He and about 10 other software developers are involved in taking professors' ideas and turning them into software that livens up lectures, as well as providing an outside-class resource for students at the Campus Computing Sites. Currently, OIT and ITL have created about 75 applications for use in U-M courses. The student can review his recordings to see how he did and retape the exercises if he is not satisfied with his work. When he has finished the exercises, the student turns in a videotape of his responses to the professor. The program also contains images of Roman emperors, timelines of events in Roman culture, background on the emperors' achievements and maps of the Roman empire that can be manipulated to show the extent of the empire under the rule of each emperor.
Students can review lectures from throughout the term.
No longer limited to just their course notes, they can replay the actual lecture presentations at their convenience. In addition, this computer technology brings a rich array of resources together, both in lecture and in the computing site, that would otherwise require a great deal of research time at the libraries. Most of the applications also have some kind of help mechanism so the students won't get too lost. Another benefit is that the exercises the students do outside class allow the professor to monitor their progress and understanding of the course material. M.Q. Thorburn '96 of East Lansing, Michigan, is Michigan Today's student intern.