In March, BYU began offering its first course on the Internet.
Religion 324, Doctrine and Covenants, is now available through the World Wide Web. “The Web course is a very important step forward for Independent Study,” said Dwight Laws, director of Independent Study.
Access to the Religion 324 class is through Independent Study’s home page. Students can browse through the course information, get an idea of how the course works, and even complete a sample assignment, said David Nielson, the technology and instructional designer for Independent Study. Registering and paying for the course can also be completed on the home page.
Students enrolled in the course will be able to receive instruction and complete the lessons over the Internet. The exception will be testing, which will be monitored in person by a proctor in the student’s area for security reasons.
Despite this technological advance, BYU officials say it’s too early to say whether other home-study courses and regular college courses will be adapted to the Internet.
“We’ll see how this progresses over the next few months and see what we learn about faculty and student satisfaction with the course,” said Cheryl Brown, associate academic vice president.
BYU professor of Church history and doctrine, Keith Perkins, developed the course and worked with a design team to adapt it for use on the Internet.
