USE COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

In the Integrated Distance Education Model developed for a graduate course in the Cross-Disciplinary Study of Children and Families at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, various components had to be developed "from scratch."

For example, a chat room capable of supporting sychronous dialogue had to be developed using student technology assistants. This process was time consuming and challenging. Although the chat room access was attained, the use of an already developed course management system could have been useful. The appearance of the "chat" also could have been clearer and more engaging. One system which supports synchronous chats is TopClass.

Another difficulty was the transfer of case studies with ten to twenty pages. While fax was used in the model, courses such as Rhetoric 5581 and Rhetoric 8110 developed by the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, could be useful in the future.

Return to theRECOMMENDATIONS

Return to the INTEGRATED DISTANCE EDUCATION MODEL