CIT Infobits - May, 2003
Issue 59
ISSN 1521-9275
About INFOBITS
Infobits is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning's Center for Instructional Technology. Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.
Student Support in Distance Education
New Models of Scholarship
New Models for Research Publishing
Report on Use of Course Management Systems
MIT Press Launches Print-on-Demand Program
Recommended Reading
Editor's Note: Rob Kling
STUDENT SUPPORT IN DISTANCE EDUCATION
The theme for the Spring 2003 issue (vol. 4, no. 1) of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning is student support in open and distance education. Articles include:
"Learner Support Services for Online Students: Scaffolding for Success" by Stacey Ludwig-Hardman and Joanna C. Dunlap
"Adults Contemplating University Study at a Distance: Issues, Themes and Concerns" by Jenny Bird and Chris Morgan
"Challenges for Study Centers in an Electronic Age: A Case Study of the Center for Distance Education at the University of Oldenburg, Germany" by Ulrich Bernath, et al.
International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) [ISSN 1492-3831] is a free, refereed ejournal published by Athabasca University. For more information, contact Paula Smith, IRRODL Managing Editor, c/o Athabasca University, 3rd Floor, North Tower, 10030 - 107th Street, Edmonton, Canada T5J 3E4; tel: 780-421-2536; fax: 780-497-3416; email: irrodl@athabascau.ca; Web: http://www.irrodl.org/.
In 2002, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) hosted a meeting of scholars, librarians, technologists, publishers, and others interested in the preservation of digital scholarly resources. Their goal was to identify stakeholders' needs and how to meet their needs. A product of this meeting is the report, "New-Model Scholarship: How Will It Survive?" by Abby Smith, director of programs at CLIR. Smith describes the "new-model scholarship" as "the variety of Web sites and other desktop digital objects that faculty and graduate students are creating that fall somewhere short of 'published' but are worthy of access into the future." While the report does not provide definitive answers to the questions raised in the workshop, it does point to several projects and proposals that merit examination by the research community. The complete report is available on the web at http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub114abst.html.
The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, non-profit organization that, in partnership with other organizations, "helps create services that expand the concept of 'library' and supports the providers and preservers of information." For more information, contact: CLIR, 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-939-4750; fax: 202-939-4765; email: info@clir.org; Web: http://www.clir.org/
NEW MODELS FOR RESEARCH PUBLISHING
"There is significant evidence that traditional university presses are continuing to face financial crises. Outlets for research monographs are drying up, print runs are being reduced and monograph costs are increasing." In "Phoenix Rising: New Models for the Research Monograph" (Learned Publishing, vol. 16, no. 2, April 2003, pp. 111-22), Colin Steele, Director of Scholarly Information Strategies, Australian National University, outlines how these problems could be mitigated by adopting new networked models of access and distribution while keeping established editing and refereeing practices.
A preprint of Steele's article is available at http://eprints.anu.edu.au/archive/00001032/index.html.
Learned Publishing [ISSN 0953-1513 ] is a quarterly publication of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP). Articles from volume 10 (1997) to volume 15 (2002) are freely available online. For more information, contact: The Editor, Learned Publishing, 7 High Street, Saffron Walden CB10 1AT, UK; tel and fax: +44 01799 522272; email: editor@alpsp.org.uk; Web: http://www.alpsp.org.uk/journal.htm.
ALPSP "represents the interests of all those involved in the publication of academic and professional information in all media. It was formed in 1972, as an association of learned and professional organizations involved in publishing." For more information see their website at http://www.alpsp.org/.
REPORT ON USE OF COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) has just published "Faculty Use of Course Management Systems," by Glenda Morgan, which reports on how University of Wisconsin System faculty and instructional staff use course management systems (CMS). The study addressed four major questions:
What is the extent of faculty use of course management systems (CMS)?
What factors drive faculty to start using a CMS and determine whether they increase or decrease their use?
For what purposes are CMS used?
What pedagogical gains does using a CMS bring?
The complete report is available online at http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ecar_so/ers/ers0302/ekf0302.pdf.
ECAR publishes research reports and bulletins, providing "educational leaders with high-quality, well-researched, timely information to support institutional decision-making," and makes them available to member institutions. For more information, contact ECAR, email: ecar@educause.edu; Web: http://www.educause.edu/ecar/.
MIT PRESS LAUNCHES PRINT-ON-DEMAND PROGRAM
In April 2003, the MIT Press in partnership with Edwards Brothers announced the launch of The MIT Press Classics Series, which will make available, by the end of 2003, 1,750 previously out-of-print titles from The Press' backlist. Titles scheduled for initial release include:
The Organization of Learning by Charles R. Gallistel (1990)
Nonlinear Problems in Random Theory by Norbert Wiener (1966)
Post-Pop Art edited by Paul Taylor (1989)
RePresentations: Philosophical Essays on the Foundations of Cognitive Science by Jerry Fodor (1981)
For more information or to purchase books, link to http://mitpress.mit.edu/Classics/.
"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to kotlas@email.unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column.
Infobits reader David Hitchcock publishes "El.pub - Interactive Publishing R & D - News and Resource," a web-based resource and information service for the growing community of networked publishers, with particular emphasis on their research and development efforts. El.pub features three free services: El.pub Weekly (covering interactive electronic publishing), VREfresh (weekly service covering virtual reality and interactive 3D), and El.pub Analytic (a more detailed bi-monthly analysis service). Links to all El.pub services are available at http://www.elpub.org/.
Rob Kling died on May 15, 2003. Regarded as the "founding father of social informatics," he explored the societal impact of computers and the intersections of technology and education, work life, and government. At the time of his death, he was director of the Center for Social Informatics at the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University. Those of us who strive to understand how to integrate information technology into academe and larger society are indebted to pioneers such as Professor Kling. For more information on his research, writings, and influence, see http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/kling/links.html and http://www.slis.indiana.edu/CSI/index.html.
