F-LIGHT

January 2001

• Report: Training and Supporting Faculty Users at CSU-Sacramento
• Have you or your institution studied local use of a Web Course Management System (e.g., WebCT, Blackboard)? We're searching for studies.
• Upcoming: State workshop in Michigan (a model for your system?)
• Upcoming: Evaluating Web-based courses in Nursing
• Upcoming: Flashlight Track (annual meeting) at AAHE Assessment Conference
• New Flashlight subscribers
• Have a Question about Educational Uses of Technology?
• Learning More About Flashlight( free demo accounts), The TLT Group and F-LIGHT
  

Goal#1 of F-LIGHT: Gather and share examples of studies and of other evaluation-related activity that are making a difference in their institutions.  If you've done something of this sort, whether or not you used Flashlight tools or methods, we'd like to hear about it and have the opportunity to report on it here. 

E-mail is wonderful: please send the URL of this issue to everyone who needs this information! For information about starting or ending a subscription, sending us announcements, etc., see the bottom of this message.

Training and Supporting Faculty to Assess Instructional Uses of Technology. A Report from California State University, Sacramento.

Ann Haffer and Linda Downing report on a workshop series at CSUS that was designed to help faculty members learn how to do studies of technology use in their courses: studies that focused on the faculty member's own hopes for the course. Haffer and Downing report that the workshops went well. Perhaps the greatest benefit was that faculty members were stimulated by Flashlight's activity-centered approach to rethink elements of course structure and content. They also found that faculty were more likely to succeed if the workshops were supplemented by one-to-one follow-up. Click here to read the full article. 

Here are the kinds of studies and instruments in which we are most interested:

• Studies and instruments designed to document how an institution's system has been used, how it hasn't been used, what kinds of support and training were successful or unsuccessful, and what factors affect the system's use for different purposes. 

• Surveys, focus groups, data collection by the WCMS's themselves, and other means of investigation. 

• Studies that produced findings that were seen as useful by the institution (e.g., helped to confirm or alter arrangements for training or support; helped confirm or alter decisions about what WCMS to use). 

• Studies that helped document whether the system was of educational benefit to students, departments or the institution as a whole.

• Studies of the obvious and hidden costs (including time) of maintaining such systems.

If you have done such a study could you please send us a copy or a URL?  We'd also like to talk with you about whether or how you might improve the study design.

If you know of such a study, could you tell us how we can find it?

If you would like to help critique such studies, please let us know of your interest. 

Please send your information and suggestions to Helen Parke or Steve Ehrmann.

Thanks!

Helen Parke, East Carolina University

Upcoming Events

Mark your calendar today for this workshop, which will be held May 4 –5, 2001, at California State University in Fullerton, California.

Participants in this Flashlight Focus Institute will be introduced to the Flashlight instruments and procedures for evaluating outcomes and educational practices in web-based courses. Through hands-on exercises they will develop evaluation plans that they can use to evaluate programs of their own choosing.  Participants also will be introduced to the forthcoming Flashlight Nursing Benchmarking project. Although the theme of this Institute is "Evaluating Web-based Courses in Nursing Programs," participants with other evaluation interests and from other disciplines will find the hands-on training valuable. Nursing Contact Hours Will Be Available.

The workshop is hosted by: California State University, Fullerton and co-sponsored by: The TLT Group and The Indiana University School of Nursing, Center for Teaching and Lifelong Learning.

Fee: $375 per person (from not for profit educational institutions) prior to March 1, 2001; $400 after March 1; $425 after April 1, 2001.  Institutions that are members of the Flashlight Network receive a 10 % discount.  Nursing contact hours will be available for an additional $25.

To receive a brochure and registration materials send your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address to Antonia at flashorder@tltgroup.org.

For more information and to register Online visit the TLT Group website at www.tltgroup.org after January 25, 2001.

Upcoming Events: Flashlight Track at the AAHE Assessment Conference, Denver, June 23-26, 2001

Do you use Flashlight or related techniques to study educational uses of technology? Interested in learning more about how to? Are you an institutional leader trying to build a culture of assessment? Or are you just trying to learn more about what's happening in this crucial area?

Join us in Denver for the AAHE Assessment Conference, the theme of which is "From Expectations to Results.". Flashlight is developing a track for this conference, including two preconference workshops and a half-dozen sessions.  This premiere conference on assessment and evaluation is a great opportunity to network with other Flashlight users, as well as to meet experts from around the world.  The Assessment Forum has been designed to provide great offerings for both novices and experienced practitioners. Click here for more information on the program and on how to register.

Sometimes you just need a bit of help - a contact, an idea, a reaction. We try to be as helpful as we can, so drop us an e-mail and let us know what's on your mind.

The TLT Group publishes F-LIGHT every few weeks. You can see the name of the author-editor at the bottom of this message; please feel free to send me mail about issues of evaluation or research on teaching, learning and technology. Recent issues are posted on our Web site.