Communication Studies for Social Change (CSSC) is a project in which online course modules are developed for use by university students and as a series of modules that could be licensed for use by non-profit organizations needing instruction in campaigning and communication techniques.  Dr. Myles Ruggles in the Communication Studies department is leading the course design and development process. 

Technically, CFL has supported the initiative on two fronts:

Multimedia Support:

The CSSC group videotaped a number of well-known speakers from non-profit organizations, speaking on various Social Change topics.  CFL assisted the group in digitizing these videos and synchronizing them with slide presentations.  The result is an online experience similar to being present at the original lecture.

Web Platform Support:

The Web site for the CSSC project must be interactive, supporting such communication tools as threaded discussion, online chat, etc.  Because of the need to distribute the project resources outside of the University of Windsor, our Virtual Course Kit platform is not a viable option. We discovered M00dle (http://www.moodle.org/), a non-commercial, open-source Course Management System that met the requirements for the project.  By using a free CMS, we are able to redistribute the course system without concern for licensing and IP issues.  We have adapted M00dle slightly to achieve the desired look-and feel for the course site (a feat that would have been impossible had we decided upon a closed-source, commercial CMS).

This project is to be completed by May, 2004.