Posted: 4/10/07 Section: Diversions

Media Credit: Courtesy of CITES

The Illinois Compass Web site has become an almost universal part of life at the University for students and staff. In Fall 2006, over 3,000 instructors and nearly 34,000 students used the site, according to the Spring 2007 ITe@-ch newsletter, produced by CITES Educational Technologies.

With its wide usage, changes are in the works for the site, which professors currently use for purposes such as facilitating online class discussions, making announcements, distributing quizzes and assignments and posting documents like a class syllabus, notes, supplementary materials and study guides.

The currently-used form of the site has drawn mixed reviews.

Matt Cross, junior in Business, is a heavy user of Compass, with all five of his classes for the current semester on the site. Although he finds having a class Web site convenient, he said he would prefer to simply use the teacher's own site.

"I basically just don't like Compass in general," Cross said. Still, he appreciates having a Web site for tracking grades, taking quizzes and hearing announcements.

Michelle Beck, junior in LAS, found Compass' discussion boards helpful when they were used in a Spanish course to submit graded responses to the professor. However, she would like to see the site become more user-friendly.

"It doesn't function normally, like with the back buttons, and that gets really irritating," she said.

Teachers have found that Compass makes class more efficient. Bryan Dunne, who teaches a section of Astronomy 100, values being able to pass things back online rather than on paper during class time.

Rebecca Roach, visiting teaching associate, uses Compass for her Food Science and Human Nutrition 120 class, which has over 700 students. She said for a course that size, having a course management system is essential.

Teachers also say Compass has allowed more diverse learning opportunities. Dunne, for instance, says his students can take his quizzes multiple times, correcting missed answers, which he believes allows students to learn more.

A lack of familiarity with Compass seems to have hindered its usefulness.

"It takes a lot of time to get up to speed on Compass," Roach said. "I know that the potential for Compass is much greater than the levels to which I'm using it."

Cross agrees that better training could be useful. "Some teachers seem like they're just as confused about using it as students are," he said.

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