Technology review: Educator by Ucompass.com(R)

Community College Enterprise, The, Fall 2003 by Callaghan, Patrick, Mirabito, Donna

Technology review: Educator by Ucompass.com(R)

Introduction

After reviewing more than 60 course management systems, the Walsh College Office of Online Learning (OOL) technical staff chose the Educator course management system and the associated services of Ucompass, Inc., in March 2001. The package included licensing, hosting and maintenance, backups, support and training. These services supplement the activities of the in-house technology and instructional design team and facilitate a user-centered experience for faculty and students.

Since 1996, the Office of Online Learning has designed courses, trained faculty, and provided student and faculty technical support in house. The OOL has developed and delivers nearly 50 online courses in subjects ranging from economics, finance, and accounting, to management and business communications for more than 1,500 students-about 20 percent of the Walsh student population.

It was a strategic decision not to use the college's outsourced course management system, to purchase new software and to move the outsourced technical support in house as a means of setting the college apart from other schools offering online courses by not using the same course management system as everyone else.

Convertibility

Because of a short timeframe, course convertibility was paramount in the decision-making process. The college wanted to convert online courses to the new

tool because of the considerable investment of time and money in existing online courses. The conversion in about four weeks meant the college could go "live" with the Educator software for the Summer 2001 semester. Educator's very competitive pricing was also an incentive to go with UCompass products.

Instructional design made easier

Educator's flexibility and portability are consistent with an in-house instructional design philosophy: re-usable materials, uploading any type file to Educator from any platform. An entire course worth of content can be uploaded in one step. UCompass founder and CEO Ed Mansouri has devised a straightforward, powerful language that instructors can use to create

what they want, such as hotlinks to exams and popup windows.

Instructors can create worksheets, surveys, and external assignments using Educator's easy-to-use template style publishing tools or create offline with programs such as Microsoft(R) Word and then upload into Educator. Users need to know how to write basic HTML formatting code to create paragraphs and type styles such as boldface and italic. The efficient navigation capability of Educator lets the user accomplish many functions in the same browser window.

Communication

Educator offers diverse communication features that enable realtime and/or asynchronous contact between student and instructor, instructor and student, student and student and even instructor and instructor. The communication features include threaded and sub-threaded discussion boards, instant messaging and chat rooms. The e-mail system features file attachments, a paging center where messages can be delivered to student cell phones and pagers, a notification center where information about course activities can be delivered to external e-mail addresses and cell phones, and realtime Internet chat with Ucompass technical support.

Weekly announcements, built-in email, the Who's Online function, the chat room, and ADA compliance meet the need for student/ faculty, faculty/student and student/student communication.

Testing

Educator offers the instructor a wide range of features that enable assessment and evaluation. Currently, six different types of Evaluation Learning Objects function in Educator: exams, quizzes, practice tests, worksheets, surveys and external assignments. Instructors can easily create evaluation instruments using Educator's template publishing tools or work offline in Microsoft(R) Word and upload into Educator.

A user can upload a complete testbank database to create tests. The system easily manages math and computational equations by building a common equations library used by the statistics instructors. Equations can be created in an equation editing program and uploaded to Educator, where they are transformed into image (.gif) files. The images are stored in Common Folders and the Common Equation Library in the instructor's course(s).

Educator provides for online exam proctoring by requiring that specific IP addresses be used, a feature that helps assuage instructor fears of cheating.

Additional factors

Other key advantages include server location, technical support (back office integration with in house vendor), and the ability to customize within Educator. For instance, upon request Ed Mansouri provided a spell-check application within Educator-something students and faculty both appreciate. Educator has met or exceeded the deliverables in the RFP. The people at UCompass provide superior personal service.

Learning curve

The learning curve is short, due to the personal, "hands-on" approach taken by UCompass, With only four weeks to convert online classes, train staff and faculty, the college head of instructional design and the technology specialist both trained in Tallahassee. They, in turn, trained the faculty.