AAARGH . . .
Marcy's questions are the big ones. We are in the process, here,
of deciding on most of the same issues; in fact, I've been
involved in weekly meetings for the last few months as we
grappled with just these issues. A couple of quick reflections:
> Is use of a particular CMS required? Is use of nonsupported
> CMSes not allowed?
Here, and I imagine at lots of smaller places, there'd only be
one supported, because we couldn't afford (either to license or
to support) more than one. "Not allowed" probably doesn't
matter, here, because if the local system doesn't install it it
flat ain't available. "Required" is ambiguous: many faculty here
fear that if we put a CMS in place they'd somehow be "required"
to use it (as opposed to its being the default).
> How long are previous semesters' classes archived? How long do
> instructors and students have routine access to them?
A biggie, I think, much bigger than I'd thought. I have one
class which I desperately want to archive so that I can use it
as an example of a number of teaching strategies, but (a) it's
practically not simple and (b) it's ethically not simple.
> Who is allowed access to a particular course space? Eg:
> Students and instructors? Proxies for the instructor?
> Departmental secretaries? Administrators, such as deans?
Or _tout le monde_, as here? (under current conditions, which
are that we don't have a CMS, and people kludge together
whatever they can).
> Who can copy and use material from a course space? Can
> faculty copy students' work to use in their research? If
> students retain exclusive right to their work, how is that
> right ensured/enforced?
When I expect I may want to use student work, I usually use a
"letter of permission" form that I don't see until after the
marks are in (to obviate charges that I bullied the students
into giving permission). But how about stuff that's on the open
Web, and that the students knew was on the open Web?
I think right now what _I'd_ be most interested in knowing is
this: has your institution installed a CMS (WebCT, Blackboard,
FirstClass, something else, a homegrown kludge) that's available
to faculty? Our VP Admin is under the impression that we're way
behind, and that pretty much everybody's bought into one system
or another.
-- Russ
(By the way, I was too overwhelmed here to participate in the
wonderful discussion about "real," but it occurred to me that we
might try to use it as a basis for a panel at Kamloops. Anybody
up for that?
St. Thomas University
http://www.StThomasU.ca/~hunt/
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