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

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

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

Why Do We Learn? Self-Improvement (education, enlightenment, intelligence) Skill Acquisition (reading, writing, arithmetic, software training) Enjoyment (fascination, fun, companionship)

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)

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)

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

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)

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, , discussion forums, requires special effort and focus!) Competition (give academic credit to reward student for investing in the course)

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

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)

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

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 and a chat server

Review of the Course Materials Web site: 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

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

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 interaction with them is time consuming

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)