Over 7200 students sending over 35,000 emails every weekday on FanshaweOnline

FanshaweOnline, the online student portal that provides access to email, course material, online quizzes and study resources, has significantly stepped up its services, and as a result more students and faculty are utilizing the resource.

On a typical weekday 7200 students and 300 instructors login to FanshaweOnline, which carries 1800 courses for Fanshawe students. With 35,000 emails being sent every weekday, its obvious education has progressed beyond a teacher with a piece of chalk and a blackboard.

“Times are evolving so people are comfortable teaching and learning online,” said Bob Beatty, Chief Information Officer Information Technology Services. “FanshaweOnline allows students to access all of their courses in one convenient place and that's the magic of it.”

Fanshawe began to offer online services to instructors as a supplementary teaching aid in 2002 under the Desire2Learn format, which incorporates registration, instant messaging, course material, and links to other college services like the testing centre.

Over the summer Information Technology Services upgraded to the 7.4 system, which gave the service 80 per cent more storage and increased the speed by 40 per cent.

Prior to the five-year contract with Desire2Learn, Fanshawe programs and classes were segregated within systems like WebCT, which students and staff found hard to use.

General Studies offer the most courses with online supplements than any other academic division at Fanshawe. The program currently offers over 270 courses that have online enhancements, while last year the General Studies curriculum only had 185 connected. Health Sciences, Business Studies and Continuing Education rate among the top academic divisions with online supplements.

Beatty attributes FanshaweOnline's success mostly to momentum, but also said the students who asked their instructors for more online resources fueled more interest.

Online quizzing has risen 33 per cent this year and many instructors are opting for the new form of testing because results are instant, unlike marking by hand or scantron marking, which can take more than a week for proper results.

Weekends are even a busy time for FanshaweOnline, which makes it hard for IT services to do maintenance. Beatty said even though they haven't experienced any major problems in the system, minor glitches are hard to fix because students use the service 24 hours a day, which leaves no downtime for maintenance.
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