February 1, 1999 — Newsletter #13

This is lucky newsletter #13. I should be writing this on a
Friday….

Before I start the newsletter topics, here’s a thought:

I’m a communications professor and as such I enjoy keeping
an eye on how people use language. Lately, in my opinion,
the letter “e” has been getting much too much play. It seems
that when you stick an “e” in front of any word it instantly
validates that thing as important to the Web. Examples include
e-commerce, e-shopping, e-chat, e-touring, e-sightseeing
(really!), and e-gambling. Egad!

Now on to this week’s topic:

As a professor, I also teach classes, believe it or don’t.
This semester I’m treading on new ground because I’m offering
my HTML class fully on-line. I’m telling you, this is the
future of teaching. I can actually see a time when people
will sit at their computers and take classes from multiple
colleges and universities and be granted a degree from the
state rather than one institution.

And schools aren’t the only ones doing it, either. I just
bought a Micron 450 computer (I’m giving Dad my 200MMX) and
with the purchase I got a year’s tuition to their on-line
classes. Amazing.

My on-line class is actually a series of rewrites from the
HTML Goodies tutorials. Students log in to the site and are
greeted by a calendar. They click on the date of the lesson
and up comes the lesson plan. After they read all the
tutorials, they click on a homework button. The screen splits.
On top is their homework, at bottom are the lessons they just
read. They answer the 10 questions and submit. The JavaScript
Quiz grades the quiz, posts it, sends a copy to me, and a copy
to the student. It’s pretty cool.

After they finish their homework, they receive another button.
They click and up comes their assignment. The assignment is
completed and posted to their Web site as “assignment.html.”
Each assignment they post must have a simple mailto: e-mail
link as the last order of business. That way when I look at
the assignment I can simply click on the link to send them
their grade.

All homework and assignments are due by midnight the day of
the lesson. I just sit at my desk the next day and grade,
grade, grade. I could have set it up so that the grades were
entered straight into a database, but I want to see each
student’s answers and keep the grades myself in case someone
falls behind. Then I can be right on top of the situation.

The class is actually set up as a two-group experiment. I am
using the exact same syllabus to teach a group of students
in a classroom. That means I have 18 in class and 16 out of
class. In addition, the in-class group is made up of college-
aged kids while the on-line group is made up of adults from
the continuing education department.

Just off the top of your head: Which group do you think will
do better overall? Next semester I’ll be teaching two more
sessions in and out of class. These two groups will be of
similar make-up, all college kids. Which one of those do you
think will do better?

I don’t know the answer. It’s just now underway, but I am
really looking forward to the results. In this first week
there were more bugs than I expected, but nothing major,
although one was particularly embarrassing.

In the first homework assignment for the in-class group, I
had made an error in the code. It worked fine when I beta
tested it, but that little bug bit me. I had the whole group
try the first homework in class. They all submitted at the
same time and I stood there watching the error messages come
up like a deck of cards spraying onto the floor.

The students all turned slowly around and stared back at me.
Nothing cuts though a professor like 18 pairs of students’
eyes that have a glint of “What now?” in them. I came back
with the very clever retort: “Well, that’s interesting.”
(Never let ’em see you sweat.)

But all is fixed and all is well.

Oh, and in case you’re curious about which group may excel:
The on-line group has already gotten together and is demanding
to start assignments earlier than the syllabus calls for. You
did that in school, right?

So, here we go. On-line and into the future.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That’s that. Thanks once again for the use of your eyeballs.

Joe Burns, Ph.D.

And Remember: Our Uncle Sam was a real guy. During the War of
1812, Sam Wilson, owner of a meat packing plant, shipped food
to the troops marked with the code “U.S.” Some of the workmen
jokingly stated the initials stood for their boss, “Uncle Sam.”
I guess it stuck.