STLHE 2007 - Conference Day Two - Lunch Round Table Discussion - Coping With College Online Teaching

This lunch time round table discussion was hosted by Claudi Caruana from the University of Maryland/University College. We talked about online learning (OLL) at universities and colleges.

We discussed the various tools available to us for OLL, including LMS systems like Moodle, TLM, WebCT and so on. Most of those around the table with OLL experience seemed to prefer Moodle.

Some of the other issues that were raised were:

• Handling of proctered tests - what processes were used to control them - mailing paper tests, opening and closing Web-based tests and so on
• Facilitator preparation for OLL - at the University of Maryland all online instructors get six weeks of training that has to be refreshed.
• use of web 2.0 tools in OLL- behind or in front of the firewall?
• How each of used LMSs (I'm personally not a big fan of LMSs, but they appear to have their place in OLL, particularly in the areas of testing, grading, and monitoring of learner performance)
• The use of Elluminate and/or Wimba as an OLL tool. The consensus was that Wimba was the better tool for many institutions simply because the per seat cost of Elluminate was too high
  

All in all a stimulating conversation, and one that has me thinking about exatly what the art of the possible is with OLL...