To all UCSC Faculty, Students, and Staff:

In preparation for UC's All University Conference on the New Technologies in Teaching and Learning, the Computer Engineering and Computer Science Departments and CATS are cosponsoring the following seminar by Burks Oakley, associate vice president for academic affairs in the University of Illinois system.

We hope that you will take the time to attend this important seminar given by a nationally recognized leader in education.

The Internet and Higher Education: Silicon and Fiber Replacing Bricks and Mortar

Burks Oakley
Monday, March 17, 4 to 6 p.m.
206 Earth and Marine Sciences Building

Professor Oakley will discuss the program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in which networked computers are used to implement innovative teaching and learning environments.

With support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments at UIUC offers more than 90 courses that have been restructured to take advantage of the ability of networked computers to provide increased access to learning materials and to people. This new approach to teaching and learning has been termed "Asynchronous Learning Networks" (ALN).

Many Sloan Center courses have learning materials such as reference documents, movies of experiments, and interactive tutorials available on the World Wide Web. Some of these courses also have online homework and quizzes that are computer-graded in real time, providing rapid feedback to students.

Asynchronous conferencing, using software such as FirstClass and WebNotes, provides students increased access to subject-matter experts (faculty, teaching assistants) and to other students. The use of asynchronous conferencing has been found to build community, to promote peer-peer learning, and to enable increased team-based activities. Sloan Center faculty are promoting a learning environment that is more active and student-centered than that found in many traditional lecture-based courses.

The presentation will include a demonstration of many ALN techniques, as well as the results of an independent evaluation of Sloan Center courses over the past several semesters.

Background:

Burks Oakley II is an associate vice president for academic affairs in the University of Illinois system. His responsibilities include distance education, outreach, and instructional technologies on all three campuses of the University of Illinois (Chicago, Springfield, Urbana-Champaign), and he has major responsibilities for the UI-OnLine initiative.

Oakley also is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the associate director of the Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments at Urbana. From 1992 to 1995, he served as the assistant head of the ECE Department.

Oakley received his B.S. degree from Northwestern University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. In 1991, he was named as "one of the most distinguished Ph.D. recipients over the past 50 years" by the University of Michigan.

He has received numerous awards for his teaching and for his innovative use of technology in education, including the Luckman Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award from UIUC in 1993, the Outstanding Professor Award from the ASEE IL/IN Division in 1993, the Educom Medal in 1996, and the IEEE Educational Activities Board Major Educational Innovation Award in 1996.

Burks Oakley can be reached at oakley@uiuc.edu; his Web page is at http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/oakley/.

>More information about UCSC oncampus activities associated with the All University Conference may be found at http://wwwcatsic.ucsc.edu/~auc

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