An Online Teaching and Learning Environment at Indiana University

Abstract

Oncourse is an online course management application developed at Indiana University that permits faculty and students to create, integrate, use, and maintain Web-based teaching and learning resources. For students, Oncourse offers content and learning tools through a single, consistent Web interface. For faculty, Oncourse provides a framework for building teaching materials without requiring knowledge of programming or HTML. A unique feature is that course and individual user Web sites are automatically generated as information is updated in university databases. The system was developed, prototyped, and beta-tested at IU in the WebLab, a component of the Advanced Information Technology Laboratory (AITL), and offered by University Information Technology Services (UITS) as a full-production service in July of 1999. This article describes several critical decisions and milestones in the Oncourse experience and summarizes what was learned.

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