Teaching in the 21st Century: A Web Experience

In 1996, Bonk and Cummings set out to design, implement and refine Web-based educational psychology courses and laboratory experiences offered to pre-service teachers at Indiana University. Utilizing the American Psychological Association's 14 Learner Centered Principles (1993, 1997), Alexander and Murphy (1994), Bonk and Reynolds (1997), Bonk and Cummings implemented the university's first online course in educational psychology. Course evaluation and subsequent refinement occurred shortly thereafter (Bonk & Dennon, 1999), and the course framework was considered strong enough for associate instructors to implement. This paper focuses on the experiences of two associate instructors who taught this Web-based course in educational psychology, while simultaneously taking a course in Teaching and Instruction, and consulting with the course designers. While great latitude was given in teaching the course, it was accompanied by the need to justify any revisions. For the most part, each instructor maintained the basic framework during his or her first semester that the course was taught. Both associate instructors were graduate students in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology with prior teaching experience, although neither had experience teaching an online course. (Contains 13 references.) (Author/AEF)