Papers in PDF format

Web Courses for Northern B.C.: Virtual Community, Virtual Pagination
Project Objectives
Ian Howatt, English Programme, The University of Northern B.C.
ian@andreae.unbc.edu
Basia Siedlecki, English Programme, The University of Northern B.C.
basia@donne.fac.unbc.edu
In conjunction with the Open University Planning Council, and the Innovations fund of the province
of B.C., we are part of a team responsible for the development of four on-line English courses that will be
offered through the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). In recognition of the promising
pedagogical applications of the World Wide Web, the principal objective of the project was to effectively
replicate the classroom reality while simultaneously incorporating the Web's many instructive advantages.
To achieve this, we began with the construction of a virtual campus (in image-map format) that
allows the student on-line access to all facets of the education process a student physically present at UNBC
would encounter. In this respect, then, he or she can talk with the registrar, sign out books from the library,
meet with a writing tutor, and so on. Perhaps most importantly, in order to facilitate the growth of a virtual
community, we have constructed a number of communal "chat" areas for users, both at this introductory level
and within the classroom situation itself. In each, students are provided with a means by which to talk
amongst themselves with or without the professor's virtual presence. The sense of community offered by such
a mechanism, we have learned, is vital to not only the learning process but also to the success of the entire
project in terms of student failure and/or drop-out rates.
From this introductory interface (one we feel best accomplishes our primary goal and maintains a
large degree of user-friendliness), the student (virtually) enters his/her chosen class(es). Although each has
been designed by a different student under the supervision of an instructor, each contains a number of
similarities that, we feel, distinguish this project from other similar ventures.
Before turning the podium over to Basia Siedlecki who will explicate these unique features in further
detail, I would like to take a few more moments to describe the front-end of my particular work (simply
because I am most familiar with it) -- English 420/620 The Literature of First Nations. In order to best employ
the pedagogical advantages offered by the Web and in following the parameters set before us in the initial
stages of the project, we employed a number of distinctive elements. For instance, each page presented to the
student contains directional links that provide the user with quick and easy access to all components of the
class, including an on-line MLA guide, a reference section on plagiarism, a large bibliography that includes
on-line resources, the grading system, and so forth. All essay topics are on-line and the student's final paper is
to be submitted by E-mail in conjunction with the shipment of the work in hard copy by snail mail. While this
latter decision somewhat overthrows the initial objective of maintaining the virtual classroom throughout, a
mailed hard copy is required to allow for complete and fair grading by the instructor. Student evaluation (i.e.
grading) is conducted over the Web as is an introductory student information sheet and a final course
evaluation form. Throughout each lecture (one per week, 13 in total), the student must respond to a series of
questions designed to stimulate on-line class discussion (this aspect represents 30% of their final grade to
ensure student participation). These discussion groups are threaded by topic and/or subject and, for research
purposes, can be accessed at any time via a local search engine created by Dr. Stan Beeler at UNBC. Working
in tandem with virtual pagination and the pre- and post-processing packages also designed at UNBC, this
search engine offers an excellent means by which to provide an exciting and innovative educational
opportunity to not only the North (with its limited Net resources) but also to those with the most sophisticated
equipment anywhere in the world.
Technical Outline
The realities of developing on-line courses for a Northern University are far removed from the
seemingly limitless possibilities of Java or Shockwave. But in tailoring our courses and our courseware