Yvonne Zeka reports that
NovaNet,
a communications and
education delivery system operated out of the University of
Illinois, is used within every academic division. Students
access NovaNet from the Learning Center, the library, the
computer lab, or from home via modems. For instructors,
NovaNet offers thousands of available lessons, a management
system, and access to the Internet. Instructors use NovaNet
at many levels. Often, they begin by augmenting tutoring
with NovaNet lessons. Next, an instructor might try
constructing a NovaNet curriculum, assembling a sequence of
existing lessons, or having NovaNet manage any "off-the-
shelf" software. They might then use NovaNet's diagnostic
testing. Finally, they can have their students use NovaNet
for communication via electronic bulletin boards or for
exploring the Internet.
Faculty-Staff Developer Kathy Kunath mentions that
Gateway is in the early stages of exploring multimedia and
in developing a plan to facilitate its integration into the
classroom. In early January, faculty were introduced to the
world of multimedia with a presentation by Donna Rebadow
(PVCC), Mary Lou Mosley (PVCC), and Alan Levine (MCLI).
The next step is to identify resources the college will need
to develop their plan.
Jackie Fergusson uses
NovaNet
for lessons in
chemistry and dimensional analysis, while Resse Weide is
exploring the use of the biology lessons. Gail Shay uses
NovaNet lessons for teaching Spanish, and from within
NovaNet students can also access a Hypercard stack. The
system keeps track of what lessons the student has used,
when and how much time they spend in each portion, and it
can even pull the results of a quiz from the Hypercard
stack. In fact, NovaNet can "link" to any software package
installed on the computer and is able to extract results
from lessons built in Toolbook, Authorware, and other
authoring programs. Mary Al-Saleh and Frieda Muwakkil
are using NovaNet to deliver terminology quizzes to their
Nursing (NUR 101) classes. The system provides instant
feedback to users and allows instructors to track scores and
which questions students have missed. As part of a new
block program combining classes in reading and study skills,
Elizabeth Skinner and Geri Rasmussen's students work
in groups on NovaNet and check themselves with on-line
diagnostic testing. They hope soon to use NovaNet's
electronic bulletin board features to have students submit
and critique their writing. English instructors Elizabeth
Skinner and Margie Aker have been using NovaNet for six
semesters and have been able to easily update the lessons
based upon student feedback and the need to adapt to new
text books. In Developmental English (ENG 071), David
Wessel's students spent half of their class time using
NovaNet to practice grammar skills and the other half
working in groups on writing assignments. He noted a
drastic improvement in their writing over the five-week span
of a summer course.
Library users turn to the Index Tutor to learn about the
different types of library indexes. This Hypercard stack was
developed under a District Instructional Technology grant to
Josefa Garcia, with programming assistance from Nick
Orlando and art from student Tony Zeka. The library's
new Prospector LAN, a CD-ROM database of full-text
information, may be accessed from any of the five stations
in the Library as well as from the computer classrooms.