the Disciplines (K-12 teacher education)
This 500-level course provides distance education opportunities for teacher preparation and continuing professional development. The course uses orienteering as a metaphor. The instructor acts as a guide through a process of integrating curricula. Each component is presented in the form of a problem and a series of learning and performance tasks. The tasks are completed online and therefore present a new style of learning.
A variety of tools allow students to complete activities. These include HyperNews for online-directed journals, peer review, and posting integrated lessons; CGI forms for checklists, bios, and teaching/learning style reflection; Imagemaps for the Change Game simulation; EWGIE Chat for seminars; and e-mail links for instructor assistance.
Creator
Mark Merickel is an assistant professor of education at Oregon State University who has created and delivered 10 graduate-level Web courses. In 1996 he was recognized for his exemplary work in extending OSU's teacher education programs beyond the campus via the Web.
Murder on the Internet: Intermediate French (150) & Intermediate Spanish (150)
Un Meurtre a Cinet (Un Homicido en Toluca) is an e-mail role-playing whodunit designed to develop writing competence in intermediate language classes. It provides an opportunity for distance language students to collaborate in a linguistically and culturally rich context. The use of e-mail focuses attention on the subtleties of writing as a communication tool. Students' ability to solve the murder mystery depends on their ability to ask challenging questions to get the information they need, while avoiding answers that incriminate themselves.
The project uses train/bus/class schedules; maps; official government documents; newspaper reports and editorials; fragments of letters, diaries, memos, and personal notes; and police and medical examiner reports. The courses also feature a self-paced, computer-assisted grammar component and oral/aural assessments.
Creators
Terri Nelson is an assistant professor of French at California State University, San Bernardino. She authored the Internet activities for two college textbooks and programmed a multimedia CD-ROM to accompany a first-year college French textbook. She has led numerous workshops on instructional technology and received several awards for her innovative teaching.
Walter C. Oliver is a professor of Spanish at California State University, San Bernardino. He began using technology in his research and teaching in 1972, and since then has become a leader using instructional technology in the California state system. He sits on the California Virtual University Academic Advisory Committee and conducts workshops on Web-based instruction.
The Paul Allen Virtual Education Foundation
Outstanding Online Course Award
In 1997-98, this award "recognized distinguished accomplishment in the new and fast-developing world of online learning."* The foundation presented one award and six honorable mentions from 182 entries. The four courses featured in this conference received honorable mentions "for specific features worthy of notice (and imitation)."*
*For more information about the Paul Allen Virtual Education Foundation and its awards, and links to the Web sites of the courses featured in this conference, see http://www.paulallen.com/foundations/education/virtual_awards.asp
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Page last modified Friday, March 12, 1999.
Page created Tuesday, March 2, 1999.