May 31, 2001

WKU To Offer Workshop On Online Course Development

Bowling Green, Ky. - The Center for Teaching and Learning, Academic Technology and ReachU of Western Kentucky University are sponsoring a week-long workshop for faculty for online course development.

The workshop will be held June 4-8, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Academic Technology office in Tate Page Hall. Fifteen participating faculty will explore educational and technological issues of online distance education, said Beth Laves, distributed learning coordinator at Western.

Electronic syllabi, building communities of students through communication, using courseware tools to manage the course environment, and political and ethical issues specific to online courses are some of the topics that will be covered during the week, Laves said.

WKU participates in the Kentucky Virtual University and offers approximately 35-40 online distance education courses through KYVU each semester. Online distance education gives students access to educational opportunities that may otherwise be unavailable, Laves said. Part of this process is educating the faculty who will be the Internet instructors for these Internet courses.

Dr. Sally Kuhlenschmidt, an expert in online learning, and whose Internet course on Utilizing Internet Instruction was highlighted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, will be leading the workshop, along with Allan Heaps, assistant director of Academic Technology.

"It will be an interesting week for some of our faculty and will ultimately benefit many students who will use online learning as part of their college experience," Laves said.

For more information, contact Beth Laves at (270) 745-4158. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.