Using Web Based Technologies to Achieve Efficiency Gains in Education
A Primer for Accounting educators Part 3 Appendix B
| Educational Task | Activity | Tools | Example products |
| Information Distribution: | |||
| Distribution | Place electronic versions of existing documents (outlines, solutions, schedules, etc.) on network | Basic office suites. packages | MS Office, Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, etc |
| Conversion | Convert existing documents to html format. Creates a more open access to larger group who only need internet access and a browser. Caution not always a 100% clean conversion. One very useful tool in most office suites is the ability to convert presentation slides to a WWW a presentation | More recent version of current Office suites have converters, which allow for these files to be saved as a html file. In addition html authoring tools will import common file formats and make conversions possible | MS Office 97, Corel Wordperfect Suite 8 E.g. PowerPoint 97 plus addon viewers Authoring tools: Claris Homepage http://www.claris.com/products/claris/clarispage/clarispage.html FrontPage 98 http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage HoTMeTaL |
| Value Added | Convert existing content and added specialized web features which allow the inclusion of pictures, animation, html links. Allows correction of items missed in direct conversion above. | Web page and site development tools provide
many of these features WWW page templates for common elements such as course and faculty pages |
Authoring tools: See above Simple Start at UNC www.unc.edu/courses/ssp/tools/fac-build.html |
| Creation | See effectiveness and transformation | ||
| Communications: | |||
| 1 : 1 | Can be useful in making instructor more accessible to students. Key here is to insure that the instructor is not overwhelmed by responding to information queries that could be better obtained by the existence materials in other easily located areas. I.e. FAQ's, course schedule, deadlines, Better usage is in trying to achieve effectiveness and transformation gains via mentoring and students advising on less frequent and more important issues. | Email capabilities, which are readily available to all university students, once they receive a computer account from the university. The key here is that it complies with common standards for mail systems. (computer services support necessary here) | Host of email packages. Many universities use
Pegasus a freeware/share package, which has limitations for external use. Pegasus http://www.pegasus.usa.com/ Eudora http://www.eudora.com/ Netscape Navigator 3.0 http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/navigator/version_3.0/index.html |
| 1 : M | Allows for efficient broadcast of information to multiple recipients. Announcements and changes to schedules are common. The ability to make changes with minimal disruption allows courses to be more adoptive to student needs or changing subject content. | Email packages, listserv software, bulletin board software Most email systems allow for the creation of distribution lists. Ideally university registration systems would provide instructors with a class email list. This however doesn’t always occur and sometimes this is incomplete as students may have more than one email account. Listserv’s that archive messages., bulletin boards or what’s new pages on WWW course pages are more efficient use of resources, as the system only has one copy of the message rather than x copies (x number of students) | Listserv: MajorDomo http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/ ListServ Lite http://www.lsoft.com/listserv-lite.html Web bulletin boards WWWBoard http://worldwidemart.com/scripts/wwwboard.shtml WebBoard Chat programs Chat http://www.cabinessence.com/cgi/chatpro.shtml mIRC http://www.mirc.co.uk/get.html Conference Room |
| M : 1 | Efficient way for students to submit
assignments etc. back to markers/instructors. Ideally, it is very useful to have an
automated acknowledgement system in place so that students know that their assignments
have been received. The real problem here is whether online marking by humans of text based essay is feasible. |
Reply button in mail system allows for direct response to student. Key hers is for student to sent their individual response back to the marker instructor rather than distribute to entire group | Vacation: an email autoreply system |
| M : M | See effectiveness - transformation | ||
| Assessment Management | Online quiz and marking capabilities removes a
significant time drain on instructors and general improves the immediacy of feedback to
students. How much of an efficiency gain will be derived here will be dependent on the
type of assessment tool deployed. Online testing software available today is very good in
multiple choice, true false type objective questions but less efficient for essay type
assignments or exams. Online correction tools for assignments are still in their infancy and generally require assignments to be submitted through web based forms and are very limited depending on the degree of structure of the questions being answered. |
Quiz generators and online marking tools are evolving at a rapid rate and are currently being developed by textbook publishers and course management software developers in addition to a few stand alone products. | Standalone products;, Test Creator http://webclass.cqu.edu.au/TestCreator/ webfuse (www.webfuse.cqu.edu.au) Products include in course management packages) Webct (www.homebrew.cs.ubc.ca/webct/) Topclass (www.wbtsystems.com) Lotus Notes learning space http://lnnemeapin1.lnn.com Firstclass Collaborative classroom (www.education.softarc.com/product/fccc/index.html) CyberProf http://cyber.ccsr.uiuc.edu/cyberprof/general/homepage/Newpage/first.html Virtual-University CleverX: computer marking utility Oracles Learning Network Architecture |
| Class Management | Student’s access to online registration, scheduling, and assessment (marks) systems can reduce faculty time and involvement in these activities. Computers are very good at recording, processing and storing large volumes of information. Access by students and faculty alike to these centralized databases has been what is missing in the past. | SIS (Student Information systems) and registration systems are being web enabled so that students are able to minimize lineup time. | Many proprietary systems are having a web interface built to allow fast and secure access by students for such things as, registration, marks, billings. |
Why should we (academics) care about the internet anyway?
A Survey of Accounting Department Websites at Canadian Universities
Implications for Canadian Accounting Education
Summary: Study of the Internet Presence of University Accounting Programs in Canada
Appendix A: Transformation of Educational Delivery Systems
Appendix C: Effectiveness Gains