Three short cases for use in online introduction to computer information systems courses

Abstract

Online courses are now commonplace at many universities, replacing correspondence (postal) based distance education methods. An important and widely used component of online courses are online forums. Forums encourage interaction between students (who may never meet face-to-face) and are a vital part of the virtual classroom experience. Literature suggests that distance learners require a great deal of interaction to overcome the feeling of isolation; the development of a virtual world (classroom) encourages students to participate in the learning process by exploring and playing with course materials; and promotes interactions between students and teachers that may not occur in a traditional classroom. In order to conduct a successful online forum it is necessary to have a collection of provocative discussion topics and a sound technique to implement them. This paper presents three short cases; Electronic Voting, the Digital Divide, and Internet Ethics, that have successfully been used in online courses along with pedagogy and implementation notes.