Overall, this project is mostly on schedule. I am slightly behind schedule by not having the rough draft of one learning module posted. This is not a major delay and work has already started on it. I estimate it will be ready within ten days. I am slightly ahead of schedule on experimenting with WebCT. This is good since the interface is more cumbersome (and time consuming) than anticipated. There should be no major problems building a prototype for the course including one learning unit. It seems likely that all of the goals of my original learning contract will be met by the end of the Practicum.
One item which has taken quite a bit of time was the detailed development of the design document for the course. The design document is being done for both the Practicum and for the Kishwaukee College CIS department. That is one reason why the level of detail is probably more than is required by the Practicum.
The following items have been completed:
The following items must still be completed:
I have never had to take a close look at CIS 123 before. I am a little surprised by how much material the course is expected to cover within one semester, but the online version is required to cover the same material and use the same texts. Many of the concepts that the CIS department wants students to learn from the theoretical part of the course should be able to be covered with a greatly reduced reading load. This is something that will be looked into in the future, but there is not enough time to change that substantially before the course is taught for the first time in Spring 2005. It will probably be the case that the online course will drive future development of the traditional course. As more and more custom material is posted, the traditional course will almost certainly become hybrid to take advantage of those materials. Posting custom material will allow the CIS department to cover the concepts required with more specificity, reducing the reading load, and possibly eliminating the need for one of the two texts.