University online courses are becoming an important alternative to traditional forms of education. We can now have access to online education from universities and colleges to earn a degree. This research funded by an Internal Research Grant from Bethlehem University aims at creating an electronic learning environment by making available online one of the courses in the Journalism Minor: Editing & Design JMCO 332.

The course is presented as a Homepage that includes the following modes:

Mode 1- An introduction to the course including a table of content, a presentation explaining how technology is to be used by the student and the teacher, and a virtual tour of the course. Mode 1 with the links to the introduction, table of content and the guided tour is available online at http://qshomali.bethlehem.edu/jmco332

Mode 1: The Introductory Page

Mode 2- The second mode includes the course-working window. The browser window is divided into 3 frames, where the list of learning topics is mentioned in the banner and the units in the content. The course pages and navigation buttons itself are displayed in the main frame. The supporting pages will be displayed in separate browser windows after the corresponding buttons of the control panel are activitated.

Course Main Working Window

The main frame of the course Main Working window provides a general overview of the course requirements. It includes also general information to the student about the following items:
A-How to get information about the course.
b- How to register in the course.
c- Summary of the course & Tools needed to view the course materials and
Search Tools
d- Outline of the course
e- References and additional Reading
f- Quizzes, exams & Homework: course assignments explain clearly how
Technology is to be used by students. In addition, include clearly stated expectations defining minimal levels of student participation.
g- Introducing the Teacher
h- How to contact the Teacher: internal communication tools used by the
Student and the instructor to elaborate on course content.

Course requirements
Registered users can use the electronic course by using valid usernames and passwords assigned by the course system administrator. The user name in this version of the course is qshomali, and the password is JMCO332. The course server site should be located in the computer center in order to grant sufficient network capacity. In cases where search site is not available, a local CDROM can be used to deliver the course material to a non-local server site.

Project Aims & Objectives:

- Preparation of the course material in an electronic form, which can be used online, and in the classroom
- Testing the possibilities of using online courses at the university and inside a class
- Testing the performance of a selected number of students with the performance of regular students. Two students were given access to the course material online in the second semester, and few meetings were held in order to test the course material in class.

One of the main objectives of this course is to help the students in the event of closure or absence to follow the course online. The structure of material and the Site Map are designed to enable the student to fulfill all the necessary requirements of the university without being present in the class. Further more, the material will be useful for students who need to make an independent study course in order to fulfill all the requirements of graduation in case the course was not offered or is in conflict with other required courses.

A table of content, which show all the major course units, and contents facilitates the orientation and update process. Lecture texts, which are the contents of the lecture including texts, figures, tables and some multimedia resources. Quizzes and homework were prepared for all units of the course. Every Quiz included an introduction and specific instruction and Trouble Shooting Instructions. The course focus on two major areas: academic rigor and content robustness. It focuses also on the involvement of the students in the course. Students are motivated with visual and auditory stimuli.

A system of communication between the student and the teacher was developed: E-mail, MNS messenger, to help the student solve the problems that he faces. Office hours were planed to enable students contact the teacher individually or collectively through the MNS. The site contains a number of links to relevant, external www.sites. Obviously, they will only be accessible in case you are connected to the Internet. The design of the course was done in a way that helps the student to reach any section of the material and print sections of it and perform other necessary operations.
.

During the preparation of the course, the following approaches were taken:
Analysis of the user requirements involving students, and member of faculty.
Preparation of existing course material, text and pictures
Selection of appropriate internet browser and software like the FrontPage and MNS Internet Explorer or specific multimedia players.
Development of animation to be used as part of the electronic course
Development of methods for course administration and registration.

The number of pages in the current course is 684 and the number of pictures used is 411. Many of the pages are linked together and the total number of links in the current course is 2655 link. Most of them are pointing to other files within the current course.

Assumptions& Conclusions:
Traditional classroom use face-to-face communication can develop a closer relationship between the student and teacher. However, in the recent experiments, I found that some actually learn better online than they do face to face. The online course might include something, which could help solve the human constraints. I found also that the use of the material in class help enhance the ability of students to learn more easily due to the possibility of presenting examples and images ready made to the students. By working in this project, I found out that using online courses to replace face-to-face communication teach the students certain skills that might not be available in the class communication; namely:
a- learn alone
b- learn more
c- control of the time element

The running costs of the electronic course depend on the number of the course users. The running costs include the costs for maintenance, content and system update and technical support. The average cost per student of 100 JD is seen as reasonable.

.