Subject: Re: Update on Distance Education Pre Proposal Resent-Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 20:44:35 -0500 Resent-From: Geoffrey Fox Resent-To: p_gcf@npac.syr.edu Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 16:01:08 +0000 From: "Willie G. Brown, Ph.D." To: Geoffrey Fox CC: Joe Thompson , Nancy McCracken , Chris Lacher , Peter Dragovitsch Geoffrey, This is a start. Let me know if you need more. Geoffrey Fox wrote: > I would like to get by december 17, any thoughts that you feel should be > in pre-proposal. Here are some very specific requests: > 1) Please Comment on Joe Thompson's suggestion that this be pursued in some > way as a SURA-wide initiative. I have not yet talked to Joe about this. > > 2) Please comment on his suggestion that the concept of open source > courseware (for material produced by this proposal) be included -- > See his white paper below. This seems reasonable. What are your views? > > 3) Please send me NSF style CV (At most 2 pages, 5 publications related to proposal) Attached > > 4) Please send (if you haven't already) a short (1 page or so) white paper on your > interest/proposed role Attached > > 5) Please send me bullets describing following "cosmic issues" that NSF requires > for all ITR proposals > > COSMIC ISSUES for ITR Proposals extracted from NSF99-167 > a) For Summary: > a1) Scientific research problems to be addressed For each of several categories of courses, which technologies/software tools/environments are best suited for course delivery, in both distance education and the resident classroom. > > a2) The methodologies to be used, and 1. Identify similarities among course content characteristics that allow categorization of courses. 2. Identify candidate course delivery mechanisms. 3. Provide adequate infrastructure at participating colleges/universities. 4. Deliver similar course content using different technologies. 5. Evaluate results. > > a3) The potential outcomes 1. Well-defined principles for course development and delivery. 2. A coalition of colleges/universities equipped to deliver and receive courses. 3. A large number of faculty, staff, and students who are more IT literate. 4. A large number of students who are better trained for IT careers. > > > b) General goals in Area we fall -- how do we stand? > ITR Area A) Information Technology Education and Workforce (Words from NSF99-167) > A1) Educating our citizens to fill the estimated one million vacant positions in the information technology industry > is a critical national need. > A2) Fundamental research projects in universities should contribute to educational needs by training students, > developing new research foci in existing departments, and increasing the breadth and depth of IT research > activities in U.S. universities. Jackson State University (JSU), a Historically Black College/University (HBCU), is the urban university of Mississippi and enrolls approximately 6,500 students. The primary goal of the School of Science and Technology, and the new School of Engineering, is to develop top quality scientists and engineers who can advance knowledge and address the technical problems facing the nation and the world. To this end, JSU is a leader in graduating minority science and technology professionals. Particularly relevant to this proposal, JSU has graduated more African Americans in Computer Science than any other university in the United States. Among African Americans in Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, JSU has enrolled 53% of all Chemistry majors, 54% of all Biology majors, 66% of all Computer Science majors, 69% of all Mathematics majors, and 80% of all Physics and Atmospheric Sciences majors. Thus, JSU will continue to provide significant numbers of technical graduates for the current and future workforce. > > > A3) Research projects should develop new methods for educating people in IT or > explore the use of learning technologies in educating K-16 students for IT careers. > A5) NSF also is interested in research on methods to increase IT literacy and skills among the general student and > public populations. > A6) Projects which exploit international cooperation and comparisons in the understanding of workforce and educational > issues are particularly encouraged. Due to current involvement in numerous information technology (IT) research projects, JSU has developed cutting edge expertise in several areas, one of which is distance education. In particular, Web-based distance education technologies offer tremendous potential benefits to the HBCU/MI community, including curricular enhancement, sharing of limited resources, and collaborative teaching/learning. It is the university’s goal to build upon this foundation and become a national resource for technologies supporting electronic delivery of education and training. JSU proposes to leverage its current investment and commitment in this area by incorporating the NSF ITR activity into the university’s strategic plan for distance education and training. Through this project, and other efforts, JSU will continue to promote and facilitate inclusion of, and broaden the participation of, underrepresented groups in IT careers. > > > ITR Area B) Information Management (Words from NSF99-167 -- less relevant area) > > B1) Increasing the utility and scope of online information is the goal of this element of the ITR research program. > Proposals should outline fundamental research activities dealing either with online content > (transforming the kind, quality or amount of material online) or with access > (increasing the utility of online information via research on quality, economics, searching, or other related areas). > > B2) Proposals relating to online information content should involve a significant body of online information; > they should address the nature of the material, what is new, and how it will be provided in a > sustainable and permanent way. I believe the Tango information should go here. > > > c) Discuss the goals, objectives and anticipated impact of the proposed project. > d) Make clear whyt the proposed project is a research project, > e) Describe Contributions to advances in information technology and > f) Describe Advances in Education and Workforce as defined below by NSF I believe these issues are covered above. > > > g) What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? > g1) To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, > networks, and partnerships? Many institutions, particularly HBCU/MI, are unable to take advantage of the vast and varied number of resources available throughout the nation and the world because their infrastructure is inadequate. There is often a very slow network connection to the outside world, and network connectivity on campus is spotty and unreliable. In addition, financial and human resources are often unavailable to establish and maintain instructional technology enabled classroom facilities. One focus of this activity will be to provide at least one location on each campus with adequate network connectivity and instructional technology support for course delivery. > > g2) How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? Full semester course delivery, at multiple institutions, using different technologies will provide much opportunity for discovery and understanding. Empirical data gatherted will likely expose patterns that explain relationships between course content characteristics, course delivery mechanisms, teaching techniques, and student behaviours. At the same time, the activity will promote teaching by providing a new and fresh paradigm to instructors. It will promote training because faculty and staff (and students) must be trained to use the new tools. Finally, learning will be promoted and enhanced by the new and more effective resources available to students. > > g3) How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, > disability, geographic, etc.)? > g4) Integrating Diversity > g5) Community-extending concepts such as undergraduate education or links to minority serving institutions, > or institutions in EPSCOR states > g6) Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? > g7) Plans for distributing software etc. > g8) What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society? > g9) Integration of Research and Education Already addressed above, but this can be fleshed out more. I will work on it. > > > h) Management Plan > i) Budget > > Material from Joe Thompson on Open Source Courseware > ---------------------------------------------------- > GENERAL ARGUMENT words > ---------------------- > > The rapid profusion of commercial efforts in IT-enabled course development and > delivery poses a danger of lock-in to less-than-optimal proprietary systems that > gain some monopoly status by virtue of widespread availability and use, as has > occurred for operating systems and office systems. But higher education courses, > by their very nature need to be dynamic: continually changing and adapting to > incorporate new content and modes of presentation, as well as more effective > pedagogy. > > OPEN SOURCE COURSEWARE words > ---------------------------- > > Universities moving separately with the development of IT-enabled courses is > inefficient and duplicative. Rather, a concerted effort is needed to marshall > expertise and innovation across a coherent and logical group of universities to > develop the body of IT-enabled courseware. By courseware is meant content in > a suitable software infrastructure. Both the content and the software > infrastructure would be addressed in this effort. > > And this courseware should be open source - continually accumulating > enhancements and improvements as it is applied within the group. A recent > Chronicle article (back page of the October 29 issue) argued for open source > in general in terms of the traditional open nature of universities: > > http://chronicle.com/weekly/v46/i10/10a09201.htm > > Another Chronicle article (November 5 issue) also addresses open source from > the open nature of universities standpoint, but more focused on scientific > software: > > http://chronicle.com/free/v46/i11/11a05101.htm > > CONCEPT words > ------------- > > A virtual center of the HBCU/MIs and supporting universities would be formed to > develop and apply open-source courseware in undergraduate and graduate education > in computer and computational science, both in on-campus courses and in distance > learning - for regular students and in continuing education. This courseware > could ultimately extend across the entire curricula of these universities. This > virtual center would also continually evaluate emerging delivery and > administration systems, promulgating standards for use across the HBCU/MIs and > other universities. > > APPROACH words > -------------- > > The fundamental technical approach of this virtual center would be to develop > object-oriented modular courseware components assembled into complete > IT-enabled courses, as well as for use as components in otherwise conventional > courses. These modules would be composed of four basic object classes, each of > which may incorporate audio and video objects: > > * Text > > * Graphics > > * Animation > > * Simulation > > These modular objects would be written using XML, with standard DTDs for the > various disciplines and course types. Animations and simulations would > incorporate Java applets. There would also be hierarchial discipline (subject) > classes, with invokable sub-classes. > > A course would be made up of topics, each of which would be treated in a module > (object) for the topic. These topical modules would be made up of various text, > graphics, animation, and simulation objects forming explanatory content, > examples and homework problems, and with associated quiz questions. > > This modular approach would allow components to be combined into courses at > different levels. Thus some of the same components could be used with differing > other components to assemble a freshman physics course for majors and a general > science course for non-majors. The open-source nature of this effort would allow > component modules to be adapted for use beyond that originally conceived.