'Arthurnet' Digest

Abstract

The Round Table MODERATED BY DEBORAH EVERHART email: everhart@gusun.georgetown.edu Earlier this year on ArthurNet, the topic ofe-courses came up as part ofa discussion concerningwhich universities in the U.S. and abroad offerArthurian courses. The discussion gravitated toward e-courses as a form of distance learning. Since students usually cannot take time off to travel to institutions that offer Arthurian courses, e-courses would provide an opportunity for students to take courses not offered at their home institutions. Mel Erskine started this line ofthought by commenting that 'it would be a worthy project [to produce] even a brief listing of which campuses . . . have courses on Arthurian materials. Or even on Celtic-literature and other Celticlinked materials (including Pictish, etc.). Failingwhich, ifdiose offering courses [would keep] us well-informed well-ahead, and also consider offering email access for international (virtual?) students' (April 7, 1994). Mel's posting raises at least two noteworthy issues: (1) An on-line listing of course offerings on Arthurian topics would be a valuable resource to students who wish to take these courses — some students might even make a decision concerning where to enroll based on such information; and (2) e-courses could expand rhe outreach of institutions that do offer Arthurian courses, allowing professors to share their expertise with a broader audience. E-courses on popular topics such as Arthurian studies could even provide universities with a way ofincreasing their tuition dollars by reaching distant markets. On the first point, I would like to emphasize that an on-line listing of Arthurian courses would be invaluable to students and faculty in our field. ManyArthurNetters have volunteered information concerning offerings at their own institutions; the next step is to compile this information, solicit further information from other institutions, and organize these materials into a hypertext file or series of files. These files, mounted on a World Wide Web server, would be accessible to students and faculty around the world. The files would need to be updated regularly in order to keep them current. This body of information would not only aid students who are looking for Arthurian courses but also help faculty share resources and ideas related to similar courses offered at distant institutions. If any of our readers would be interested in takingon such a project, pleasecontact me for further information concerning ARTHURIANA 4.4 (1994) 387 388ARTHURIANA the process ofdeveloping World Wide Web resources. I would be very happy to provide guidance for this project, and once it is finished, I can easily create links to the Arthurian course information from the Labyrinth, a World Wide Web server for medieval studies that already enjoys a very broad audience. On the second point, ArthurNetters expressed both excitement about the possibility of e-courses and reservations about the viability of such courses. Tom Harbold commented that 'the suggestion of e-mail "correspondence" courses in Arthurian/Celtic subjects is an interesting one, but I don't know how possible it'd be to administer. And what would be the tuition? There's bound to be tuition' (April 8, 1994). Norman Hinton elaborated on others' reservations: 'The thought of multi-campus courses via e-mail is fascinating, but I know from sad experience with ComputerAssisted Instruction that both Administrations and Faculty Unions take dim views unless all working conditions, pay schedules, faculty loads, etc. are worked out well in advance and "signed offon" by every conceivable person . . . and even then it's regarded with suspicion. And teaching "after hours" without permission maybe acontract violation, so be sure you've touched all bases before getting involved with nonUniversity teaching' (April 13, 1994). These and other concerns are realistic considerations for those who wish to develop on-line courses. Furthermore, conducting on-line seminars requires extra expertise and time on the part of the professor, and so far, those who arewilling to take on such an adventuresome task are few. Nonetheless, the development of e-courses is not a far-fetched idea, but a very real possibility. Such courses on other topics and in other fields already exist, and many educational institutions are expanding their distance learning divisions to meet increasing demand. Computer networking, especially via the Internet...