Over the years, the Computer Centre, the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning and the Centre for Instructional Technology have been promoting and facilitating the use of IT in teaching at NUS. Today, IT tools like the IVLE, webcast lectures and PowerPoint presentations are commonly used among NUS lecturers. In this article, I shall give some personal views on how to use these IT tools effectively in teaching.

Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE)

The 'discussion forum' is an IVLE tool commonly used by NUS lecturers. Many create a discussion forum on the IVLE for their modules because it is easy to create and good to have one. However, few lecturers actually make full use of the forum. After creating a forum, most lecturers leave students to interact by themselves and never visit it again. I think it is good practice for lecturers or tutors to be present in the forum and interact with students. Lecturers may also use the forum to post additional problems for students to discuss. Even if a lecturer does not want to interfere with students' discussion, he is responsible for monitoring students' discussion as the forum's 'creator'. Occasionally, some students may post undesirable remarks and the lecturer should step in to remind these students about the 'rules of engagement' or exercise some censorship.

Conversely, there are also lecturers who respond almost instantaneously to questions students post on the forum. Such a practice may discourage other students from contributing to the discussion because the 'authority' has already given the answers. Such forums soon turn into a Q & A platform which defeats the very purpose of having a forum in the first place. 'Assessment' and 'survey', are excellent IVLE tools that can be used to create assessments and surveys to supplement our teaching. However, the two tools are less frequently used because performing these tasks with the tools is time consuming.

The IVLE's 'assessment' tool can be used to design simple self-assessment quizzes for students to check their progress and understanding. Lecturers can also use the tool to design graded quizzes as summative assessments. Though it is time consuming to create questions using the 'assessment' tool, it is easy to generate and analyse results of the assessments. Furthermore, the questions can be saved in the tool's question bank for future online quizzes.

The 'survey' tool in IVLE can be used to create customised questionnaires throughout the semester to supplement the student evaluation exercise done at the end of each semester. Customised questionnaires allow the lecturer to gather feedback from students on specific areas and make necessary adjustments to either the curriculum or his/her teaching. Like the assessment tool, there is also a question bank in the 'survey' tool that makes the process of creating future online surveys less time-consuming as the questions can be retrieved and reused.

Webcast Lectures

Webcast lectures can enhance student learning, especially in large classes. They not only allow students who have missed a lecture the opportunity to catch up but also permits others, especially slower learners, to review difficult concepts.

However, many lecturers do not like to webcast their lectures. Some have the misconception that doing a webcast recording is a complicated and tedious process while others do not feel comfortable teaching in front of a video camera. These concerns are unfounded. In fact, the lecturer just needs to lecture as usual and let the IT staff take care of the technical part. The video camera is hardly noticeable as it is operated from a separate technical room.

Then there are lecturers who do not like what they say to be recorded. If it was something that should not be said, then the lecturer should not have said it all. Even if the lecture was not recorded for webcast, students can always use their own recording devices (e.g. hand phones, personal digital assistants [PDAs]) to capture what a lecturer says and does in the classroom. Other than IVLE, there are many channels for recorded videos to be published on the Internet.

A more valid concern is that webcasting lectures will affect class attendance. If that were to happen as a result of the webcast, it proves that the lecturer has done a good job. He should not worry too much about low attendance as long as students are still following his lectures through a different channel. A lecturer will have reason to be concerned if class attendance dropped even though he does not webcast his lectures. To encourage students to attend lectures, the lecturer can incorporate activities into their lectures that cannot be replaced by viewing the recorded lectures.

PowerPoint Presentation

In order to do a good webcast lecture, it is necessary to use PowerPoint or similar software for classroom presentation. However, many lecturers think PowerPoint is only good for presenting information in point form, and cannot be used to deliver detailed information. These lecturers only see the 'point' but not the 'power' of the software.

To use PowerPoint effectively, one needs to make good use of the animation features. Incorporating animation into PowerPoint slides adds f lair to presentation and makes students more attentive in class. Instead of delivering the content in a straight forward manner, graphics, movies, web links and other multimedia objects can be included to enhance the presentation and help students visualise difficult concepts.

However, incorporating animation into a PowerPoint presentation is time consuming. Though it is possible to get someone to help put a presentation together, it would be better if the lecturer can work on the content and animation himself. In my opinion, the content and animation are all part of a presentation

Concluding Remarks

The IVLE, webcast lectures and PowerPoint are just some IT tools amongst many that can be used to supplement our teaching. It is important to choose the right tools to do the right job. This, and the question of how we should make full use of IT tools to make our teaching more effective, require serious thinking and careful planning.