The Association of Small Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) is a dynamic organization for people interested in small college technology issues. Its members include information technology professionals, instructional technologists, and faculty members from all over the world who use computers and technology to support teaching and learning. The…

In the spring of 2004, the Arcadia University launched MyArcadia, the campus web portal. MyArcadia gives students, faculty, and staff access to online courses and departmental web sites. The portal is also the main source for campus announcements and event listings, and provides a single sign-on link to campus email. This report gives a detailed…

Both on-line and face-to-face courses rely on textbooks as an important source of information for students. A challenge for instructors in an on-line setting is to insure that students are learning from their textbooks. One way to address this challenge is to use productivity software tools to develop assignments that promote student thinking and…

Small colleges have unique challenges with respect to their information technology environments. It is easy to forget sometimes that small colleges are not simply small big colleges, and that IT needs to be considered in a particular way, especially because of its associated costs. For one thing, the senior administration at a small college may be…

At present, with new technologies emerging daily and the growing need for more flexibility in scheduling, there seems to be an overall drive towards the need for distance learning. According to PBS Campus, 67% of colleges and universities agree that online education is a critical, longterm strategy for their institution. As a result, 49% of…

A group of faculty that currently teach asynchronous online courses were motivated to ensure that course quality remained high. Many people have seen the online courses that throw some written content up on the web and then have some tests and quizzes and call it an online course. To the faculty, that is not suitable in many ways on many levels.…

In Fall 2003, Randolph-Macon Woman's College rolled out Claroline, an Open Source course management system for all the classes on campus. This document will cover some background on both Open Source in general and course management systems in specific, discuss technical challenges in the introduction and integration of the system and give some…

This 2004 Association of Small Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) conference proceedings presented the theme "Leading Strategic & Cultural Change through Technology." The conference introduced its ASCUE Officers and Directors, and provides abstracts of the pre-conference workshops. The full-text conference papers in this document include: (1)…

Reading with a pencil in hand to mark-up a book or article, scribbling questions and notes (along with rude drawings in some cases) in the margins of a committee meeting agenda, marking a student's essay with a red pen--all of these are everyday activities for most faculty. It is hard to say exactly how much of what we do can be defined as reading…

Whereas distance education was formerly on the periphery of education and in the realm of institutions with questionable academic credentials, it has been gradually gaining acceptance, is becoming mainstreamed, and is being embraced by traditional universities. The use of distance technologies is challenging the traditional structures of higher…

The Portable and Mobile Classroom (PortMoC) began as an idea to bring Internet connectivity to places where there was no connectivity for education and healthcare, but still make the connection reasonably sustainable in terms of cost and manpower. Through trial and error and several research iterations, Saint Francis University's Center of…

This paper gives the details of The Appalachian College Association, a non-profit organization made up of 34 four-year colleges and universities in the central Appalachian region. The member institutions range from under 700 students to over 3,000 students within multi-campus environments. These colleges and universities are located in some of the…

In this paper, the author discusses possibilities for teaching online. As an online instructor using readily accessible techniques, the author has been privileged to work with many communities of learning and to share their discoveries of themselves and others. An overview of what the author has found to be effective ways of delivering content…

The IT 3050 course at Capella University is an introduction to fundamental computer networking. This course is one of the required courses in the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology program. In order to provide a more enriched learning environment for learners, Capella has significantly modified this class (and others) by infusing it…

Ohio Dominican University, a small traditional Catholic Liberal Arts University steeped in the Dominican tradition, is in the midst of a technological metamorphosis. At the forefront of the change is the Center for Instructional Technology. Charged with supporting the development of technology enhanced, hybrid, and totally online curriculum, the…