Hope Scale of Electrification

Hope Greenberg has suggested the following scale for classifying the electrification (cyberization?) of a course. As we go up the scale (and down the page), each step reflects a slight shift in the nature of work that may already be being done (e.g. via paper), but a large shift in the mindset of a course.

E-mail for Personal Communication

• teacher publishes personal e-mail address
• students send e-mail questions much in the same way they ask questions after lecture.

E-mail for Group Collaboration

• listserver is created for a course
• students participate in online discussions with teacher being a gentle moderator, as in a classroom setting.
• assignments are made via e-mail
• assignments are turned in via e-mail
• students use e-mail to solve problems as a group (open lab)
• news group is close cousin; news reader, however, may support discussion threading and www links.

Web is used for Course Support

Instructor creates a course homepage containing

• syllabus
• reading list
• assignments
• solutions to assignments
• collateral material (e.g. slides, graphs, charts, programs)
• course handouts (e.g. papers, articles, clippings, etc.)
• lecture outlines
• lecture notes (from professor)
• previous exams
• previous exam answers

Web is used for Course Knowledgebase

As above, but the couse knowledge-base is not a creation of the professor, but of the students. Students create their own portfolios in their Web space and the course page links to those areas of the students' portfolios that are appropriate. Students might write

• book reviews
• articles
• essays
• papers
• develop data sets
• collect or create image libraries