The National Teaching & Learning Forum site (http://www.ntlf.com) is well designed: uncluttered with easy, quick access and easy navigation throughout. The home page lists contents on the left‐hand side of the screen, a statement about what NTLF is about in page center, and a What’s New column on the right‐hand side of the screen with scrolling text, so that the column does not take up too much space on the page. The scrolling is not distracting, but it does call attention to that section of the page. Scrolled links include a FAQ, the latest issue of the newsletter, a link to selected books available for order through Amazon.com, and a “Subscribe or renew” link.
The Web page includes a site map. There is a well‐written section from the editor entitled “About NTLF”. It is here where the readers get the most information about the newsletter, its origins, its audience, and its expansion and development. The Forum began publication in the Fall of 1991, as a joint venture with the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education. By 1993 the publication had become big enough and successful enough that it needed a new home. It found one with Oryx Press.
From the beginning, the editor, James Rhem, wanted The National Teaching and Learning Forum to be a “different sort of newsletter”. He had a good deal of experience with newsletters and felt that the fact that we live in an age pressed for time “only increased the need for good writing”. Though survey after survey reveal that faculty care deeply about teaching, it is not something they easily talk about with their peers. One reason for this, Rhem believes, might be the “lack of a serious, but not ponderous, forum”.
Around 1990, through the leadership of Russ Edgerton and Pat Hutchings at the American Association for Higher Education, the idea of “a conversation about teaching began to gain currency. As one thinks of a conversation among intelligent people discussing matters of real importance to them, one quickly understands the kind of discourse the Forum strives to create”, says the editor. “I saw a banquet table, and I wanted to fill it with the full range of rhetorical nourishment. I would offer the things a good host offers in the way of guiding and contributing to the conversation, but I would invite as many faculty as I could to speak up and contribute their ideas … The contents range as widely as good conversation. Topics embrace a wide diversity of cross‐disciplinary concerns”. The Forum also has quite a number of international subscribers. This is probably due to the fact that much valuable research on teaching and learning has been done outside the USA, and the Forum has introduced this important work to many of its US readers. According to Rhem, “The conversation grows and changes, but the mission and focus of the publication hasn’t changed at all”. From the very beginning, he envisioned “an online version (of the newsletter) that could offer readers expanded, interactive access to the best information and discussion of teaching possible”. That online presence has become a reality. “In a world of fast‐food encounters and breathless ‘busy‐ness’, The National Teaching and Learning Forum has managed to create a sustained and sustaining conversation about teaching and learning”, Rhem says ‐ and he extends an invitation: “I hope you’ll join it”.
A Search link provides the reader with keyword search and Boolean capability. One may sort by search score, document title, type of document, or size of document in bytes. A maximum number of hits can be set anywhere from 25 to 500.
A Subscribe/Renew link describes the newsletter as being published six times per year at a cost of US$39. There is an online subscription form. AAHE members receive a 15 percent discount the first time they subscribe. Subscriptions outside North America are US$41. A money‐back guarantee is offered with any subscription. It is possible to cancel within 60 days for a full refund; after 60 days, a subscription refund is prorated. Publishers will accept billing in the form of an institutional PO or a credit card. Subscribers receive six 12‐page issues per year plus future access to a searchable archive of past issues. Sample issues can be downloaded in PDF file format. Site license subscribers have access to complete issues, and institutions interested in a site license can bring the newsletter to all faculty on their campuses. They can also choose where they would like to access the site: on the institution’s own server or on the one at NTLF. In the former case, the institution is sent a subscription service agreement to sign. A 10 per cent discount is available for multiple year subscriptions.
The online version of the newsletter provides special hot links that allow direct communication with the authors of each article, the editor, or other subscribers throughout the world. The electronic version of the newsletter also provides faster access to Forum content. The reader can gain instant connection to Web sites hyperlinked in articles and to supplemental resources on teaching and learning. The newsletter is seen as a way to advance the issue of teaching and learning. “Interactive and immediate exchange of ideas and information on a local, national, and international level will keep teaching and learning at the forefront of the education agenda”.
A clearly written copyright notice from the Forum and Oryx Press allows use of newsletter material for non‐commercial purposes on campus or within the campus network. As long as the copyright notice attached to the article is retained, libraries and registered campus network users may download, save, and print articles for personal use, or download, print, and distribute articles in multiple copies for classroom use as long as they are not sold for commercial purposes.
With regard to the Submitting Manuscripts section, articles can be general in nature or discipline‐specific. Prospective authors should keep a diverse readership in mind ‐ all disciplines, all states, and an increasingly international audience.
It is possible to view both current and previous issues. Previous issues contain sample articles taken from past issues. Only subscribers, though, will have access to complete issues in the forthcoming archives of past issues.
The Library link includes several sections. One of those sections is on reference materials, where it is possible to order selected books from an Amazon.com link. There is a bibliography of “classic materials on teaching and learning”, including full‐text materials. One may also find links to ERIC Higher Education Digests and browse Dissertation Abstracts for recent dissertations on teaching and learning topics.
The Special Features link has an FAQ and Supplemental Materials from current and past issues of the Forum and from the Carnegie Chronicle. A Virtual Companion Archive contains papers such as “Who owns what faculty create?” and “Creating and maintaining a good course Web site”. There is also a link to a select and annotated listing of Web sites and higher education associations of interest to Forum readers. This is, in addition, a place for posting transcripts of talks, for example, “Learning, working, and playing in the digital age”, by John Seeley Brown, Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation. Slides from the 1999 AAHE Conference on Higher Education may be found here, as well.
Funding Resources contains a database of teaching and learning grants focusing on funds available for faculty and instructional development. There is a Faculty Salary Database by state, region, and across the nation. Under Teaching Community, readers may find a conference schedule by region or by month. Readers can also compare faculty integration of technology in teaching by using a University of Colorado Technology Survey. Also of interest includes “Quotations on teaching, learning, and education”, where readers are invited to submit quotations of their own. A Curiosities section, the editor’s “cupboard in cyberspace”, covers miscellaneous bits and pieces that do not quite fit anywhere else. Here, for example, readers may find papers on “Holy technology” and “Kentucky English”. Coming Soon is an archive for back issues of The National Teaching and Learning Forum.
Radio provides a link to a half‐hour radio program produced by the University of Iowa, “Teaching at Iowa”, co‐hosted by Carolyn Lieberg and Tom Rocklin, of the Center for Teaching, at the University of Iowa. Through an agreement with the university, the Forum is allowed to make these programs available through its Web site.
TalkBack provides a place for dialog among readers responding to articles published in the Forum. Posts may be sent to ntlf_online@www.ntlf.com Contributors should put the word “TALKBACK” all in caps in the subject line of the e‐mail followed by whatever subject words they consider appropriate.
Finally, there is a Sweepstakes link. By responding to a Web‐based user survey and making comments on the NTLF Web site, readers can win a year’s subscription to the Forum Newsletter or a book on teaching and learning from the ACE/Oryx Series on Higher Education.
This is an excellent site for any higher education employee interested in the teaching/learning process. Not only is there current information to help keep readers up‐to‐date in the field, but there are also links to classic material to which they can refer. This is a very informative and useful site and well worth the price. Highly recommended.
