Faculty reflect on course planning

Faculty members' beliefs about educational purpose and the nature of their academic fields strongly influence how they plan introductory courses. Interviews with 89 faculty members teaching in diverse colleges and representing eight fields also identified faculty attention to student preparation, available textbooks, and locally important factors, but little attention to alternative instructional strategies during course planning. Based on the findings, the authors have developed a tentative general model of course design and related questions to guide future study.     

Market segmentation for improved distance education program planning

Distance education planners face two basic, yet difficult decisions: which students should be targeted and which programs should be offered? This paper reports the process and results of the planning committee of a consortium of engineering schools in the United States that was tasked with these very decisions. A market research study measured the program preferences of potential students. Three program characteristics (course type, delivery method, and time availability) were examined. The results show there is no ‘average’ student and no single program will satisfy all the needs of the student population. Rather, the committee must choose one or more segments based on the program preferences of the students and the resources required to provide the programs.     

Heuristics for planning university study at a distance

A model was developed at Murdoch University, Western Australia, to describe distance students’ perceptions of their aims and plans for studying a course. The model follows Polya's Heuristic and Newell & Simon's General Problem Solver of students’ plans and sub‐goals for achieving those plans.

Verbal reports of four students were described using the model, and showed that students’ goals were different from those of the course academic, and that student goals influenced how they planned and organized their study. Implications for the formalization of the model for understanding student behaviour are discussed, as is educational relevance for design of external courses.     

对远程教学的思考

一、远程教学的意义１远程教学将引起学校教学模式的深刻变革远程教学的本质在于充分发挥了技术进步的功能，使教师从学生中分离、学生从学习集体中分离成为可能，而且使得教育过程能够得以继续进行下去并取得成功。通常说的远程学习打破了教学活动的完整性，指的就是打破了这一教师和教学对象之间的主体交互关系，而正是这一关系产生了教育交互活动。如，美国科罗拉多大学的远程教学，除了教材、课程表、作业上网外，将整个学校运作环境建置在网上，使学生不必踏入校园半步，仍有身在校园的感觉。我国的广播电视大学系统正借助网络优势，…     

Faculty perceptions of teaching support and teaching efficacy in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to investigate university faculty’s perceptions of teaching support and their teaching efficacy in Taiwan. In addition, the relationship of perceived teaching support to faculty’ teaching efficacy was examined. Questionnaires measuring three dimensions of teaching support and six dimensions of teaching efficacy were distributed to 1,700 university faculty members, yielding 505 complete sets of responses. The public faculty show higher perceptions of teaching support and teaching efficacy than do their counterparts. The correlation coefficients between perceived teaching support and teaching efficacy among the public faculty are lower than those among the private ones. Peer support, teaching resources, and university type have some impact on faculty teaching efficacy. Administrative support, however, does not make a significant additional contribution to the variance in teaching efficacy.     

Faculty attitudes toward student evaluation of teaching

This study dealt with university faculty attitudes toward the validity of and varying uses for student evaluations of teaching. It was hypothesized that faculty attitudes toward the potential uses of student evaluations would be systematically related to a professor's a priori frame of reference regarding the validity of these instruments. On the basis of responses to selected questionnaire items, faculty were divided into those whose frame of reference (1) opposed the idea that student evaluations could be made valid, (2) supported the idea that existing evaluation forms were valid, and (3) were uncommitted regarding this validity question. A fourth group, administrators at the university, were also surveyed. Large and consistent differences among these groups were found on policy matters such as the use of student evaluations in tenure and promotion decisions, in providing information to students to help them choose courses, and on a variety of other issues. In each case the results supported the hypothesis.Authors' names are ordered randomly.     

Faculty at work: Focus on teaching

Within the framework of cognitive motivation theory, selected personal and environmental motivational variables for faculty in English, chemistry, and psychology from community colleges, comprehensive colleges and universities, and research universities were regressed against faculty allocation of work effort given to teaching. The data came from a 1988 national survey. Gender (sociodemographic); quality of graduate school attended, career age, and rank (career); self-competence, self-efficacy, institutional commitment, personal interest in teaching, and percent time preferred to give to teaching (self-valuations); and institutional preference, consensus and support, and colleague commitment to teaching (perception of the environment) were entered into regressions.R ² were generally strong (.86 for community college chemists) and significant. For all institutional types, self-valuation and perception of the environment motivators significantly accounted for the explained variance whereas sociodemographic and career variables did not.     

Planning new distance teaching universities

During the 1970s, new distance teaching universities (DTUs) were established worldwide. There are indications that further DTUs will be established during the 1980s in a number of countries.Based on the experience of those who developed and promoted the sketch plans of the existing DTUs, this article seeks to identify common features in the DTU planning process and the factors which appear to promote a successful outcome.     

提高远程教学平台运行质量的思考——"湖州电大在线"远程教学平台实例探索

远程教学平台是远程教学中师生交互的舞台,远程教学平台的功能配置是否合理、运行是否顺畅、教师能否充分利用远程教学平台开展教学辅导并发挥导学作用,对于提高远程教育的教学质量是至关重要的.本文从远程教学平台的运行现状入手,对影响远程教学平台运行质量的主要因素进行了分析,并就如何改善远程教学平台的运行质量提出一些看法.     

Advanced project work in distance teaching

The problem of presenting advanced project work in distance teaching is discussed and criteria established for its success. An evaluation of empirical research projects involved in an advanced course on research methods in education and social science is described and some principles put forward for sound project design in distance teaching. Finally, three models suggesting different combinations of distance teaching and conventional institution-based teaching are proposed which incorporate advanced project work. It is suggested that conventional teaching institutions working in isolation can all benefit from a distance teaching element in their programmes.     

Some instructional strategies for improved learning from distance teaching materials

In distance teaching we are usually concerned with indirect methods of interacting with learners, using for the most part, the written word. Quality of learning in distance education ought therefore to be closely related to the quality of textual materials provided to students. In this paper we examine some ways of facilitating learning at a distance. We begin by noting the current dearth of models for teaching through text and make a plea for diversity and experimentation in this area. Some traditional instructional strategies (including advance organizers, overviews, pretests, objectives and inserted questions) from the dominant approach to distance teaching are examined along with devices in typoraphy and graphics. Guidelines for their use are developed, based on research, everyday rationality, and from an embryonic conceptualization of distance learning.     

Tests as means for promotion of learning from distance teaching

This article from a pedagogical viewpoint deals with the problem of how to promote meaningful learning in distance education. In correspondence courses, major problems arise from individual learning difficulties which are caused, e.g. by ineffective teaching methods, deficient individual prerequisites, and/or lack of social facilitation because of isolation. Dealing with those problems experts have been using various technical facilities (e.g., computers for administration and management) and media. Nevertheless, learning difficulties can be solved only by students themselves, but not by mere manipulation of technology, educational methods, or students’ activities. Methods to enhance individual engagement and learning cannot be based well on existing pedagogical theories, since these address direct teaching of children or youth in classroom. Search for theories and methods appropriate to distance teaching reveals as a major goal the development of problem‐solving skills and related abilities. Learning activities corresponding to that goal obviously cohere to working on problem‐like tests. Thus, a conceptual model of how to effect meaningful learning by tests is being proposed. Based on that model special modular components of tests are being described which should be apt for enhancing meaningful learning, and for computer‐based application.     

Faculty learning communities: improving teaching in higher education

Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are collaborative collegial groups of faculty and other teaching staff who are interested in and committed to the improvement of their teaching to accommodate a diverse student population through group discourse, reflection and goal setting. In this article, we describe our FLC experiences that were supported by a federal grant to ensure accessible learning environments on our campus. The project, Ensuring Access through Collaboration and Technology (EnACT), sought to introduce faculty at a medium‐sized state university to a pedagogical framework to provide universal access to the curriculum for all students and to encourage faculty to adopt accessible technologies. We describe the recruitment process, the FLC meeting structure, our intended outcomes and the challenges we faced in meeting them.     

Science teachers' views and practices in planning for teaching

This article studies the views and practices of a group of secondary school science teachers toward lesson planning. The two main questions posed are: “What do teachers do when they prepare their lessons?” and “What do teachers think of their own planning?” We describe the decisions made by the teachers, the things they take into account, what they give most importance to, the time spent, the source of their knowledge, and how they evaluate the results. The information was obtained by structured personal interviews, which were compared with reports written by the teachers. Our findings led us to reflect on ways in which lesson planning may be introduced into training programs. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 493–513, 1999     

"升华和凝华"教学设计与实践

随着初中新课程改革的深入，我对《初中物理课程标准》和新教材的实施，有了更深刻的感悟，最近，以“升华和凝华”（苏科版）课题，用新课程理念设计了一个教学方案，并进行了课堂教学实践，收到了良好的教学效果，得到了专家和同行们较高的评价，自己也感触颇深．现将“升华和凝华”教学设计与实践的情况总结于后，与同行们交流．     

Timeless and timely issues in distance education planning

Abstract

Distance education planners make complex decisions that result in substantial investments and have long‐term implications. This article provides a framework to categorize planning issues into four distinct program stages and three decision areas. The framework brings to the surface and highlights numerous areas of uncertainty and potential disagreement among decision makers and provides an organizing backdrop to improve the distance education planning process.     

基于Web的远程教学系统安全性研究

Internet之所以发展成为今天的全球互联网络,主要是依赖于它的开放性,正是这种开放性的信息交换方式才使得Internet网络存在严重的安全问题。基于Web的网上教学是目前Web应用的热点之一,本文对基于Web的远程教学系统安全性及其策略进行讨论。