"We figured out that about one-ninth of the undergraduate population has to take this class, so that justified sinking some money into it," said Jefferson. The proposal was drafted in the spring of 2003 and the site was developed during the summer. Jefferson knew she wanted to put supplementary video clips onto the site, so she began creating a list. Fortunately, copyright protection costs were not a problem, as WebCT was a closed system intended for educational purposes.
Jefferson worked with a designer to create the look of the site, a media librarian to obtain better copies of the video clips, some of which she had taped herself, a digitizer to digitize all the clips, a manager from Instructional Design and eTeaching to manage the project, and a graduate assistant. By the fall of 2003, the site was up and running. And despite a few small problems, the Web site has been extremely successful since. Jefferson has also made presentations on WebCT at various conferences and eLearning days.
Having taught Rhetorical Tradition for 10 years, Jefferson has seen the evolution of technology in action. She remembers a time when her class was broken up into smaller sections and held in McGuinn 121 before it was renovated. "We had to wheel the VCR in on a cart, and many days it just wouldn't work," she said. Outside of class, she didn't have the ability to hold online discussions or require more viewing of video clips. Homework consisted of reading assignments only, which did not comprise a representative sample of all the mediums used in studying communication. Today, with WebCT and well-equipped rooms like Devlin 008, new technology can be easily incorporated into her lectures.
Clare O'Connor, a professor in the biology department, is also involved in another classroom technology pilot program at BC. Her large classes, Survey of Biology and Genetics, use Personal Response System (PRS) clickers to answer questions during her lectures. On a projection screen, the question is displayed, and students are asked to choose one of the answers within a set time limit. The percentage of students who selected each option as their answer is displayed on the screen as well as the number of people who answered each question.
Spring Break
