Product review

A product review of eCollege’s Teaching

Solutions courseware

Mary E. Tyler*

Beech Hill Elementary School, Summerville, SC 29485, USA

Received 21 October 2001

1. Introduction

Teaching Solutions. (2001). [Computer Software] 1999–2001. Denver, CO: ecollege.com.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a proliferation of Web-based programs developed by

educational institutions and commercial establishments to address the need for faculty to

create Web-based courses without necessarily having to invest large quantities of time to learn

HTML or similar programs (Fredickson, 1999). With the proliferation of Web-based

instructional programs, many institutions and their faculties are in a quandary concerning

which program to select for course development and delivery. Leading integrated courseware

systems (software that handles the design, delivery, and management of whole courses

online) include Blackboard, WebCT, TopClass, and eCollege, to name a few.

eCollege’s Teaching Solutions software was selected for this particular review because of

its accessibility and appeal to course developers with little or no knowledge of HTML.

Furthermore, the reviewer is particularly interested in online distance education in the K-12

arena. eCollege has developed collaborative partnerships with K-12 school districts to design,

build, and support eLearning communities.

Recently, eCollege.com touted its courseware, Teaching Solutions, as ‘‘the premier

eLearning platform for the enhancement of on-campus courses, the extension of curriculum

to students at a distance, or any combination of these course delivery mechanisms.’’ More

than a content delivery system, Teaching Solutions facilitates student interaction outside the

classroom, improves in-class communication, and provides unparalleled access to resources

(eCollege, 1999–2001). The eTeaching Solutions family of online teaching tools consists of

1096-7516/02/$ – see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

PII: S1096 -7516 (02 )00080 -5

* 106 Worlingham Court, Goose Creek, SC 29445, USA. Tel.: +1-843-821-3970; fax: +1-843-821-3979.

E-mail address: tyler@nova.edu (M.E. Tyler).

Internet and Higher Education

5 (2002) 193–196

three levels of products and services to address each educator’s teaching needs. eToolKit

provides introductory eLearning tools for in-classroom teaching; eCompanion enhances

classroom-based instruction with rich Internet content such as online assignments, group

collaboration, practice tests, and Web ‘‘field trips’’; and eCourse extends classes and complete

online programs beyond the traditional classroom to students who might not otherwise have

access to this setting. Each product is available for single course, multiple course, or campus-

wide adoption.

This review focuses primarily on eCourse because of its capability to replicate and enhance

all aspects of the teaching process, and provide distance education through an academically

sound, highly scalable eLearning platform. From the course instructor’s perspective, eCourse

enables one to easily lead students through course content in a unit-based environment, post

lecture notes, grades, presentations, articles, and class handouts online; provide an online area

for students to work in groups; guide students to Internet resources; administer online quizzes

and exams; and easily interact with students in a variety of communication tools.

eCollege offers free trials of its course development solutions for evaluation purposes.

Upon visiting their Website, users are simply asked to supply a user name and password

before being ushered through a five-step process of setting up the course’s profile. It was

refreshing not to be required to answer a myriad of questions as a prerequisite to building an

online course. Once the course profile is set up, the user is taken to the course homepage to

begin course development. The homepage, the screen that appears when users first enter the

course, contains numerous features and resources to aid in course development such as a user-

friendly tutorial, a quick start wizard, course design tips, and a handy help screen packed with

easy-to-understand directions for course setup. Additionally, the intuitive, easy-to-navigate

interface is bright, colorful, and attractive and absent of distracting graphics.

In the author mode of the course, homepage content can be added and changes can be

made to the homepage. The simplest way to set up a course is to utilize the handy quick

start wizard, which allows simple authoring by taking faculty through a step-by-step

process for developing course units, headings, and text placement. Other handy course

development tools include the visual editor, which allows users to easily format text, and

insert graphics and links without HTML. Microsoft interoperability permits seamless

uploading of existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents into the course without

conversion to HTML. eCourse has the capability to stream audio, video, and deliver flash

over the Internet. The software is built on an open platform and is media type-independent;

therefore, any type of media can be submitted or uploaded directly to streaming servers,

and streamed onto the Internet.

An instructor can tailor the organization’s course content and the way the user interface

looks and feels by using eCourse’s style manager and course content customization features.

The course content can be structured into units for each week, chapter, and section of content,

or however the instructor decides. The most useful content tool, however, is the spell checker.

The style manager allows customization of the course’s appearance. Course designers can

customize the site color, course color, course background, the appearance of tab tools, site and

page navigation appearance, and fonts. However, users are limited to the colors and style

palettes provided in the courseware.

M.E. Tyler / Internet and Higher Education 5 (2002) 193–196194

Besides superior course development tools, eCourse provides excellent management tools,

such as its calendar, gradebook, exams editor, and ‘‘what’s new’’ feature. Dates associated

with course material can be posted directly in the students’ calendars so they can see all on-

campus and online course events at one time. Timely feedback can be delivered to students,

and their progress can easily be tracked via the gradebook. Testing includes multiple choice

with one or more possible answers, matching, true/false, fill in the blank, short answer, essay

and oral exams. Instructors have the option to create a database of test questions and the

system will pool/scramble these questions to create unique exams for each student. With the

exam management tool, grading is automatic for objective, nonessay questions; test banks

store all questions to facilitate easy final exam development; and tests can be timed.

Numerous asynchronous and limited synchronous tools promote communication, user

interaction, and a sense of community in this Web-based learning environment. Threaded

discussions, chat, e-mail, and document sharing allow students to communicate with faculty

as well as with each other. All information is logged so it can be accessed anytime, anywhere,

by anyone. Instructors can conveniently e-mail their students directly from the course

homepage, without having to access an external e-mail program. The instructor need not

memorize nor enter the student’s e-mail addresses, as they can simply click on the box located

next to the student name. Files can also be attached through an attachment function. The

document-sharing feature lets professors and their students upload and download documents,

images, spreadsheets, and HTML pages. Students can view, build, revise, and recreate

downloaded documents then upload changes for the entire class to view. Both instructors and

students have access to shared files, but only instructors can delete files.

A noteworthy tool that promotes interaction is the group management feature. It allows

professors to create groups or teams within a course’s framework. As in the physical

classroom, individual groups can hold private discussions, have specialized readings,

assignments, and have group e-mail, or have other tools to complete final projects or papers.

Group content items can be assessed through the gradebook, and a private chat room is

automatically set up when groups are created.

eCourse has outstanding and user-friendly instructor tools that aid course development,

management, and communication. But what does it offer the learner? First, the aforemen-

tioned communication tools provide personalized faculty-to-student and student-to-student

interaction. Next, the journal feature provides students a private online notebook and enables

them to share entries with their professor, and the Webibiography and search features provide

students critical evaluation and Internet research tools. Students can also conveniently search

the course and look up content using keywords. Moreover, study skill building is supported

via user tracking, which records how much time students have spent in the course or any

module or section. Finally, the intuitive user-friendly interface translates to the course or

student mode of the homepage.

eCollege provides outstanding support tools for both faculty and students. A help desk

provides support to students in three different ways: the Online Help Desk provides readily

accessible information and answers to frequently asked questions; students can e-mail the

Help Desk anytime; and students and faculty can also call the Help Desk for technical

support 24 h/day, 7 days/week. eCollege has an array of services that make faculty more

M.E. Tyler / Internet and Higher Education 5 (2002) 193–196 195

successful using their products. These services help make putting courses online easier, and

substantial expertise in online instructional design for creating pedagogically sound courses

is readily provided.

2. Conclusion

eCourse’s outstanding course development, management, and communication tools,

coupled with excellent student and faculty support, take the drudgery out of online

teaching and learning and help make eLearning a rewarding experience for all stakeholders.

Even though this integrated learning system has not received the attention Blackboard or

WebCt has, the reviewer highly recommends it for anyone considering embarking into the

eLearning arena.

References

eCollege (1999–2001). eLearning Campus. http://elearning.ecollege.com. Accessed October 13, 2001.

Fredickson, S. (1999). Untangling a tangled web: an overview of Web-based instructional programs. THE

Journal, 26 (11), 67–77.

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