Date: January 14, 1999
To: The Possibilities Thinking Committee
From: The WorldWide Web Instructional Committee (WWWIC)

Slator, Juell (Computer Science), McClean, Chair (Plant Science),

Saini-Eidukat, Schwert (Geosciences), White (Botany/Biology)
Re: Innovative Virtual Distance Education Research Initiative

WWWIC proposes an initiative to establish NDSU as a national leader in innovative virtual distance education research. This faculty initiative would cut across colleges and would address distance learning issues on the research horizon. In particular, we propose a center for research and development of advanced educational media; pedagogical systems that are hosted on the Internet and are role-based, goal oriented, immersive, exploratory, spatially described, and highly interactive: in short, engaging, authentic, and virtual.

The challenge is to create educational systems that deliver principles and teach important content in meaningful ways. Meanwhile, the need for distance learning systems is increasingly obvious, as the value of "active" versus "passive" learning is increasingly clear. Virtual environments help solve many of the problems: learner diversity is better accommodated (both in terms of learning styles and life styles), and the curriculum becomes more "learn by doing" than "learn by listening."

We foresee a day when courses are taught in both real and virtual laboratories, while students take virtual field trips to prepare for the real thing. By employing "time shifting" and "place shifting," we capitalize on the affordances provided by virtual environments to: 1) control virtual time and collapse virtual distance, 2) create shared spaces that are physical or practical impossibilities, 3) support shared experiences for participants in different physical locations, 4) implement shared agents and artifacts in support of pedagogical goals, and 5) support multi-user collaboration and competition.

WWWIC proposes to administer a center for the design and implementation of virtual educational worlds, such as just described, with additional goals to include the development of mechanisms for assessment, tools for virtual software development, and eventual software publishing. In addition, the center will capitalize on the Internet2 initiative by sponsoring highly graphical and simulation-intensive educational applications involving massive genomic and geophysical datasets, and satellite imagery. Finally, we propose to introduce an interdisciplinary graduate program in Educational Media Sciences.

WWWIC is an ad hoc group of faculty dedicated to the development of virtual environments for education. Founded in 1994 with PPRC funds, WWWIC principally functioned as a WWW facilitating organization. However, as the Web became institutionalized at NDSU, WWWIC transferred its vision to the 21st century and began research into innovative distance education.

WWWIC currently has three NSF-funded research projects (DUE-9752548, EAR-9809761): the Geology Explorer, the Virtual Cell, and the Visual Program. In addition to this science emphasis, WWWIC is engaged in educational projects dealing with principles of microeconomics, history, and anthropology. In total, WWWIC projects involve faculty from four NDSU colleges: S&M, Ag., Bus., and AHSS. Further information on WWWIC is available at http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/wwwic/

We propose a center for virtual distance education research managed by a steering committee composed of active distance education researchers with a director elected from the committee who will report to the Dean of Research. Permanent staff will be minimal: one half-time administrative assistant. Steering committee members will be responsible for evaluating, managing, and assigning resources to projects. Projects will be staffed primarily by students who will participate in both design and implementation. A 30% cost-sharing release program will enable faculty to develop their research ideas during the academic year, in addition to a summer stipend program. In exchange for this support, faculty will be required to actively pursue external funding.

The yearly cost of the center will be $390,000: $80,000 for student salaries; $200,000 for faculty release, stipends, and fringes; $110,000 for operating expenses.