Instructional Technologies and Research Bulletins

This ECAR research bulletin discusses the adjustments that the Indiana University information technology organization made, and continues to make, in order to support membership in Sakai. It has been said that supporting Sakai can seem like trying to change a tire on a moving car. As co-founder of and active participant in the Sakai collaboration, the effects of IU’s decision—the unexpected, the challenging, and the delightful—are discussed in terms of the intra- and interuniversity realities of highly collaborative efforts.

Citation for this work: Goodrum, David, Jan R. Holloway, Anastasia S. Morrone, Lance Speelmon, and Elizabeth A. Van Gordon. “Dynamics of Supporting Sakai Through Local and Global Collaboration” (Research Bulletin, Issue 11). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

This research bulletin examines what the literature refers to as “new learners” or “critically engaged learners.” It explores the responsibilities our institutions have to create opportunities for these learners to actively engage in creative discovery, problem definition, and appropriate use of information technologies. It is based on a literature review and accompanying conceptualizations that begin to answer important questions about institutional development for a technologically sophisticated age.

Citation for this work : Moore, Anne H., Shelli B. Fowler, Brent K. Jesiek, John F. Moore, and C. Edward Watson. “Learners 2.0? IT and 21st-Century Learners in Higher Education” (Research Bulletin, Issue 7). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

This research bulletin surveys the chief components of contemporary multimedia services in colleges and universities and describes some emerging practices for deploying and sustaining them in an increasingly digital and user-centered world. It includes a review of recent experiences in three smaller and two larger institutions. As audio, video, and instructional technologies converge, and as faculty and student expectations for these resources escalate, multimedia services are emerging as the next major arena in which technology and other campus leaders will find their way to standard practices that leverage these strategic assets for institutional success.

This ECAR research bulletin describes the results of recent organizational changes and work at Colorado College that are aimed at improving collaboration between IT, institutional research, and other campus offices with the goal of enhancing the data, information, and insights that influence policy and planning activities in general and the upcoming reaccreditation visit.

This research bulletin examines the current state of Second Life in relation to the educational environment. Although literature about virtual worlds dates back many years, this bulletin reflects on more recent publications that discuss both technological and pedagogical issues. Content is drawn from interviews with educators and innovators who are already involved in building campuses, teaching classes, and providing resources to those using Second Life.

This ECAR research bulletin discusses how systems dynamics is being applied to higher education administration. It offers a case study for modeling growth in usage of a learning management system (LMS). This model was used to identify the current capacity of the system-wide LMS at the University System of Georgia and forecast the impact of the rapidly increasing faculty and student demands on the system. The LMS Capacity Planning Model offered administrators an overview of the entire operating environment, including hardware, application, database, network, and personnel, and it enabled them to evaluate the impact of policy decisions and operational rules over time on technical capabilities and resources.

This research bulletin shares the experiences of four University of Wisconsin campuses—UW–Milwaukee, UW–Eau Claire, UW–Oshkosh, and UW–Whitewater—in implementing student response system (clicker) technology in the fall of 2005. It presents initial results of the research conducted on the use of clickers in the classroom and describes what student response systems are, how they are used, how use impacts teaching and learning, and what considerations should be used to guide campuses when considering implementing clicker systems.

This research bulletin draws on the results of several research studies that are centered on the student experience with course management systems. These studies provide insight on student course management system use and experiences and lay a valuable foundation for future measurement of their experiences with these systems.

This research bulletin explores a new approach to faculty support for technology. The University of North Carolina Charlotte has combined a teaching center with instructional technology support into a single support unit that reports to the central information technology (IT) organization. The bulletin discusses the significant challenges in organizational behavior, socialization, communication, and priorities against a backdrop of the opportunities to overcome many of the real and perceived barriers that characterize the relationships between central IT organizations and support units for faculty in their roles as instructors.

This research bulletin reports on the state of learning objects in higher education, focusing on updates to the authors' October 1, 2002, ECAR research bulletin, "Learning Objects in Higher Education." This bulletin describes how the field has advanced, the new partnerships that have formed, and the challenges that remain. Conclusions are based on the results of surveys gauging acceptance of learning objects in corporate and academic sectors, as well as a review of the literature and work in the field.