Design, development and teaching of innovative Web-based introductory "Computer Information Systems" course

The state-of-the-art InterLabs Web-lecturing tool has been designed, developed, and tested at the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems and the InterLabs Research Institute, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois as a part of a National Science Foundation grant. It is based on active utilization of innovative Web-based software engineering, portal, multiagent, streaming multimedia, communication, teaching, learning and information technologies. The introductory "Computer Information Systems" CIS102 course is a required course for all freshman students with major in either engineering, business, science or education areas. As a result, the innovative Web-based CIS102 course was aimed to (1) provide students of various major areas with highest-possible learning convenience, and (2) meet different requirements for CIS102 course of various Bradley departments. The new CIS102 online course was designed and developed by faculty of the Computer Science and Information Systems department in cooperation with faculty from other Bradley colleges. Student formative and summative evaluations and academic performance clearly demonstrate the advantages of the innovative online teaching and learning technologies based on the InterLabs Web-lecturing tool.