Partnerships for Creating an On-line Learning Environment

Abstract

Faculty members are increasingly challenged by the need to balance pedagogical requirements and goals with their institution's need to push forward with technological innovations to gain a competitive edge. IT departments have been looking to administrative software providers like Datatel for integrated, enterprise-wide solutions for the entire campus family: administration, faculty, students. This paper describes a pilot project that partnered Datatel with four of its client sites to address the needs of faculty seeking to develop web-based distance education courses without having to learn programming or be dependent on professional programmers and Web developers. The project is divided into five phases: (a) defining faculty workflow: (b) creating course content; (c) interactivity and course management; (d) proof of concept testing. Texas State Technical College, one of the four Datatel client sites participating in the proof of concept test, describes the institution's role in the testing process, and experiences to date.