UW System’s desire to enhance course technology begins at UW-Whitewater
Released: October 17, 2003
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is one of the leading UW System campuses in classroom technology in using a new course management system called Desire2Learn.
Nearly 250 courses are enrolled to use Desire2Learn for the fall semester, with a goal of a complete crossover of all courses currently using Blackboard and WebCT by the end of the spring 2004 semester. UW System is in the process of replacing Blackboard with Desire2Learn, using a central host at UW-Madison.
In early 2002, UW System conducted a study of the Web-based course management system market. The current systems of Blackboard and Web CT did not allow UW System to reap the benefits of one common system. Due to the substantially increased licensing costs, supporting two systems would not be feasible economically.
“The evolving Internet technology and the demands of users drive some dramatic changes in the course management system market,” said Lorna Wong, specialist of UW-Whitewater technology and information resources. “We felt it was the right time to search for a product that fits the UW System current and future needs. Desire2Learn won the contract, although 15 other products were considered.”
David Wirth, UW System project manager for Desire2Learn, described UW-Whitewater as the “flagship campus,” in its early adoption of the new course management system.
Similar to Blackboard, Desire2Learn offers electronic discussion boards to facilitate platforms for students’ questions and comments, a personal event calendar and a link to check grades and take quizzes. In addition, Desire2Learn offers an option to individualize the user’s home page and font settings, a drop box to send documents to professors and choice of operating systems.
“Desire2Learn also offers flexible means for instructors to organize and distribute course content electronically, a personal locker for private and public sharing of documents and easy means of collecting course feedbacks,” said Wong. “We were also able to convert course material from Blackboard and Web CT to Desire2Learn so instructors do not have to rebuild courses from scratch.”
For Tom Anderson, assistant professor of occupational and environmental safety, Desire2Learn significantly reduced paperwork in his summer course Alcohol and Other Drugs.
“Desire2Learn allowed me to provide expanded course information in a way that I could never do with paper handouts,” Anderson said. “I post syllabi, grading criteria, project guidelines, sample exam questions and grades, as well as my office hours and biography. All of this allows students to be better prepared for class and exams, and frees me from having to devote extra class time to cover it.”
Anderson also noted that the “Contents” section provided an organized outline of materials based on keywords so that the students can efficiently browse for needed materials.
Jeff Kuehni, a student in the summer Web-based section of American Government and Politics taught by Susan Johnson, agrees with the usefulness of the new course management system.
“Desire2Learn gave me an opportunity to take the class while living in Madison,” Kuehni said. “It was a very efficient Web-based program that was easy to understand and allowed better interactions among classmates.”
For professor John Kozlowicz’s Web-based political science courses, students used Desire2Learn to submit all of their written assignments through the drop box, upload Word files for essay and Web assignments and participate in several discussion forums.
Kozlowicz said Desire2Learn is a well-designed program that made exchange of information between himself and the students easy, especially when he was off campus.
In art courses, Desire2Learn is used to distribute course documents, administer quizzes and post grades.
“The biggest single benefit of Desire2Learn is being able to build up a resource of on-line reference materials that the students can access for their projects,” said art instructor Michael Flanagan.
Marcia James, professor computer and network administration, commented on the resourcefulness for students through Desire2Learn and the organizational benefits to an instructor.
“Students always know where to access materials, and the system keeps me organized,” James said. “I have to do less lesson planning; therefore, I have more time to create activities and make the class more stimulating.”
Desire2Learn’s principal UW System-wide benefit is adherence to open standards on the learning platform. UW campuses can then reuse and share content.
- Katie Stoffel ,stoffelka14@uww.edu
