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Teaching Innovation

I first applied web-enabled teaching to my graduate course, Mgt 286: Management of Information Systems, a computer course with laboratory; in fact, lecture and lab are done in the computer laboratory. As such, the course lends itself very well to the web-enabled approach.

I made the course paperless. All assignments, exercises and projects are delivered via the web. Students participate in forum discussions online, and submit their exercises and projects online too.  In case the web is down or they cannot log on to the Internet, they have the option of using a course resource CD-ROM.

The usual way of teaching the course is to give copies of the syllabus to students at the start of the term, explain the requirements of the course, and list down the textbook and reading materials. Students are then left to look for copies of the book in bookstores and the library, or borrow from students who had taken the course.

However, students and teachers alike encounter difficulties. Bookstores often carry cheap reprints one edition older than what’s available online. What the library has are often archival editions of the book, if at all there are copies. Information Technology is one field that's fast changing, and what was current and cutting edge last year is old and obsolete today.  The only way to keep abreast is to read online. IT books, even those of recent publication, are sure to carry several obsolete technologies.

My students, especially graduate students, took the web-enabled courses with great enthusiasm. They found the distance-mode of learning which is inherent in the courses very convenient, enabling them to juggle work and study more efficiently.

The Course Management System (CMS) (http://pabs.ilahas.com/cmdm) and website (http://sirpabs.ilahas.com), together with the CD-ROM support are some of my more important teaching innovations.