Faculty who develop the Asynchronous Learning Networks components for courses with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan project are requested to submit a course report to be shared with others. The typical length would be 5-20 pages. The reports will be posted on the project web page and thus be public. The preferable format would be as a paper suitable for presentation at a conference or publication in a journal. An honorarium of $100 will be paid for these reports, and a small amount of travel support is available if you paper is accepted at a conference. The material should be delivered to the project director on a diskette, in a format such as Word suitable for modification for web posting. Suggested edits will be made prior to posting. The instructor retains copyright and may veto such suggested edits.

The following is an outline of the topics which instructors are requested to include in their case histories of experiences teaching online. This should be provided in a format such as Word that is %91web ready%92 for posting.

1. Course number and title. Description of the topics covered in the course. Media mix employed for different segments, topics, or purposes. (eg, use of videotapes, CD ROM, Web pages, email, online class discussions or small group projects).
2. Description of what worked well in terms of students seeming to learn and to participate, and what the major problems were, particularly as related to the ALN components.

You might include here problems with procrastination (uneven and delayed participation); with software or hardware inadequacies; with getting students to actually actively ask questions or discuss issues. Try to also include a section on any "group" or "collaborative" learning activities; how these worked and how they did not. Include some quotations from students or segments of course transcripts to illustrate your points.

3. Reporting and if possible (if you have easy access to a statistics package) analysis with t-tests of any differences in grades or other measures of quality of student learning, as compared to traditional courses.
4. How do you, as a faculty member, feel liberated and/or constrained by the fundamentals and/or particulars of the ALN software you used? What sorts of teaching strategies would you try next time, and, conversely, what kinds of teaching seem so constrained or distorted by the Virtual Classroom as not to be worth the effort?
5. Overall, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the use of Virtual Classroom and other ALN components (web pages, email) for course delivery, both for yourself and for your students?
   

Appendices: Not for posting; separate these on a diskette. These would be for use by other instructors who teach online in the future. Since these are the intellectual property of the instructor, they may be withheld.

1. A syllabus showing lectures, readings, assignments, and other activities for each topic.
2. A copy of all materials used in the Virtual Classroom segment, including "electures," questions for discussion, assignments, etc.