We find this feature of an online environment to be of great importance at this stage of technological infusion and implementation. This feature is discussed further later in this paper. It should be mentioned at this point that earlier attempts of involving faculty training were met with great resistance. Previous workshops have attempted to instruct faculty members in all aspects of the WebCT environment. After the introductory workshops, the feedback not only indicated that the faculty felt comfortable with the environment, but were particularly eager to initiate implementation in their courses.
Ready set go.
The stage has been set and last minute questions and details need to be addressed. During the pilot course efforts, we uncovered best practices in terms of effectiveness. For example, we found that the level and quality of student involvement in the threaded discussions is directly related to the relevance and emotional relationship of the topic to the student. Another concern mentioned above is the availability of high quality Internet-based resources. In addition to various sources found through research, some of the faculty were already quite familiar with many web-based resources such as online journals, newspapers, search engines, publisher provided academic supplements that support their publications such as case materials and Internet based exercises.