June 13/97

“T think we
should go
for quality,”

answers
educational
technology liaison
Chris Gratham,
when asked how
many courses
Capilano College
will be putting on-
line in the coming
months. “For
instance, a
university in
Colorado just put
160 courses on-
line and they’re
awful — just pages
and pages of text.”

Chris works with  @p-Jine technician Al Hovden (left) and ed tech liaison Chris Gratham are the
technical wizards of the College’s Educational Technology Resource Centre.

Ed Tech Resource Centre Makes On-
Line Course Delivery Easy for Students

on-line technician
Al Hovden in
Capilano College’s
new Educational
Technology

Resource Centre.
Located beside Media Production

Services in the Library building, the
Centre acts, among other things, as a
lab, offering advice to faculty on the
development of computer mediated
education resources.

“There is lots of software available
which puts courses on-line,” Chris
says. “The problem is, you can’t add or
remove categories and you’re stuck
with their layout. That kind of software
makes it easy for instructors. We want
to make on-line courses easy for
students.”

The Ed Tech Centre is currently
working on two on-line projects. The
first, called Research in the Virtual
Library, was initially funded by a local
Initiated Curriculum grant. Developed
by the Library’s Annette Lorek and
Maureen Witney, the software, which
should be accessible in September, will
teach students how to do research.

The other project is for the Legal
Assistant Program, which submitted a
proposal for funding in 1996 to the
Ministry of Education, Skills and
Training. Because the program is only
available to working legal secretaries,

it made sense to put it on-line to
increase student access.

“We help people who are interested
in using these new education
technologies in their classrooms —
from using powerpoint and making
overheads to producing multi-media
CD Roms and putting courses on-line,”
Chris says.

The Ed Tech Centre is also working
with the Open Learning Agency to
develop a foundation year with
Capilano College’s Media Resources
program. High school students and
other people interested in the program
can sample courses and at the same
time, work towards a certificate.
Courses will be taught on-site and on-
line.

Before joining the Ed Tech Centre,
Chris was a Geography instructor at the
College. When Karen Ewing, also a
Geography instructor, put a proposal in
last year for on-line courses, Chris was
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
sailing back from Hawaii. On his return,
he started working with Karen and
former Infotec instructor Doug Stetar,
developing an on-line format. The work

for the Geography
department is still
in progress.

“When Doug
left the College, I
fell into this
position,” Chris
says. “I’ve always
had an interest in
computers and it’s
really rewarding to
be able to
incorporate
technology into
instruction.

“To me the
most interesting
aspect of working
with technology is
the convergence of
people and the
convergence of
thinking — the
sharing of ideas.
That is what we’re
trying to do in the
Centre.”

The work
produced in the Ed Tech Centre is so

good that many other organizations are
interested in buying the software.
“We’re looking at copyright issues,”
Chris says, “but I just want to produce
the best product we can. Selling it is not
that important to me.”

Although on-line technology is the
Centre’s main focus, Chris says that it
does offer another interesting service. “I
definitely want to give seminars to
people on what we’re doing here. I want
to pique people’s interest in looking at
how to better what they do by using the
new technology and expose them to it
so they can at least consider it.”

If you would like to learn more about
the Ed Tech Resource Centre, or would
like to book a seminar, call Chris at
984-1780, or e-mail him at
cgratham@capcollege.bc.ca

@nformer