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Volume 2 Issue 4April 1998

Innovative Learning in a Web-Based Environment

Roxanne Baxter Mendrinos
Library Systems Administrator, Foothill College

Support for library and curriculum integration of electronic resources is of growing importance. The twelve community colleges that make up the Community Colleges for Innovative Transfer (CCITT), a nationwide consortium, were interested in developing the Virtual Classroom, a template for web-based distance learning classes.

In my role as Co-Principal Investigator for the CCITT’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Project in Remote Sensing, Image Processing, and Geographic Information systems, I was able to bring together a team of experts, including a graphics designer, web programmer, and myself as a library systems and curriculum designer, to develop the Virtual Classroom web-based course template.

As a part-time instructor in Computer Science, I teach three distance learning classes over the Internet. They include an introductory telecommunications course, an introductory internet course, and an intermediate internet course. Each course integrates the electronic resources of the Foothill College Online library, which includes full-text databases and Internet resources. Students have access to the web-based Library catalog, full-text databases, Internet tools and search strategy tips, and other instructional resources. The web address for Foothill College's Online Library is: http://www.foothill.fhda.edu/foothill/LRC/LibHomeA.html

I have had students from as far away as the Netherlands, England, and South America. The students are extremely positive about using the Virtual Classroom template, and they thank me for their library and search strategy experiences.

With the growing proliferation of online distance learning courses, there is a need for faculty and students to be comfortable and proficient at accessing the resources of the library remotely.

Remote online library access should be a part of every distance learning course which requires research. The need for students to have a basis for information literacy in accessing, retrieving, evaluating, synthesizing, and applying information to solve problems is not only important for on campus learning but for learning anywhere and at anytime.

In addition, I have included a section on Instructional Resources on our web page. Working with faculty from various disciplines, a graphic designer and I have incorporated the Internet web site addresses used within the specific curriculum to be accessible by students in one location. In this way, students have a central place to access the informational web sites important for their discipline. The Online Library supports, integrates, and becomes central for instruction.