SUPPORTING THE TRANSITION TO INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY: INEXPENSIVE APPROACHES THAT LEVERAGE EXISTING MATERIALS
Steven D. Brewer*
INTRODUCTION
	In only a few years, the World Wide Web (WWW) has become the dominant medium for offering instructional technology (IT) due to its platform independence and capacity for integrating multiple technologies. Costs to departments and faculty, in money and time, have been an important obstacle to the adoption of IT. For many WWW technologies, there are multiple options available for free. These alternatives have no marketing budgets, but are often better in quality (see Raymond, 1997) than their commercial counterparts. Below are: (1) a brief history of the implementation of IT in a Biology Department, (2) an overview of departmental IT resources that were provided, (3) an evaluation of the effects of these resources, and (4) some conclusions and future directions. 
A BRIEF HISTORY
	The Biology Department was among the first to provide network services to faculty at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. A departmental WWW server was first set up in the Biology Department in Fall 1995 and was used initially to provide general information about the department. During the first semester of operation there were no faculty who set up resources for courses. During 1996, several faculty began providing on-line resources. By the spring of 1997, there were 15 courses offering some kind of WWW-based resource, but only 5 faculty were producing WWW-based materials.
DEPARTMENTAL INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
	In the fall of 1997, a set of integrated IT resources for courses in the Biology Department was universally provided with instructional and organizational goals. The instructional goals included: (1) supporting improved student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction, (2) increasing student access to course resources, and (3) providing a uniform interface to WWW-based resources for students. The organizational goals were to provide ways for faculty to: (1) begin using IT in small, low-risk ways, (2) leverage their existing instructional materials, and (3) make use of their existing skills and abilities in order to reduce the learning curve as much as possible. The resources created include: (1) a "WWW presence" for every course, (2) an easy way to make WWW pages, (3) an easy way to post course materials, (4) an easy way to make links to pages, (5) a course mailing list and archive, and (6) an on-line calendar. 
	The free Apache WWW server (Apache Group, 1997) augmented with perl (Wall, 1996), a free programming language, provided the core WWW and Common Gateway Interface (CGI) services. Faculty were encouraged to use Microsoft’s Internet Assistant (Microsoft, 1996) to translate course documents into WWW pages, leveraging existing resources. Columbia AppleTalk Package (Kim & Schilit, 1988) networking software was used to allow faculty to drag-and-drop documents to post them to the WWW server, using their existing computer skills. A modified version of a free perl script (Wright, 1997) allowed faculty to make links to WWW-pages through their browser. Majordomo (Chapman, 1997), a free software package written in perl, was used to support e-mail lists for each course. Hypermail (Hughes, 1996), another free software package, was installed to archive all of the e-mail sent to the lists and provide it via the WWW in an indexed and cross-referenced form. WebEvent (Cameron, 1997), now a commercial product, was used to provide an on-line calendar in a WWW page which could be updated, with events written as text or in HTML, through a WWW browser. Only one brief workshop was required for faculty to start using these resources successfully.

* Biology Computer Resource Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
EVALUATION
	The IT resources can be evaluated both as support materials for courses and as part of an on-going organizational development effort. As a meaningful support to courses, their impact has been limited. Few substantive resources are currently available to students -- most of the information currently available via the WWW is organizational in nature: syllabus, lists of required readings, schedules, and calendar information. Increasingly, however, courses are incorporating their own instructional materials, student projects, and links to external Internet resources.
	As a component of faculty organizational development, the resources have had a strong, positive impact. The adoption of WWW-based IT in the Biology Department has progressed steadily since WWW service was initially provided in 1995 (See Figure 1). Although 15 courses were using at least some WWW-based resources by fall of 1996, only 5 faculty were actually creating resources. The difference was largely the result of one faculty member who agreed to translate and post a syllabus for others. The new resources have increased the number of faculty developing resources independently to a level consistent with the number of courses offered. Prior to the first semester of operation, 22 of 39 faculty and instructors teaching in the fall, attended workshops on the resources. Ultimately, 19 instructors and courses used the resources in some way. 

Figure 1. The adoption of WWW-based instructional technology addressed the disparity between the number of faculty developing materials (A) and courses providing materials (B). The new resources eliminated this disparity (C).

	During the last week of the semester, I surveyed faculty to ask: (1) Why did you (use/not use) the resources? (2) What factors (helped/hindered) your use of the resources? and (3) Which resources (should/should not) be continued? The responses of 11 faculty, coupled with other experiences and comments received during the first semester of operation, are described below.
	Faculty identified examples, documentation, workshops, and extended support all as important contributors to successful implementation. Providing formal hands-on opportunities in a guided environment was critical to get some faculty to try out the resources. Each individual brought a unique perspective and the role of extended support was critical in evaluating their needs and helping implement their particular vision. Awareness of the availability of support helped build confidence in the faculty to independently develop and maintain their own course materials successfully.
	Faculty who declined to use the resources primarily cited lack of time and lack of need. Some faculty teaching small courses perceived little need to increase communication or interaction with students. One instructor expressed reservations about the need for, or value of, virtual community-building, saying: "In my classes I encourage face-to-face discussions". One faculty member discontinued use due to student disinterest: "When I asked the class at mid semester whether anyone was consulting the calendar, only one hand (out of 55) went up". As students progress through the department, it seems likely that students will show increasing: (1) awareness of on-line resources, (2) abilities to use such resources effectively, and (3) expectations that every course employ such resources.
 	Faculty offered mixed evaluations regarding their own implementation of the resources. Several found that students were not checking the WWW-pages. Similarly, in cases where faculty only announced the mailing lists, but did not actively advocate their use, few students participated. One faculty member wrote, "Clearly if we want the students to use the course list server we need to be more aggressive in promoting its use”. By contrast, in cases where faculty encouraged participation, many students used and contributed to the resources. 
CONCLUSIONS
	The IT resources provided to the Biology Department have increased the number of faculty and courses that offer on-line materials. Although the increasing number of courses is consistent with the past, there has been a significant shift from faculty having their materials provided by others, to faculty producing and posting their own materials. The materials created by recent adopters are preliminary and, as yet, offer little content. Nevertheless, the skills that faculty need to engage in development of more complex resources are fostered through the use of the basic resources. Several pilot projects are being developed by faculty which extend the basic resources including: java-based problem-solving environments, bioinformatics projects using server-side scripting, and network-based anonymous peer-review of writing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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