Re: [seul-edu] [Fwd: Alternative to Web CT?]

["Prevett, Larry" <Prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us>]

I have some experience using WIMS materials as 
*supplements* to math classes, but not online 
courses. So I've tried to think carefully about
what would be useful to me as a math teacher to go from
supplementary materials to a full-blown online course.

There are 3 main components I am thinking of:

1. Developing the course materials.

I would need to interface larger document structures 
with WIMS. Since I would have to construct the course
materials in the context of all my other teaching
responsibilities, I would not be able to find a large
period of time to work on the course. The development
process would go something like this: I would finish
a lecture, then go to the computer and type some new 
content while the ideas are fresh. I would use latex,
latex2html, php and local (or remote?) databases
(postgres or mysql) to construct core content.

2. Taking advantage of a large number of modular
resources while I am developing the course that
work well in a Unix environment.

The more modular the better - that is the Unix way.
I would rather invest in a methodology that allowed
me to take advantage of all the great Unix tools
already available, rather than in a monolithic,
proprietary format.

I would pull in interactive exercises and pop-up
tools from WIMS as needed. I would test and edit the 
materials as time allowed. If I had multimedia files,
I would install those locally (or somehow separate 
from the server hosting the course) and access them
using links in the web pages. Over the period of a  
semester I would have the core content for my course
constructed.

3. Installing the course materials in a
'course environment' on a server.

That would provide automatic scoring of exercises and 
manually entered grades, message boards, 
conferencing/collaboration tools, maybe a 'whiteboard' 
type application if I had access to a fast connection.

L. Prevett
Mathematics Instructor
Cochise College, Sierra Vista, AZ, US
prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us