The Arts and Science Honors program wanted to develop a site that would serve as a common resource for the course "20th Century and the Tradition," a seminar required for all 3rd-year students in the program. Because this course is highly interdisciplinary in nature, the Honors Program needed a vehicle for distributing a wide variety of multimedia course material to both students and faculty.
C21Online is the online continuing education initiative co-sponsored by the Church in the 21st Century and the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry. Dr. Barbara Radtke, Program Coordinator for C21 Online, wanted to expand the continuing education mission of C21Online through the development of a public website and a series of Blackboard Vista courses.
Inspired by the Center for Home Care site, Joyce Pulcini and her colleagues in the Connell School of Nursing envisioned a web site for CNS students and faculty as well as practitioners in local hospitals and agencies, some of whom supervise CSON students in the field. They also had the goal of providing a Blackboard Vista environment rich in content, communication and assessment activities, for a graduate CNS course with a significant online component.
Covering Photography is a web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design. It was created by Karl Baden, who wanted to make publicly available his 1000+ collection of images of classic photos, used and recontextualized in various ways on book covers. He envisioned a database which could be searched by a variety of categories (author, photographer, etc.) and which could display juxtaposed images of book covers to allow for comparison. The project is of interest to students of photography (he uses it in the courses he teaches), designers and critics alike, and has received national acclaim.
Phil Cunningham and Barbara Radtke approached IDeS with an idea for an online tutorial that would enable participants to explore the Gospel passion narratives in new ways. Their target audience for this tutorial included religious educators, liturgy planners, members of scripture study groups and preachers, as well as a general audience of anyone looking to deepen their understanding of the Gospel narratives. We created a website featuring interactive commentaries that guide users through each of the five scenes in the four Gospel narratives, supplemented by historical background materials and an introduction to reading the Bible in the Catholic tradition.
With observers of economic development and the growth of civil society increasingly recognizing the importance of gender issues to these concerns, Karen Kayser proposed a new course on the subject for the Graduate School of Social Work. She wanted the course to have a significant online presence so that it could provide resources conveniently for GSSW students with limited time on campus, and include students at other institutions.
Marc Landy, a professor in the political science department, is the director of an NEH summer program on John Adams. As a collaboration with the Adams National Historical Park, this two-week workshop is designed to provide community college faculty the chance to deepen their understanding of John Adams in the rich historical context of Boston. Professor Landy needed a website that would serve as a marketing tool to spread the word about the program, as a communication medium for those planning to attend, and as a course website for participants during and after the workshop.
During the fall of 2006, the Law School changed its first year curriculum, moving three large section courses (torts, contracts and property) from a two-quarter format into a one-semester schedule. Professor Judy McMorrow, who regularly teaches the Torts course, approached IDeS to help her devise a system of meaningful feedback that would help students prepare for final exam questions within the constraints of the shortened course.