Communication, Learning, and Course Administration through WebCT
Lori Rosenthal, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Communication Sciences and Disorders
One of the first to use WebCT at Emerson, Professor Lori Rosenthal posts course materials and implements communication and quizzes online. She began to use the system in Spring 2001 to promote class community and technical literacy among her students.
Providing her course syllabi, notes, Web resources and quizzes, the online course component facilitates communication within Dr. Rosenthal’s four courses, PS101 Introduction to Psychology, PS303 Organizational Behavior, PS301 Psychology of Adjustment and IN140 Good and Evil. Handouts distributed in class are also available on the course Web sites, which she explains is particularly helpful in the larger classes.
Quiz and exams
Students have the option to take the exams in the classroom or online, and the vast majority prefers taking them online. Given that students take the exams on their own, the exams are open-book/open-note and are structured to test student knowledge and ability by applying course concepts to novel situations and stimuli. They consist of essays, short answers and multiple-choice questions. The exams are set up to be available for the duration of the class period, one hour and 45 minutes. The timing of the exam is used to ensure that students do need to study and prepare for the exam and cannot rely on simply looking up answers. Dr. Rosenthal notes “if students are not prepared, they would not be able to excel in the exam”.
This format benefits the professor as well as the students who schedule a window of time to take the exam. In the occasion when a student cannot attend class the day of an exam, it is available online and under the same circumstances as the rest of the class. Further, the student does not have to schedule a day to make-up the quiz.
Additional benefits to the professor include receiving typed answers to the essay questions that are much easier to read than those handwritten in class. This also makes the grading process easier through the quiz feedback field and the grade book, where the quiz grade automatically appears. Students appreciate this in that they always know where they stand with their grades. WebCT also provides class statistics on the quiz, so Prof. Rosenthal can easily see how well the class did as a whole.
Communication tools
Other components of the course Web sites include class notes available in PowerPoint and library E-Reserves, particularly useful for IN140 Good and Evil. This is helpful to students in always having access to the articles, which saves them the trip to retrieve a paper copy at the library.
As some classes have a larger number of students, the discussion boards and student homepages provide a greater sense of community, helping the students and the professor to get to know one another. For example, in PS303 Psychology of Adjustment, students are required to write four discussion posts based on reactions to particular readings. Professor Rosenthal emphasizes that there has to be some incentive for students to participate – that incentive can be her posting interesting questions, requiring participation as part of the grade or providing extra credit for participation. In PS301 Organizational Behavior the discussion forum is optional but she does post questions occasionally.
For each of the class Web sites, the interface is taken seriously, as it orients students to the course subject and materials. Each site contains an image representing the course theme. Also, in response to student requests, she posts all of the links on the Course Menu to the left of the screen.
Technical Literacy
Despite the many benefits of using WebCT for her courses, there is technical troubleshooting involved. Sometimes a link to an article will expire, in which Professor Rosenthal updates the link. Sometimes students have trouble opening a PowerPoint file, in that they seek help from classmates, the Help Desk or the professor.
All in all, Professor Rosenthal believes it is important for students to gain experience communicating online as part of the educational process. Sometimes students come to class and say they’re not comfortable with computers, so she makes it a point to include practice with writing and technical literacy in all of her courses. Among the learning objectives on each of her course syllabi states “Students will have opportunities for developing and improving communication skills in speaking, writing, and computerized communication.”
To learn more about using these WebCT features, and see samples of course Web sites such as Professor Rosenthal’s, contact the Instructional Technology Group at itg@emerson.edu.
