About Emory College Online
The Emory College Online (ECO) program grew out of the successful
Culpeper Seminar in Teaching with Technology which was inaugurated
with the support of the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation in
1997. The idea behind the seminar was to provide support
for the use of technology in teaching through funds for faculty
instruction. The program was specifically prohibited from
spending funds on hardware and software; rather, all efforts
were to be directed toward teaching with the technology.
History: Culpeper to Emory College Online
The Culpeper Seminar was organized around six pairs of faculty
and graduate students, each pair working on a particular
project. Both faculty and student assistant received a stipend.
For the years 1997 through 1999, it met for six weeks on
a daily basis in the English Department's computer lab. The
seminar was coordinated and staffed through the Center
for Teaching and Curriculum(CTC) and Academic and Administrative
IT (currently University
Technology Services). After
the first year, the decision was made to concentrate on projects
utilizing web-based technologies.
The original Culpeper Foundation funding was for a three-year
period. At the conclusion of that period, the decision was
made to continue the program through internal monies and
to rename it Emory College Online (ECO). It continues under
the sponsorship of the CTC, the College,
and University
Technology Services (UTS).
With each year of the Culpeper Seminar, the level of instruction
was streamlined to concentrate on building onine course content
and the first year of ECO was no exception.
In 2000, the decision was made to use a courseware product,
BlackBoard, in an attempt to refine the process to an even
greater degree. BlackBoard provides a basic template for
online course content and faculty can focus on bringing together
individual learning units.
In recognition of the assistance that BlackBoard provided and in an attempt to appeal to a broader group of faculty, the six-week sessions were shortened to three-weeks but the hours expanded to a full work week.
Emory's Center for Interactive Teaching
Also in 2000, the program relocated to Emory's
Center for Interactive Teaching (ECIT) which is located
in Emory's Woodruff Library. ECIT's computer classroom
provides a perfect place for group and individual study
and the specialized workstations in the faculty work area
support the digitizing of audio and video, high resolution
scanning and voice recording.
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