STATE UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA DISTANCE & DISTRIBUTED
EDUCATION CENTER
Distance Ed News
Dr. D Makes Housecalls:
The DDEC has begun offering "housecalls" to faculty who need assistance
with distance learning. Stacey Rowland & Christy Talley will be available to
visit faculty in their offices on Monday and Wednesday mornings by appointment.
Visits will be limited to 30-minutes. Support will be limited to providing
assistance with WebCT course tools, demos of technologies and software (such
as HorizonLive, Impatica, etc), basic course evaluation, and improvement.
Faculty who need immediate assistance should still contact the distance learning
helpline. Those who need in-depth training should attend weekly workshops (distance.westga.edu/workshops.html)
or seek one-on-one training in the DDEC lab at the Honors House.
To schedule a housecall, call the DDEC at (678-839-6248). Please indicate
whether you want assistance with WebCT course tools, technology demos, or an
evaluation of your course.
New Impatica Software Makes Narrated
Online Presentations Easy!
Impatica for PowerPoint allows for easily-accessible asychronous online
lectures in an audio-visual format, in order to enhance a traditional
face-to-face course or to teach a fully online course. The significant
differences between an Impatica presentation and others are: (1) a viewer
need not have PowerPoint installed on their machine; (2) no media player
plug-in is needed, only the same Java enabled browser already required
of WebCT is needed; and (3) Impaticized presentations are highly compressed
and thus do not tax bandwidth or take up as much server space. In addition
to providing students with an alternative to text-based online learning,
students taking online courses can easily make their own online presentations
to their classmates (a need that has been expressed by students and
faculty alike). Impatica for PowerPoint allows students to easily share
a pre-recorded PowerPoint with audio, via the web or as an e-mail attachment.
Impatica for PowerPoint is currently only available
on a limited basis in some Labs, for instructors and students who wish
to convert their narrated PowerPoint presentations. Contact the DDEC
for more information.
Sample
Impatica movie on How to Add Impatica files to WebCT
Instructions on Impatica for PowerPoint
UWG Distance Education Center Sponsors Annual Conference
for DL Administrators: Make your plans now to present and
attend our fourth annual conference next May 23-26, 2004 at the historic
Jekyll Island Club Hotel in Jekyll Island, Georgia. The symposium is
specifically designed for those involved or interested in the administration,
management, planning, and evaluation of distance learning programs.
See http://www.westga.edu/~distance/dla2004.html
for details.
The third annual conference, entitled DLA2003
was also held at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel on June 5-7, 2003. To
see all past conference highlights and survey results, go here: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/pastdla.html
WebCT Use Hits All-time High: The number
of courses using WebCT has grown dramatically over the years. Though
the number of distance classes continues to increase by about 15% a
year, the most significant growth has occurred in the number of courses
using the online course tool to enhance traditional face-to-face instruction.
For up-to-date course counts and enrollment figures, see: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/data.htm
Important News from the Past....
UWG Distance Enrollment is Tops in University System:
The State University ranked first in distance enrollments and semester
hours in the university system for Fall 1999, according to a Board of Regents
Report. Click
here for a complete summary.
Study Shows Widespread Faculty Acceptance of WebCT:A
"Faculty Distance Learning Assessment," was distributed to UWG faculty
early fall semester to measure faculty acceptance of distance education
and to determine what factors motivate and inhibit distance participation.
Faculty who had used WebCT for distance teaching were significantly
more positive than those who had only used GSAMS. The primary factors
inhibiting faculty participation in distance teaching were concern for
course quality and workload. Motivating factors tended to more often
be intrinsic (challenge, desire to keep up) for those who had distance
teaching experience and extrinsic (release time, monetary reward) for
those who had not. Click here for a complete
summary
Also, read about the growth spurt that was highlighted in the past
Spring 2001 DDE Report...
plus faculty spotlights:
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/news/
Back
to Distance Learning Home
UWG Distance & Distributed Education Center
1803 Maple Street, Carrollton, Georgia 30118
Phone: 678-839-6248 Fax:678-839-0636 EMail: distance@westga.edu
Last updated: March 11, 2004