ABSTRACT
On many campuses, the push to increase online course offerings goes hand in
hand with the shrinking budgets that are part of a new era of austerity. For
institutions and program administrators, Web-based delivery promises to
eliminate the overhead costs related to classroom technology and maintenance,
attract new student populations, and generate new revenues. Furthermore, content
management systems make it easier than ever to share materials or reproduce a
single class across multiple sections of a service course in business or technical
writing. Standardization of online service courses offers a way to ensure students
enrolled in various sections of the same course have consistent experiences
across all sections. Further, standardization allows administrators to assign more
sections to contingent instructors-part-time, graduate teaching assistant, and
so on-secure in the knowledge that despite differences in approach to pedagogy
and teaching experience, instructors will be delivering a consistent product.
