Developing an Internet-based teaching and learning environment By Meoli Kashorda, Ph.D., MIEEE Associate Professor of Information Systems

Afrinet Outline The Internet as a Strategic Inflection Point in Education Effective use of the Internet for Teaching and Learning –The Seven Principles An educational content development project –The life-cycle approach Conclusions

Afrinet Strategic inflection point Michael Porter’s five force model (diagram) An inflection point occurs when the second derivative changes sign –curve changes from convex to concave or vice versa

Afrinet Inflection curve Business grows Business declines Inflection point

Afrinet Six force model The Business Existing rivals Complementors Customers Suppliers Substitute products or services Potential competitors (New Entrants)

Afrinet Six Force with a 10X force The Business Existing rivals Complementors Customers Suppliers Substitute products or services (New Ways) Potential competitors (New Entrants)

Afrinet Teaching over the Internet Threat or savior - 10X force? Corporate Universities –Motorola University, British aerospace University Distance learning, skill enhancement etc. Example Web sites, Open University in UK and Univ. of South Africa

Afrinet Delivery modes Classroom instruction - face to face Synchronous delivery –video conferencing –Teacher and student separated by distance, not necessarily long Asynchronous delivery – , discussion groups, notes, assignments, and experiments

Afrinet Seven Principles for Good Practice in UG Education The Internet is only a lever - how do we know it will be effective? –Use the seven principles as a guide Good Practice Encourages contacts between students and faculty –On-line tutorials, practice exercises, and discussion groups –Asynchronous communication

Afrinet Seven Principles Good Practice Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students –Tutorial groups - do not have to be at the same location over the Internet Uses active learning techniques –Simulations and exercises delivered to the desktop or available on-line –No exercises or experiments, no learning

Afrinet Seven Principles (cont) Good practice gives prompt feedback –simulations and on-line tests give prompt feedback - e.g., Java How To Program - all exercise on CD or on the Server Good Practice Emphasizes Time on Task –The Internet is very engaging - more time learning?

Afrinet Seven Principles (cont) Good practice communicates high expectations –Provide samples of “excellent” works on-line –Teaching Web site must communicate high expectations Good practice Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of learning –Experiment with different styles on Web sites

Afrinet Campus Intranets Optical fiber backbone –100 Mb/s or Gigabit Ethernet All LANs on 100 Mb/s Ethernet –Structured cabling using CAT 5 or CAT 6 Mail and Web servers –Linux, FreeBSD (free) or Windows NT (academic) List Servers - public domain

Afrinet Internet services / institutional access speeds desired kb/s Newsgroups / discussion groups - 64 kb/s World Wide Web kb/s per 2,000 users University Management Information Systems - 64 kb/s Internet telephony - over 2 Mb/s Video conferencing - 2 Mb/s

Afrinet Shared access to National IP network

Afrinet Building Teaching Web Sites Hire good IT professionals (Electrical Engineers or Computer Science graduates) All software is mostly free –professional tools like Blackboard or Toolbox are better Faculty need training for effective Web site design It is an information systems project!!

Afrinet Sharing learning resources

Afrinet Conclusions - The way forward Universities need to invest in IT –people, networks and high-speed Internet access Train faculty and IT support staff now –Engineering and computer science faculty need to train the rest Create a University or Inter-University Internet learning and Teaching initiative

Afrinet The Life Cycle Approach Project initiation phase Development phase Implementation phase Operations and maintenance phase

Afrinet Initiation Phase Who is the campus project champion? Create a pilot Intranet-based environment –see sample Web sites Develop internal competence in Internet application development –see Attend conferences and training workshops

Afrinet Sample Web site

Afrinet Developing Phase Identify Webmasters –technical Webmaster –Content Webmaster Logical design –standards, administrative procedures, ownership and copyrights, examination procedures Physical design

Afrinet Implementation phase Preparation of teaching materials by faculty Monitoring networked Intranet environment Detailed training of faculty Pre-MBA course materials will be online by end of Academic Year. MBA courses will follow –Multi-delivery mode will be used

Afrinet Conclusions The Internet represents a strategic Inflection point –Universities must recognize it and transform the educational process A well-developed Intranet is crucial for success in training and developing on-line materials

Afrinet Conclusions Universities need to hire, train and retain good faculty Hire and retain quality IT support professionals –Local Internet companies do not yet have the competence to support Universities

Afrinet Conclusions Technology can only support Good Education practices –Avoid being driven by the private ISP community Senior undergraduate and graduate students could help faculty in the implementation –Internships and short training programs necessary

Afrinet Conclusions (continued) Developing content is an Information Systems project –Use well known software development approaches –Life Cycle approach + prototyping seems to work Students and some faculty understand Internet time; administrators do not get it!!