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What is the difference between 100% Online Courses, Hybrid Courses, and Web-Enhanced Courses? Although online education has entered the general consciousness, there is still a great deal of confusion about what constitutes an online course, and which components are considered critical in developing a successful online educational course or program.

100% Online Courses are fully online. Generally, the course syllabus, readings, lecture notes, quizzes, powerpoint presentations, online gradebooks, threaded discussion boards, are accessible by means of an integrated website, which contains course management software. Communication is usually through e-mail, discussion boards, and chat. Commercially available course management software includes Blackboard and WebCT. Open-source courseware is also available, but requires a significant commitment to server-side hosting issues. Sometimes the elements of the online courses are made available on static websites, with interactivity consisting of e-mail and/or the use of Instant Messenger (provided by Yahoo, AOL, or Lycos), and groups (hosted by Yahoo or Lycos). Web logs (or “blogs”) are gaining popularity in online education because they allow individuals to collaborate with a great deal more ease and flexibility than web groups, instant messenger, or threaded discussion boards. They allow members to collaborate with postings, comments, graphics, and other interactive functions.

In order to fully understand the learning goals and the requirements of an online course, the first thing one will see tends to be an overview of what one will learn, a listing of learning objectives, required texts, required work, evaluation and assessment methods, list of topics covered, and a discussion of how the student will be encouraged to make connections between the material one covers and the world at large. Courses are developed and taught by faculty members who are experts in the field, and who are able to provide guidance, mentoring, and responses to the material covered.

Most courses are structured with a clear timeline and list of required work, with the goal of helping students successfully complete courses in a timely manner. Because colleges realize that students live in a busy world with multiple commitments, online courses have been designed to maintain a consistent look and feel. Convenience and support are also priorities for online education providers, which means that there is often “one-stop shopping” to online purchase texts, download articles from journals from a virtual library, check grades, and obtain technical support.

Hybrid courses are a combination of online and face-to-face delivery. They vary in the amount of time and the way in which students are expected to meet and interact with each other. Some courses meet once a week on campus, while others may meet once a month. In general, the face-to-face meeting times are used for collaborative activities, group presentations, help sessions, and testing.

Web-enhanced courses are traditional on-campus courses that utilize the Internet to enhance the educational experience of the students. The professor may place lecture notes on a website, provide links to outside readings, place articles in an “online reserve” folder in the library’s web-based resources, create folders with problem sets, or ask students to post responses on a discussion board.

Although serious concerns still exist with respect to issues of academic integrity, colleges and universities are being to feel more comfortable with safeguarding the intellectual process. Methods of detecting and dealing with student plagiarism are presented on the websites of a number of universities, often by the library. A good example is a Powerpoint presentation by Michael Lorenzen and Laura Julier which appears on the Michigan State University Libraries website (http://www.lib.msu.edu/).

Issues concerning the intellectual property rights of the professors who provide lecture notes and course content are partially dealt with by password-protecting the site to avoid easy wholesale downloading and/or copying of their work. Many universities encourage faculty to include a copyright notice on their work. In addition, they may include a suggested guideline or statement. The one below is modified from one found on Kansas State University’s Intellectual Property Information Center website (http://www.k-state.edu/academicservices/intprop/mediated.htm).

“Copyright [year] [professor’s name] as to this syllabus and all lectures. Individuals are prohibited from selling these materials to or being paid for providing these materials or taking notes for this course by any person or commercial firm without the express written permission of the professor teaching this course.”

Most colleges and universities maintain ownership of the courses (although it may be jointly owned with the subject matter expert who developed the course, unless it was considered a “work for hire”). In such cases, the institution expressly retains limited ownership of the content of online courses and mediated courseware. Content includes material posted to discussion boards, thus allowing institutions to control, limit, and define the boundaries of what is allowed there.

Although complicated and not yet fully defined or tested by the courts, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/hr2281.pdf) (DMCA) was enacted into law in October 1998. It has proved to be a controversial law, and many have argued that it is being used in ways that overstep the original intent of protecting copyright owners and service providers. For example, in September 2003, a Florida man was convicted of violating DMCA when he sold products over the Internet that allowed individuals to override security features and obtain digital television programming without paying for it (http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5080807.html). The TEACH Act of 2002 has helped correct some of the ambiguity with respect to “fair use” of articles and materials used in instruction. Nevertheless, the copyright of intellectual property, course content, etc. remains complicated.

Legal barriers and an atmosphere of rapid innovation (and consequent rapid obsolescence) notwithstanding, the demand for Internet-facilitated education continues to grow. The implications are complex and far-reaching, and must be considered. I’ll try to address a few of those in future musings — particularly those of what I like to refer to as “an emerging ’second generation’ digital divide.”

Questions about what constitutes online learning and how to assess learning strategy effectiveness are constantly evolving and emerging.