Addressed toward course coordinators and departmental leaders interested in redesigning an undergraduate mathematics course, we highlight the steps our team at the University of Maryland, College Park has taken in bringing active learning to our Precalculus course. We provide examples of ways in which we have coordinated active learning across…

The stars closest to Earth are not particularly remarkable or exciting. They are average stars typical of the spiral arms of our Milky Way galaxy. In fact, until recently, most astronomy and Earth science textbooks ignored all but the largest of them to focus on distant, more exotic objects like red supergiants or black holes. The recent discovery…

The advances of communication technologies have allowed professionals to work on distance education projects in a telework environment. Managers of these projects must have the skills to manage the projects from a distance. They must be able to select the appropriate team members to work on the project, orient team members, and monitor team…

In this article we describe the challenges of transdisciplinary teamwork involving four faculty members from dissimilar epistemological traditions in the process of developing a manuscript on the lessons learned in our teaching collaboration. Our difficulty originated in implicit mental models and assumptions that caused incongruence between our…

This paper explores the distance between documenting and revitalizing endangered languages and indicates critical points at which applied linguistics can play a role. We look at language documentation, language revitalization and their relationship. We then provide some examples from our own work. We see the lack of applied linguistics as a…

On their visit to the National Archives Experience in Washington, D.C., students in Jenni Ashley and Gay Brock's U.S. history classes at the Potomac School in McLean, Virginia, participated in a pilot program called "The Constitution by Cell." Armed with their cell phones, a basic understanding of the Constitution, and a willingness to…

Discusses characteristics of strong teams, lists problems that can destroy them, and presents basic steps in creating strong ones. Describes roles for an effective multimedia team, raises specific multimedia issues, and makes recommendations for team organization. (PEN)

The University of Sydney is a large, research-intensive, campus-based Australian University. Since 2004 a strategic initiative of project-based eLearning support has been creating teams of non-academic and academic staff, who have worked together to develop online resources to meet identified needs. The University's aims in continuing to provide…

Identifies stages in the process of educational software development: pre-specification stage in which educators identify the software's educational considerations; specification stage in which educators and programers work together to develop the program; documentation stage; field testing stage; and support stage. (MBR)

Describes a method for videodisc courseware development utilized by the University of Notre Dame Interactive Videodisc Laboratory staff, which includes production of a storyboard as the final component of the design phase. The three steps of group storyboarding, formative evaluation, and generation of production documents are discussed in detail.…

Discussion of the development of instructional materials focuses on project management for developing materials for distance education. Various planning strategies are discussed, organizational settings and their effects on planning are described, the development of a project plan is discussed, and a phase network as a management tool is…

Discussion of instructional design in large organizations highlights a project management approach. Topics addressed include the role of the instructional designer; project team selection; role of the team members; role of the project manager; focusing on what employees need to know; types of project teams; and monitoring time and responsibility.…

Describes how a videodisc of Alfred Hitchcock's film "North by Northwest" was repurposed by adding digitized and computer-generated sound, text, and graphics, to show users the capabilities of interactive multimedia. Recommendations are offered both for working in a design team and for the design of interactive materials. (LRW)

Discussion of multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders involved in the production of electronic learning materials focuses on a constructivist methodology for course design. Explains concept mapping that provided the basis for an electronic learning development project at the University of Surrey (United Kingdom) and includes examples of concept…

This chapter examines the roles of the instructional developer and the media production specialist in the development of instructional projects in the context of a six step development process. These steps include pre-assessment, establishing goals, identifying and specifying objectives, designing strategies, selecting and/or producing resources,…