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The CFL has been evaluating Desire2Learn, a Course Management
System (CMS) since September of 2003. Desire2Learn is a full featured CMS
and is one of three systems endorsed by OPAS.
The CMS is being evaluated in Dr. Catteneo’s distance course for “Introduction
to Management”. Dr. Catteneo is evaluating Desire2Learn’s online testing tools
and its Real-time Chat tool. There were some minor glitches initially
which have been resolved by the vendor. Dr. Catteneo has been able to
learn and use most components of the CMS with only minimal support.
Desire2Learn was also used by CFL in a Blended Course Delivery initiative with
the Faculty of Education. The three courses involved in this initiative
were: Junior/Intermediate French with Dr. Janet Flewelling, Educational
Psychology with Dr. Larry Morton and Organization and Management in Educational
Administration with Glenn Rideout.
The Faculty of Education collaborated with the CFL to assess the effectiveness
of using a blend of online course delivery with face-to-face instruction.
In all three course material in approximately 10 of the 16 face-to-face in-class
sessions were converted for delivery online.
All online lessons included voice recorded lecture presentations synchronized
with PowerPoint slides, readings that were available online and hard copy,
collaborative student projects, text and oral discussion forums. Overall,
the test was a success.
Currently there are thirty-one students in this version of the program.
Some of these students are taking two of the three courses.
CFL will report the results of the pilot at its conclusion in April, 2004. |