April 3, 1998

Digital Pioneers Making History

Bob Hesketh and Chris Hackett recently received a $400,000 grant from the federal Department of Canadian Heritage to complete a French and English version of the CD-Rom history project, to be published by Prentice-Hall Canada this year.

It's a slim package, but when it is finished it will hold the history of a country: 130 years worth of politics, regional development, culture and activism in 6,000 pages of text, more than 3,000 images, and almost an hour of video and audio clips. Not bad for something you can slip in your back pocket.

The CD-Rom textbook called "Canada: Confederation to Present" is the creation of University of Alberta historians Dr. Bob Hesketh and Chris Hackett. It was one of more than 30 projects and educational technologies featured in Leaders in Learning, an open house hosted last week by the University's Academic Technologies for Learning (ATL).

According to Hackett, it was high time for the CD-Rom textbook. "The study of history has become much more complex over the past few decades with the inclusion of new subject areas and the desire to look at events from multiple perspectives," he explains.

"History texts have become massive 400-page monstrosities that are almost impossible to navigate."

As teachers and historians fascinated with the potential of the computer, Hackett and Hesketh aimed to develop a complex interactive textbook at the introductory post-secondary level that would be simpler for students to access than printed texts. They wanted to capture the unique perspectives of specialized fields of study, while still highlighting the common experiences in Canada's past.

Led by a blue-ribbon editorial board of Canadian historians, the CD-Rom gathers together 200 original articles on various topics, organized into five narrative groupings: Politics/Economy, Society/Culture, Regional Dynamics, Women's History and Native History. A sixth narrative, called Synthesis, provides context and interpretation. The CD-Rom is enhanced by interactive maps and graphs, a dedicated Web site, and a search engine. The project has attracted interest from historians, high school history teachers, curriculum developers, and instructional designers.

For Hackett and Hesketh, who are team teaching a course called Computer Applications in History, the progression to digital was natural. "This is the brave new world of academia," says Hackett. "It's not about software development; it's about managing information technology -- something historians have always done."

Hackett and Hesketh were among the first on campus to develop a course delivered entirely on the Internet. Offered in spring 1996, the course was part of an ATL-sponsored project called Canadian Studies in Distance Education, which aims to develop a model

for distance-delivering Canadian Studies courses world-wide. Thirteen students from across Alberta registered and dialed into the Web site to read lectures, papers and case studies and to participate in the conferences set up for each module.

"The conferences were the heart of the course," says Haskett. "As students responded to the questions that were posted, we were pleased to find that students would keep up a complex discussion with very little prompting from us. The quality of the participation was as rich or even richer than anything that happens in the classroom."

Fellow historian Dr. Ann McDougall would have to agree. McDougall, a 15-year veteran of the classroom, made her first foray into web-delivery this winter with a new course on the history of the Ottoman Empire. The 400-level course is a mixed model, employing face-to-face delivery supplemented by computer conferencing, which accounts for one-quarter of the class time and 40 per cent of the grade.

"I've always been enthusiastic about the use of tutorials, but I often don't have the resources to make it happen," says McDougall, who turned to ATL for help in developing an electronic alternative. Working with ATL support, a teaching assistant and funding from the Faculty of Arts, she has developed a Web site with a computer conferencing feature and resource links. She uses the Web site in the classroom to display interactive maps and to reference readings from the text.

McDougall has divided her course into five modules, each with two themes. One class each week is held in the computer lab, where students can read and post discussions to the conference. One-third of the class of 25 has chosen to do this portion of the class work from a home modem.

With 100 postings per module, McDougall is pleased to find the electronic approach has distinct advantages. "I like to see students reading, formulating arguments and then interacting with each other," she explains. "Many students don't think well on their feet, but this process gives them time to reflect. They have to engage the readings and develop their persuasive skills."

McDougall will admit her journey into the digital world has been less than smooth, punctuated by server problems, software issues, modem glitches and the like. Some of her students also had initial difficulty adjusting to the new approach. But McDougall is very encouraged by the results and plans to develop several more courses with a mixed-delivery approach.

Athough she is a digital pioneer on campus, McDougall pegs her computer skills at an average level. "A year ago I was asking what a Web site was," she says with a laugh. "I approached this looking for ways that technology could help me teach the way I wanted to teach. And I'll continue to explore what elements can help me be the kind of teacher I want to be in the classroom."

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