Jobs Archives New software key to opening cyber-classrooms by Amy Pate Two software programs available to faculty in the College of Arts and Science, Blair School of Music, the School of Engineering and Peabody College are allowing faculty to expand their courses to the World Wide Web. More than 100 faculty members in those schools currently are using either of the programs Prometheus and WebCT to post class syllabi and assignments, discussions, and reading materials, according to Bill Longwell, director of the Microcomputer Laboratories at Vanderbilt. Prometheus and WebCT both allow faculty to bypass computer languages such as HTML and JavaScript, which often prohibits non-programmers from implementing a Web page.
Professors can simply fill in a series of fields to create the initial course homepage.
Longwell, who is also a senior lecturer in history and politics, uses Prometheus to post information about his freshman seminar on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has students in his class go online to discuss reading materials and then revisit their entries after meeting as a group in class. Students' comments on the Web also become an archive that they can review throughout the semester. As director of the College Writing Program, Wollaeger is also promoting Prometheus to other teachers on campus. Prometheus has been received well by students in Wollaeger's class.