 NCSSM (c) 2011  |
There are a variety of tools available on the NCSSM Online website to aid the students with communication and instruction. The screen shot to the left depicts the drop down menu in the upper right hand corner of the NCSSM Online website, as well as the icons associated with each particular tool. The communication and instruction tools include Brainhoney (c), Focus (c), Maestro (c), Moodle (c), WebAssign (c) as well as social media such as Facebook (c), Flickr (c) and YouTube (c). Brainhoney (c) is an open source communication platform specifically designed for online course presentation and grade tracking. Focus (c) is also open source, yet it is a SIS, Student Information System. It provides attendance, grading and reporting tools and, to a lesser degree, elearning resources. Specific to NCSSM Online is Maestro (c) , a tool where a user account is created for the purpose of course registration and tracking. Moodle (c) is open source course management for instructors to create lessons and other "print" resources for students to access online. An alternative course management tool specifially for mathematics and science is WebAssign(c). This program is unique in that it provides links spefically to math and science textbooks and other resources online. The online tools seem to overlap in some areas such as communication, coursework, assignments and grading, and it is not clear which resource is used for individual aspects of the NCSSM Online program. From viewing the website of NCSSM Online, it appears the program Maestro(c) is used for course registration, Focus (c) is primarily for attendance and grading, while Brainhoney (c), Moodle (c) and WebAssign(c) are all tools for instruction. Brainhoney (c) is the primary tool for course content while WebAssign (c) offers instruction specifically affiliated with a prescribed mathematics or science textbook. Students have flexible classtime as well as a weekly required video conference through Adobe Connect (c) . NCSSM has a Facebook page where students can communicate and share both social and experimental experiences. Flickr (c) houses photostreams of NCSSM Online students participating in the residential weekends. The videos used within this case study are from the NCSSM website, but are also published and available in the form of NCSSM videos on YouTube (c) for viewing and sharing. Through the course of accessing these videos, a variety of other videos created by students of NCSSM were also seen on YouTube. There are instructional vidoes, such as the NCSSM Physics Collection (Note: the above links require launching in a new window, as indicated upon clicking). Though NCSSM Online is a hybrid program, it is clear through the variety of online tools and resources used, there is a focus on presenting high level mathematics and science instruction in a technology-based, online environment. |
