Hunter Logo

Using the Web for Instruction at Hunter

An Annotated Guide to Current Projects

by Manfred Kuechler (March 97 -- changed links fixed Aug 97)

 

The use of technology in (college) instruction can be separated into three broad areas:

 

Apart from legal (copyright) problems, most instructional materials falling in the second category can be adapted for Internet-based delivery though multi-media material requires high-end hardware and thus limits access at this point in time. The most prominent example in this area is Prof. Howard Topoff's work in psychology. For Hunter's efforts in the third area contact Lisa Decker, the Acting Director of the (new) Distance Learning Center located at the School of Social Work. This guide, then, focuses on instructional projects in the first area, Internet-based asynchronous learning models.

 The scope of these projects varies. Internet-based materials may

with many grades in between. As individual projects progress, they are likely to move to a stage where a distance learning utilization becomes possible. These projects also vary with respect to technical sophistication, the use of sound, video, animation. While the technology is available to deliver full-fledged multi-media materials via the Internet, both increased production costs and significantly higher hardware requirements for student access constitute a barrier.

 This guides provides a sample of individual faculty's efforts to utilize modern (Internet) technology in college-level instruction in the spring of 1997. With the imminent institution of an Office for Instructional Computing and Informational Technology (OICIT) and the appointment of its first director, Hunter College has taken important steps to coordinate these efforts, to improve technical support, and to introduce a larger number of faculty to these exciting new opportunities. Using these technologies -- wisely -- will be an important means to fulfill the college's mission to provide first-rate education to a student body largely drawn from less privileged strata in our society.

 The examples discussed in this guide come from all divisions. They include fields that are typically not associated with the use of computers or technology:

 

[For the impatient: Jump ahead to the concrete projects.]

 Though not all projects use this terminology, course materials put on a web site can be thought of as an Electronic Reserve Shelf or ERS for short. Materials can include

 

"Web guides" are documents in a special (HTML) format that connect students to other web sites or documents by just a mouse click. In its simplest form it is just an annotated list of such "hypertext links". Guided searches on the Web let students do their own research, their own explorations in a variety of fields, related to a broad range of topics, like:

 

"Web guides" also avoid copyright problems by pointing to a source rather than copying the material. They can enrichment the course contents by

 

Overall, an ERS offers better access for students

 

Sample Projects

Prof. Alan Hausman's Introduction To Philosophy

The materials include the syllabus, the first exam complete with answers, good advice on how to write a paper in philosophy, and a link to a site that demonstrate the working of a turing machine.

 

Prof. Monica Casco's Advanced Spanish Writing

Students find a link to the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais and many more links to Spanish language sites mostly in Latin America.

 

Prof. Gordon Barr's Introduction to Psychology

Study questions for each chapters (expanded as the semester progresses), quiz answers, and grades.

 

Prof. Manfred Kuechler's Social Statistics

Weekly summaries of class lectures, homework assignment, feedback on assignments, practice exams

 

Prof. Manfred Kuechler's Information and Communication Revolution

An experimental course on the impact of the new technology on society, politics, education, and everyday life combining technical training with sociological reflection. No traditional textbook, but plenty of links pointing to information sources on the web. Student papers describing the actual changes by concrete examples were done in HTML format and are displayed as part of the course material. Additional sociology classes.

 

Prof. Peter Combs' Weather and Climate

Syllabus, lecture notes, project assignment, several sample write-up from previous sections. Additional geography classes.

 

Prof. Gary J. Quigley's General Chemistry

Exercise Sets and Answers. Additional chemistry classes. Also general chemistry tutorials, currently two authored by John Leonardo.

 

Prof. Martin denBoer's Basic Concepts in Astronomy

Includes detailed lecture notes with illustrations and a set of links to astronomy sites around the world. Currently one of the most developed projects at Hunter.

 

Prof. Jack Caravanos' Environmental Health & Safety

A great list of web sources for each topic covered in the course

 

Prof. Anthony G. Picciano's Organization and Administration of the Public Schools

Hunter's first Internet-based distance learning course, no traditional classroom. All communication between instructor and student and among students is via the Internet.

 

ERES

Currently, it takes some searching on the Hunter web pages to find these example of the use of Internet-technology in instruction -- were it not for this guide. However, a remedy is near: The ERES or Electronic Reserve system. ERES is a user friendly management system that

 

Starting with the current semester workshops for faculty are offered on how to use this system. Some more intricate course pages (as some of the examples above) are easier handled outside this system -- by faculty with higher computer skills. But ERES can be used to point to those separate locations. Take a tour of ERES and revisit some of the courses introduced above.

 

What lies ahead?

Clearly, we are just at the very beginning of an exciting new era in college teaching. These examples above show the potential and pioneering spirit of some faculty. In order to make a real difference in the life of our students, we must ascertain two things:

 

 
If you read this document in printed form (as hard copy), please note that you can access it on the WWW at the following address (URL): 

 http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/guide.htm 

 This will allow you to make use of the embedded 'hypertext' links; by clicking on text that appears in blue on the screen you initiate a transfer to another document, the one the text talks about.