The Importance of Course Management Tools
Elmer R. Masters Director of Internet Development The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction
a)
Standard tools
i)
Class roll, seating chart, class notes, a syllabus, hand outs, course packs, office hours
ii)
These provide the teacher with the capability to manage a course of up to hundreds.
iii)
Tried and true
b)
Decentralized electronic tools
i)
Mailing lists are the most ubiquitous electronic tools used
ii)
Syllabus online, discussion boards, electronic reserve
iii)
Usually ‘home grown', maybe some school support
c)
Centralized electronic tools
i)
Blackboard, WebCT, TWEN, Lexis Courses
ii)
Central, feature rich package run by law school, University, or vendor.
iii)
Provides electronic versions of many if not all of the standard tools.
2)
Who uses electronic tools?
a)
“e-law students”
i)
The average age of law students entering in the fall of 2003 is 25
[1]
. This means that, on average, they entered college in 1996, and have spent all of their higher education careers in the ‘Internet Age'
ii)
Computer literate, comfortable with technology, use to electronic tools in education, using high-speed access to the net
b)
Universities
i)
From “Educause Core Data Service, 2002 Summary Report”
[2]
(1)
Of schools granting doctoral degrees:
(a)
87.3% have a designated instructional technology center
(b)
80% report students have own computers
(c)
99.3% offer high-speed connections in residence halls
(d)
95.5% have deployed some central course management system
(e)
97.8% of these have at least some use by faculty
(f)
Most had implemented a course management system by 1999
(g)
40.2% use WebCT, 34.6% use Blackboard
ii)
Based on this data, if your school is affiliated with a larger institution, that college or university most likely has the resources you would need to move your materials online.
iii)
It is also likely, given the data, that the average incoming 1L has had at least some exposure to course management software like Blackboard or WebCT.
c)
Law faculty
i)
From the “ABA Survey of Technology Use by Law Faculty”
[3]
(1)
Of 636 faculty who filled out the survey:
(a)
70% used a course management system like Blackboard or TWEN
(b)
58% allowed students to take exams on computer
(c)
55.5% had high-speed access to the Internet at home
d)
Law Schools
i)
A survey of the use of course management systems among law schools was conducted during December 2003 and information is available at http://www.cali.org/
3)
Why use electronic course management tools?
a)
Ubiquity
i)
the tools are available and familiar to students
b)
Availability
i)
no more ‘dog at my syllabus' excuses. Course materials are always available via the web
c)
Save time
i)
As with any system, if properly organized and maintained, you can save time on the day-to-day routine of managing courses. The time can be spent interacting with students, doing research, golfing, etc.
d)
Rethink your course
i)
Use the move to an electronic format to revisit how your course is structured and how you can best use these tools to enhance and extend the learning experience for your students. Exploring Available Options for
Course-Management Systems
[4]
Anna Williams Shavers, University of nebraska
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Blackboard |
Lexis-Nexis |
TWEN |
WebCt |
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CONTENT IMPORT |
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Instead of adding content directly into the course, you might want to attach * * * Many software programs allow you to save your files in HTML format. When saving a file that you plan to use in a Web Course, select “HTML format” if that's a “Save as” option in your
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An uploaded file is converted to HTML format and displayed in the body of your document page by default. If you clear the Publish attached file... check box, only the file name is displayed in your document page; by clicking the file name, you allow other participants to download the attached file in its original format (e.g., Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Word). |
Create content modules offline using applications such as Microsoft® FrontPage®, and Microsoft® PowerPoint®, and directly import these objects into WebCT, with all of their structure and linking intact. |
[1] Google search: http://www.google.com/search?q=average+age+law+students run 1 December 2003
[2] Report available online at http://www.educause.edu/coredata/reports/2002/
[3] Summary results available at http://www.cali.org/ABASurvey/SummaryResults.htm
[4] Slide presentation and additional references can be found at www.aals.org/am2004/technology
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