Courses On-Line!
Experiences from the School of Business at Dalhousie

Mary-Liz Grisé and Tim Roberts
Dalhousie School of Business Administration

ABSTRACT
This paper traces out the trials, tribulations, and success stories that came with developing and using the WWW for supporting an M.B.A. introductory course in Management Information Systems at the Dalhousie School of Business Administration - from creati ng an on-line, dynamic syllabus and an 'electronic door' for posting student marks, to the search for tasks to put into a conference system that would make usage both appropriate and irresistible. Issues such as email vs. on-line bulletin boards, office h ours vs. 'virtual open door policies' and implications for 'teleschool' will be discussed.

Keywords: WWW, MIS, Dalhousie School of Business Administration, on-line course, MBA


PREFACE

More and more, computer technology is being used to supplement classroom learning. From presentation software to simulation demos, analysis software to teleconferencing, technology is being used to deliver lectures, provide examples, evaluate student prog ress and communicate with individual students.

The most frequent means of providing computer support for learning has been the student computer lab. Students stay on campus between classes and use computers in the lab for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation preparation, etc. With the addition of a networked infrastructure, lab facilities have expanded to include electronic mail and "listservs", so that students can send and receive messages, both personal and public, to their instructors and other students.

These capabilities have taken on new dimensions as the Internet and its user-friendly browsers have been added to the educational toolbox. For students, the Internet has become a communication tool, a research tool, and a personal applications support too l.

For the instructor, the toolbox can now further support classroom learning and an increased ability to communicate with students. The Internet can used to supplement the contact that a professor has with students in the classroom, and in some cases, to re place it.

Using the Internet to support learning creates an opportunity to transform the link that exists between the professor and the student. The professor-student link, or the learning relationship, forms the basis of traditional university learning. Much of the disenchantment that has emerged in recent years over larger class sizes is based on a concern for the weakening of the professor-student link. With the limitations imposed by classroom and office hours, this concern is justified. When a professor's reac h is limited to the classroom, the professor's office, and more recently, the student lab, and when there are a large number of students to reach, the ability of a professor to develop and maintain the learning relationship is diminished.

Appropriate use of computer technology carries the potential to transform the learning relationship. The Internet increases an instructor's reach to include not just the students' lab, but the library, students' offices and their homes. This improved abil ity to interact on a one-to-one and one-to-many basis has led many professors to take their courses "on-line".

This paper describes one such course currently being offered in the School of Business Administration at Dalhousie University. Providing on-line course resources to students that can accessed through the Internet, and therefore from any computer with a modem and communication software, has strengthened professor-student links, made feedback and course evaluation more immediate, and introduces students to the realities of the marketplace and industry in a structured way that textbooks and lectures simply could not.

INTRODUCTION

A course can be described in many ways, but a student's introduction to a course is traditionally done via the syllabus. It provides an introduction to the course and gives an overview of expectations and resources. Typically, a syllabus will contain a course description, objectives, a brief description of the professor, the office hours and email address of the instructor, as well as a list of textbooks required, readings suggested, assignments, the grading scheme, and finally, a class timetable or sche dule.

A well designed syllabus should contain most if not all of these elements of the course. These various items in a syllabus can be rather neatly categorized into six components: Introduction, Resources, Communications, Requirements, Scheduling, and Evaluat ion. The introduction provides the course description, objectives and an introduction to the instructor. The resources sections provides textbook and readings information, guides to relevant journals, and in some cases, descriptions of guest speakers. The communications section describes how students can talk to the instructor outside of the classroom. This is usually a statement of office hours, although it has become fairly common for an instructor to also provide an email address. In a requirements sec tion, there are typically statements about the instructor's expectations of participation and attendance, as well as a brief listing of assignments and a description of examinations. The scheduling component usually consists of a list of class times, dates for meeting, what is to be covered during those meetings, and the preparation expected for those times. Finally, the evaluation component provides the grading scheme - the means by which an instructor can convey whether the student has sufficiently met the professor's expectations.

Just as a syllabus can be used to describe a course to students, so it can be used to evaluate a course. This paper uses this approach by considering each component in turn, and by describing how these course components were placed on-line. In each secti on, the advantages and disadvantages are described, as well as lessons learned from the experience. Prior to this, however, a brief description of the university and the course will provide the context for the discussion.

THE WORLD WIDE WEB AT THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Starting Out

The School of Business Administration (SBA) has been in the forefront of web development for some time. It all started when the Training Technologies Group (TTG) set up a web server for the SBA in the spring of 1993. The initial platform, a Digital Equipm ent DEC Station 5000 running the CERN WWW server provided information on the school, its activities, program information and promotional materials. Initially, particular emphasis was placed on giving the SBA and the Faculty of Management an "external face" to the community.

TTG then embarked on exploring the possibilities of a PC based WWW server as an alternative platform. The server installed was a 486 clone with 20 megabytes of memory, running Bob Denny's Win-Httpd WWW server for Windows. Initially, the going was shaky, but as the software improved, stability was achieved and the initial NS Tourism server was born. The NS Tourism Server prompted several press articles and one radio interview on CBC's Information Morning.

At this same time TTG took over the central Dalhousie WWW pages and started to convert them from a text page full of links to a more user-friendly look. Shortly after this, things started to heat up at Dalhousie. When the new look came out Peter Jones, th en Executive Director of UCIS, struck the Dalhousie WWW Working Group to co-ordinate activities and address issues relating to quality of WWW materials. From that group came a set of guidelines still followed today (these are presently in revision).

On-Line Course Support Begins

Professor Charles Dirksen was the first instructor within the SBA to look at putting course resources on the WWW. In the winter of 1995, supporting course materials for Commerce 1501: Introduction to Computers in Business were installed on the new SBA WWW site. It was a welcomed addition to the course as complete notes for each lecture were available. A conferencing system for class discussion was also installed and several avenues for contacting the professor were created.

The on-line WWW course support went over so well that class attendance dropped. It was decided then that 1501 would be "Beta Tested" as a complete internet based credit course. In the summer of 1995 Commerce 1501 was taught on-line via the Internet. Stude nts were located as close as Halifax and as far away as Bermuda. The only piece left out of the on-line version was the final exam. It was given on campus in the traditional manner. This was done for several reasons:

Having the exam on campus did not pose a problem to our students as they were enrolled full time in our co-op program and were returning in the fall. The final exam was given just prior to the beginning of the fall schedule so as not to conflict with the students new schedule.

The success of the on-line course was mixed. Some students had difficulty with their internet service providers. One example, a student in Stellerton, could only access the internet from the local high school and only during school hours. This became a pr oblem as the student had a full time job. Home dial-up access was not yet available in her area.

Since that time several courses have been offered in a hybrid format. Extensive use of the WWW as a support tool exists in Commerce 1501, 1101, 3101 and MBA 5511. Others, like MBA 6322 provide access to course conferences, and syllabus information. Commerce 1101: Introduction to Accounting is slated to be taught on-line in January, 1997.

The present platform for the SBA WWW site is a Pentium 90, 64 megabytes of memory running Website Professional on a Windows NT platform. The server is attached to a Novell Network which enables professors to maintain their course information directly from their office desktop using Windows based html tools. FTP access is also provided to professors so they can easily update their information from home.

THE COURSE: AN INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The School of Business Administration offers both an undergraduate and a graduate degree in business administration. At the MBA level, an introductory course in management information system is required of all students in their first year. At the under graduate level, it is offered as an elective course to third and fourth year students. The course includes an introduction to both personal and organizational applications, as well as an overview of organizational concepts and the fundamentals of designin g and developing information systems from the manager's point of view. Requirements for the 1995/1996 included five assignments, a multiple choice midterm and a three-hour short-answer final examination. 172 students registered for and completed the course in three sections, in the winter term.

INTRODUCING THE COURSE

Being the first large course taught by the first author as a fledgling academic, the use of the Internet to support the course evolved as the instructor's comfort with course content and administration increased. The initial incursion was simply an on- line syllabus. The paper version of the syllabus was converted to HTML code by the second author and linked to the COURSES ON-LINE page, which was in turn linked to the School of Business Administration's home page. Beyond this, the only "extras" were an active link from the professor's name to her home page, as well as an active link from her email address to the mailer program.

Advantages.
Having a copy of the syllabus placed on the web was useful for students because of its easy accessibility, lessening the need to rely on paper documentation. Frequently, a syllabus is not entirely complete at the beginning of the course - speakers may be added to the schedule or students presentations may be scheduled. Having the syllabus on-line makes handing out a revised syllabus later in the course redundant. In our case, the revision was announced, but paper copies were not handed out, and studen ts were responsible for viewing and/or printing the revised version.

Disadvantages.
Putting the syllabus on-line does not avoid the need to hand out paper copies in the first class. Because a syllabus provides an introduction to the course, it is typical to refer to it extensively in the introduction to the course. It is also necessa ry to make available to students a description of how to access the course on-line - another reason for having a paper version. Finally, on-line documents are by their very nature dynamic, changes being very easy to make. This is contradictory to the conc ept of the course syllabus, which acts as a contract between the professor and student. Paper versions may not be needed for revisions, but as an initial introduction and statement of expectations, they continue to be necessary.

Lessons Learned.
Our impression was that the course syllabus was not used a great deal. It would have been of more use had it been more than an automated version of the paper document. For example, adding active links such as on-line supplementary readings might have increased the number of "hits".

RESOURCES

Course resources are defined as those materials and information that facilitate the learning of students with the objective of mastering course content and meeting course requirements. This can include textbook references, lecture material, supplemental r eadings, and access to on-line test preparation.

Powerpoint files

Presentation slides were used in the classroom to supplement the lectures. They provided structure and consistency across the three sections of the course. This led to a request from students for the ability to download and/or to print the Powerpoi nt files. Having seen this done in other on-line MIS courses that can be found on the web, we put these files into a directory for students to download, and linked this directory to the course home page. This allowed students to download and print the files from home before coming to class.

Advantages.
When classnotes were made available to students, fewer students took notes in class. This was an advantage for students who find it easier to learn when listening and asking questions. By viewing the notes ahead of time, students may have been better prepared for class. It also made it possible to ask questions on an exam about topics that were covered in class, but not necessarily in the textbook.

Disadvantage.

One big disadvantage is that when classnotes are provided, there is reduced incentive to attend class.

Lessons Learned.
The issue of providing classnotes is one of personal preference for an instructor. For the same course offered in 1996/1997, the decision was made to provide an agenda rather than notes, and to link the agenda for each class to the schedule page, alon g with the suggested readings for the class. A second issue concerns the question of proprietary interest. In one class, slides were borrowed with permission from the previous instructor and from an instructor from another institution. When that file was made available, the decision was made to add password protection to the directory, so that only students registered in the course could get access.

Test Preparation

Test preparation software is used in this course to help students to prepare for the multiple choice questions asked in the midterm exam. This application was developed in the previous year by the second author, and placed on the student lab networ k server. It incorporated questions provided by the instructor with the computerized testbank of questions that are usually provided by the publisher of the textbook. The tester program randomly chooses ten questions at a time, gives an on-line multiple c hoice test, and ends with a final grading. Students reported high levels of satisfaction from this feature. The year after it was developed, in addition to being available in the student lab, the tester program was also linked to the course home page as a file to download.

Advantages.
The advantage to linking the tester program to the course home page was a reduced load on the lab. Instead of coming into the lab to practice, students were able to do it from home.

Disadvantages.
Again the issue of proprietary concern arises, necessitating the need for password access to the test program file.. The questions in the testbank are used with permission of the textbook publisher for the students registered in the course, not as a public offering. This makes it less convenient for students. Another issue is whether the bank of questions used in the tester program should be a sample of, or the entire testbank.

Lessons Learned.
From one extreme to another. In 1995/1996, a sample of questions were made available. In 1996/1997, the entire testbank will be provided. Those students who found multiple choice questions difficult were most appreciative of the program. Our current o pinion is that if using the tester program leads to increased learning, then improved performance on the exam due to extensive preparation should be rewarded. The tester will also be available again from the course page, using password protection, because of the reduced demand on the student lab facilities.

COMMUNICATIONS

'Ask the Prof'

One of the on-line features that was made available fairly soon into the course was something called "Ask the Prof". This was a form that students could use to send email messages to the professor.

Advantages.
By using this feature, students could communicate with the professor during a session without having to exit the browser and run a mailer program. Students could quickly move from reading course material to sending a question. In addition, students co uld ask a question from any Internet location, i.e. they could be at a terminal in the library, and would not need to have access to a mailer program. In addition to sending email messages, the questions accumulated in a an ASCII file, which makes it poss ible to review questions at the end of term.

Disadvantages.
A disadvantage of this feature was its anonymity. Students could send questions in without typing in a name or email address. Alternatively, they could enter someone else's name. This occurred, but with very low frequency. Another disadvantage, or rat her, need for enhancement, was the possibility of students typing in their email addresses incorrectly. This points towards a future enhancement to the page which would require individual course registrations with email address verifications.

Lessons Learned.
Prompt response to questions sent to the professor via "Ask the Prof" were appreciated by students. This feature became an extension of office hours, and eventually was the basis for the claim of having a "virtual open door policy".

'What's New'

The What's New link from the course home page provided a place to make announcements. New announcements were dated and appended to the list from the top, so that the most recent announcements were read first.

Advantages.
Making announcements is part of any course, but difficulties arise when an announcement made in one section gets forgotten or is misinterpreted in another. Having a class repository of announcements available on the web promoted consistency, reduced m isunderstandings, and provided verification of the date and content of the communication. The What's New section of the page provided this.

Disadvantages.
The disadvantage of posting announcements on the web is that students have to take on the responsibility of checking for them! When an announcement has been sitting on a page for two weeks without change, and then suddenly gets changed - are students going to notice? At times, both What's New and email was used for announcements, which led to redundancy.

Lessons Learned.
An unanswered question is, which is the best way to make announcements - through What's New or email? Emails make sure that students see the announcements in a timely fashion - IF they are used to checking for messages. On the other hand, email messages sometimes get lost in the information glut that assails the students.

Conference Centre

Another feature introduced late in the course was the Conference Centre. This was a page which used proprietary software called Webboard and provided a forum for discussion. Comments could be entered based on short topic names. Students could enter new topics or add to existing topics.

This facility was used on a trial basis during this first course. After a class, the instructor would put a question on the conference and then watched to see who would contribute. This was not done for course credit. Typically, fewer than 10% of the class contributed.

At the end of the course, use of the conference was became a requirement. Students were asked to find an "interesting" website and post its location. Every student used it, obviously because it was for course credit. Some students went beyond the requirements.

A few learned how to insert HTML codes to their comments. Others referred to sites recommended by other students. Few used the Webboard as it was intended - as a conference.

Advantages.
Teleconferencing and remote meetings are becoming a common method of communication in man industries and professions. Using the Conference Centre provides a way of introducing students to this concept. In addition, it has the potential to supplement a nd enhance classroom participation and discussion. For students who may be reluctant to speak out in class, or who do not get the opportunity due to large class size, conferencing provides an opportunity to communicate not previously available. Finally, the Conference Centre provides an opportunity for inter-class discussion. Collaboration can occur between student groups in different sections of the same course, or between student groups taking the same course but in different universities.

Disadvantages.
The Conference Centre cannot be used as a substitute for the face-to-face communication that occurs in the classroom, since face-to-face is the richer and more personal medium.

Lessons Learned.
For the conference centre to be used as an integral part of the course it needs to be made a part of course requirements with course credits. In addition, it should be introduced close to the beginning of the course, since it provides students with an opportunity to meet each other on-line, and because early in the term, students seem to be more willing to adopt new technologies.

REQUIREMENTS

Students were required to submit five assignments. They were typically oriented to computer applications, designed to give students an opportunity to master such things as Windows, Powerpoint, Access, and the Internet. The content of the course - the desi gn, development and use of information systems in organizations as a managerial tool for achieving short-term goals and long term strategic objectives - was woven into the assignments as well, so that both theoretical and practical knowledge could be gain ed from them. Assignment descriptions were not handed out to students in class. They were made available on the course home page.

Tutorials were also distributed on-line. Tutorials were hands-on practical exercises designed to get students used to the applications. No teaching was provided for this. It was expected that students would gain this from the tutorials and practice and from each other.

Advantages.
The primary advantage to the instructor of placing assignments on the web was the ease of dissemination. There was no photocopying required and no time was lost in class handing them out. Students could view the assignment on-line, ask questions throu gh "Ask the Prof" if the instructions were unclear, and print it out if they chose to do so. Another advantage was the ability to link to additional on-line resources. The Internet assignment, for example, contained links to relevant external sites. The A ccess assignment provided links to a download directory where they could get the files they needed for the assignment.

Disadvantages.
There were no real disadvantages to making assignments available on-line, except perhaps to students who found it difficult or inconvenient to use the web.

Lessons Learned.
Because of the ease of making assignments available using the web, it is also easy to forget that once a student has printed out an assignment, he or she is unlikely to return to the web to check for changes. Once an assignment is posted, it should no t be changed. Revisions to an assignment are probably more widely communicated using email messages or the What's New page.

EVALUATION

Numerical grades were awarded for assignments and exams. The instructor maintained marks using Excel. This made it possible to sort student information by name, student number or class section, and to quickly compute class and section averages, highs a nd lows. A converter program was then used to convert the spreadsheet to a web table. The marks were posted as a web page linked from the What's New section. Students would identify their marks by their student number, since student names were not added t o the table. Students were able to see all their marks shortly after assignments and exams were marked. It was a little page that grew. The first three assignment marks were added first, then the midterm exam, then the final two assignments and lastly the final exam.

Advantages.
Using a web page for posting marks made it very convenient for students were able to verify their marks throughout the term. This was an advantage because the assignments were handed in electronically - there was no way to hand back a marked assignment. The only feedback they got was a mark. Students were able to check their marks without physically going to the instructor's door - in fact they could check them from home. In addition, when a student disagreed with a mark, he or she could communicate t his immediately by switching over to "Ask the Prof". Of course, this may have been a disadvantage to the instructor, who received more on-line requests for re-evaluation than might have occurred otherwise.

Disadvantages.
Posting marks on-line carries with it the same problem that posting marks on an office door does. When the entire set of class marks are posted, some enterprising students calculate averages and note high and low marks, and uses these as a comparison and to suggest upgrade revisions of their own marks (for example, the highest "A-" student will request adjustment to an "A"). When marks are posted on the web, this becomes even easier, since the page can be saved and imported to a spreadsheet.

Lessons Learned.

Posting marks on the web can be viewed as the equivalent to posting marks on the professor's door. Confidentiality is an obvious issue, as is the problem of the file being easily "downloadable" to analyze. The next step to providing marks on-line is to combine web access with a customized interface which would give each student access to his or her own marks, but not to the marks of others.

CONCLUSION

For the first author, the process of developing a course web page was a relatively slow process that evolved over a four month term during the winter of 1996. It was a process that involved trial and error, openness to the needs of the students, and willingness to learn, primarily from the expertise of the second author.

The method used to develop the course page could be described, in systems development jargon, as a "prototype methodology". Web pages were added and worked with, changed as needed and linked to when ready. As the course begins its second year, revisions t o the course page may reflect a more systematic, carefully thought-out approach, but overall, as we hope this paper has conveyed, the advantages have outweighed the disadvantages. As the lessons learned are applied, there will be new lessons to learn, and further web development to pursue. After all, when is a web page ever truly finished?


Mary-Liz Grisé
Assistant Professor
E-mail: ML.GRISE@dal.ca

Tim Roberts
Training Technologies Group
E-mail: tjr@dal.ca

Dalhousie School of Business Administration
Faculty of Management
School of Business Administration
6152 Coburg Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada B3H 3J5
URL: http://www.mgmt.dal.ca/


COPYRIGHT Mary-Liz Grisé and Tim Roberts © 1996. The authors assign to the University of New Brunswick and other educational and non-profit institutions a non exclusive license to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive license to the University of New Brunswick to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers, and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.

N.A.WEB 96 - The Second International North America World Wide Web Conference http://www.unb.ca/web/wwwdev/ University of New Brunswick.