We are currently involved in two special projects: 

Project 1: Development of an Online Library Resources course 

This course will show participants the various resources which are available online, how to assess their value, how to use various databases and search engines, how to organize a major paper/project. The course is being designed by the Information and Library Services Office and the Graduate School's Distance Learning & Instructional Technology unit. It will be conducted as a tutorial (self-paced). It is available in Fall 1998, and is required for all Graduate students who enroll as of the fall 1998 by the time they complete 6 credits. Other students and faculty are also encouraged to take this exciting trip into cyberspace research. 

For the past year, we have conducted a pilot study of the amount of time involved in online teaching. Beginning in Fall '97, we began a comparison of our online courses and our face-to-face classes. We were interested not only in the total amount of time each week, but in the elements which make up that time (such as grading papers,exams; communicating with individuals; communicating with the class via the conferencing features; working with the study groups, etc.) We have also asked about the amount of preparation time by faculty before the course began. This study covers Fall 1997-98 and will continue in 98-99.