Satadru Sen

Satadru Sen

Satadru Sen
Department of History
University of Washington, Seattle Campus



Technology Brings Timeliness to Courses

Satadru Sen, an Adjunct Professor in the History department, originally started using technology in his classes because his department advised him that it

"I wouldn't have been able to do as much with the course without the Web site. It is more interesting with it both for the students and for me."

was important. He soon realized that he and his students would benefit from it and began investigating further. In teaching Medieval and Mughal India Winter Quarter 1999, and Modern Indian Civilization Spring Quarter 1999, he found that the class was better for everyone with a course Web site.

Not that Time Consuming

While most people believe that incorporating technology with instruction is extremely time consuming, Sen estimates that he spent an hour a day for a couple of weeks and had a respectable course Web site. While he was afraid earlier of "crashing the whole UW system," he learned the basics in a week and never had any serious difficulties that someone in the CTLT couldn't help him solve.

Slowly Adding Tools

Beginning modestly with the CROW (Course Reserves on the Web) program through the [image name: sen_en.gif] University Libraries in Fall 1998, Sen slowly added more technology into his courses, eventually unveiling a course Web site in mid Winter. His spring class used a Web site as an integral part of the course. Also, Sen has been building a collection of digital images-now containing more than 85 files-for his students to use outside of class to further their understanding of course material. Digitizing his pictures ensures Sen that he does not have to turn them into slides, carry a projector around, and file them away.

Enhances Course

Sen cites these benefits to having a class Web page: the ability to guide students more effectively to resources, greater coherence of presentation material than just handing things out in class, not having to keep track of handouts, and the ability to use resources that he hadn't been able to use in class before. For example, Sen has his students read foreign newspapers each week and give a report on an event. Because the University Libraries get these newspapers some time after the events happen, this makes the class more up to date while providing greater interactivity.

Students in History can also use the History Writing Center to help improve their papers. Most students forget about the History Writing Center after it is first mentioned in class. By placing a link to it on his course home page, Sen can encourage students to check it out and remind them that it is an available resource. Sen has also just begun to use Catalyst's Peer Review tool to show students examples of good essays that previous students have written.

Sen plans to make a Web site for each course now, especially since some pages can be reused from course to course. Students can use materials that they otherwise wouldn't have access to, and they like having access to the materials online.


by Dana Bostrom, April 1999

Note (May 2001): Satadru Sen does not currently work at the University of Washington.

Please note: Peer Review is no longer available. Learn more about using other Catalyst Web Tools to accomplish similar tasks.