abstract:

a “web courselet” is a set of customizable online course materials developed and pre-formatted for use in webct or other courseware management systems (cms). these newly

emerging instructional products have the potential to redefine the instructional systems design (isd) process and the roles of those involved in providing distance education in

universities.

the presentation examines the resource-reallocation function of “web courselets.” it suggests a new paradigm for online course creation – one that is designed focused, rather

than the current development-focused paradigm. the presentation also explores how this new paradigm will result in the redefinition of roles in faculty-support organizations,

and the changes that may take place in the instructional design process. one hoped-for consequences is an improvement in the quality of online educational courses based on

university adoption of “web courselets”.
keywords:

web courselet – a set of customizable online course materials developed and pre-formatted for use in webct or other courseware management systems (cms). also referred to as

“e-packs”, “resource packs”, or “online learning centers (olc).

sub-theme c:

the changing status, structures and functions of universities in the networked age: increasing interdependence between knowledge producers and the economy in the knowledge

society.
the resource reallocation function of web courselets
introduction

we use the word 'courselets' to refer, at first, to the online course modules now being supplied by educational publishing companies ready for online delivery through major

course management systems (cms), such as webct or blackboard. these modules are generally designed to accompany a textbook, following its chapter structure, and providing

additional resources and quiz questions.

defined this way, courselets are the latest manifestation of a trend, which began years ago in the publishing industry -- supplementing the traditional textbook with other

instructional media, such as video, cd-roms, and, more recently, websites.

but even though they are in one sense, merely the next step in an evolutionary process, courselets also represent a radically different capability. due to the emergence and

rapid adoption of course management systems in post-secondary education, courselets have the potential to move beyond supplementation and into outright replacement. once it is

installed inside a cms, a courselet is a complete stand-alone instructional vehicle. students can interact directly with these courselets-in-a-cms as their entire credit-bearing

experience, with minimal, if any, faculty involvement.

it is not inevitable that courselets will lead education in this direction. more than ever before, however, the possibility exists for courses to be entirely commoditized and

outsourced. profit-making corporations would be the producers, educationalinstitutions would be the middlemen, and students would truly be consumers.

courselets are here

in the late 1980s and early 1990s, publishing companies became multimedia producers, focusing on cd-roms as a readily distributable textbook supplement. gradually the content

development efforts shifted to the web, so that by the late 1990s, all of the major educational publishers had created websites for most of the large enrollment undergraduate

courses.

like the cd-roms and the videocassettes before them, publisher websites were, at best, a collection of supplemental resources. it was not until the proliferation of course

management systems, such as webct or blackboard, that the crucial step toward instructor irrelevance was even conceivable; i.e., this potential has emerged within the past

twelve months.

let's take a look at where things stand:

1) the cms perspective: webct claims the highest adoption of its cms in post-secondary education, with over 1500 colleges and universities around the world using the product. as

of november 1, 2000, twenty-five publishers were offering a total of five hundred and ninety courselets for the webct platform. this number is expected to grow at a phenomenal

rate.

blackboard, webct's primary cms competitor in the higher education marketplace, is supported in a similar manner by many of the same publishers. several publishers also support

the ecollege and/or top class platforms.

all course management systems providing courselets use proprietary compression algorithms, which allow an entire online course to be "zipped," and only "unzipped,"

(uncompressed) within the specified cms environment. the zipped courselet can be supplied to the student via file-transfer protocol (ftp) or burned onto a cd-rom that is then

shipped.

2) inside a courselet: courselets are designed around textbooks. they follow the topical structure of the textbook they are meant to accompany, with each topic supported by a

wide range of resources that could be characterized as "instructional objects." a courselet is not merely a collection of objects organized into chapters, however.

a courselet can be seen as an almost-complete online course, immediately usable with very little modification. publishers articulate their instructional design considerations by

chunking and presenting the resources they supply into a coherent sequence. prompts and suggestions are also provided to help the intended faculty users in applying the material

to fulfill educational objectives.

the resources contained in a courselet include graphics, audio and video clips, simulations, self-tests, quizzes and examinations. these instructional objects are stored in

searchable databases, so that faculty users who do not wish to use a courselet "as is" can easily pick and chose items to supplement their own material. thus, a courselet can be

seen as a convenient and extensive source of completed objects for the development of customized learning support environments.

3) producing courselets: publishers tend to select large-enrollment, general studies courses for building courselets. however, if an editor thinks that supplementary material is

warranted for a more specialized course, and has the budget for it, a courselet may be developed.

production models vary somewhat, but the process generally involves a professor, acting as subject matter expert (sme), working in conjunction with media specialists. the sme is

responsible for an outline and summary of what is to be covered chapter by chapter, as well as test questions, suggested learning activities and a glossary. since academic smes

generally lack the computer skills or resources to develop digital multimedia content, this aspect of the process is handed off to technical specialists, who may work directly

for the publisher or be independent contractors. input into the content of a courselet is also provided to an overall editorial team by the publishers' direct sales force, who

are in daily contact with faculty in colleges and universities all over the world.

4) acquiring courselets: there are as many financial models for acquiring and using courselets as there are publishers offering them. most models involve student payment, either

directly or indirectly.

first, in what might be called the "student centered" approach, the decision to purchase a courselet is made solely by registered students in a given course. the economic

transaction is exclusively between the publisher and the student, with a typical cost ranging between $20-$30 for a semester-based course.

in other cases, an instructor might decide to use the courselet either on a stand-alone or a supplemental basis and pass the associated cost along to the students as an

increased textbook fee. in one senior-level management course with approximately 30 registered students at utah state university, the cost of using the courselet resulted in a

$10 surcharge for the textbook.

finally, in some instances an instructor is able to convince the publisher that course enrollment is so large that the courselet surcharge should be waived. at least one

publisher, mcgraw-hill, routinely makes courselets available at no charge to the school, student, or instructor regardless of class size, as long as one of their textbooks is

adopted for the course. by providing free online content preformatted for webct and other course management systems, this publisher hopes to gain new business from instructors

who are teaching online. this policy is, of course, under constant review.

out of the cottage and into what?

education is still the last of the great cottage industries. it has not been taken over by private enterprise for a variety of complex reasons, but the fundamental resistance to

profit-driven change lies in the way that the service has necessarily been delivered. education has never been a good candidate for pure market capitalism because it has been

too labor intensive and more characterized by economies of proportion than economies of scale.

all of this is changing.

there are, of course, several profitable, post secondary education companies operating at this time -- including the university of phoenix, devry institute, and sylvan learning

systems -- with more private universities being launched on a regular basis. commenting on the phenomenon of private sector competition in education, marchese (1998) quotes

several wall street reports describing education as "an addressable market opportunity, "inefficient, lowtech," and "lacking professional management."

apparently the financial community believes that the time has come to run education like a business. budget pressures and taxpayer revolts play into this equation. so does the

national movement for standards and standardized testing, which create consistent and widespread output measures needed for scalability.

without the technology to enable new ways of developing and delivering instruction, however, education would remain in the cottage. it is the internet as a low-cost delivery

vehicle and course management systems as a platform that finally give the private sector the means to transform the last hold-out against industrialization. taylor (2000)

describes past transitions to capitalism, and claims that in most cases, "we can identify a critical point -- usually based on a newly available technology -- at which the

successful invasion of craft-based production began."

all of the forces driving the industrialization of education are represented in courselets. they are the embodiment of internet publishing, combined with knowledge management,

interactive multimedia, and learning objects. they also have the potential to be explicitly standards-driven. courselets are the "critical point."