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Web-Based Technology for Engaging Students across Vast Distances

by Sloan-C

Abstract

In web-based instruction the instructor can neither see nor hear the student. Therefore a robust web delivery system should support the instructor to monitor student activities, such as when a student logs on and what is accomplished. Another role of the instructor in a web-based course is to intervene when a student or group needs help. If the issue or problem is specific to a particular student, a private mail message may be the appropriate vehicle; however, if the message may benefit the group or the entire cohort, a bulletin board can be used. The system must also support the instructor in critiquing a student's work and responding to students' questions. These and related issues are discussed in terms of the WebCT delivery platform.

I. INTRODUCTION

With a little help from some specialized software, the World Wide Web can serve as an enormously productive avenue for teaching and learning. Students at disparate locations around the globe can be engaged in an effective learning process involving sophisticated courseware and asynchronous interaction with other students and instructors. But web-based instruction is as different from classroom instruction as driving an automobile is from flying a helicopter. While the destinations for an automobile and a helicopter may be the same, the route taken and the nature of the vehicle employed are very different.

In classroom instruction the tools available to the instructor include seeing and listening. The instructor sees facial expressions and other body language. The instructor hears words and senses accompanying emotions, including frustration, exhilaration, confusion, and satisfaction. Such feedback helps the instructor regulate the direction and pace of instruction.

In web-based instruction the instructor can neither see nor hear the student. Using a delivery platform such as WebCT [1], however, the instructor is provided with some web-specific tools, including an ability to monitor student activities. For example, WebCT provides the instructor with indications of when each student has logged on and what he or she has done while being logged on. If the student took a formative quiz at the end of a particular lesson, the scores he or she received each time the quiz was taken are accessible to the instructor. And when the student submits a written response to an assigned question in one of the practicums, the instructor, as well as the student's teammates, can read and critique the answer. The monitoring activity can then provide the instructor with other opportunities to interact with students individually through private email, or with the members of their group or the entire class (called a "cohort") through the bulletin board. For example, the instructor can choose to motivate students who have not performed assigned tasks within the schedule established for the course. This is usually done with a private mail message indicating the deficiency and requesting the student to catch up. The motivating function can also be attempted in messages to the entire cohort in which the instructor lists the tasks that must be accomplished during a particular period. While these are listed in the course calendar, it is helpful to reinforce them in a message posted to the bulletin board.

Another important role for the instructor in a web-based course is intervention whenever a student, group, or the entire cohort needs some help in dealing with an issue or in addressing a problem. If the issue or problem is specific to a particular student, a private mail message may be the appropriate vehicle; however, if the message may benefit the group or the entire cohort, the bulletin board can be used.

Perhaps the most important role for the instructor is critiquing a student's work. If a student did poorly on one of the formative quizzes and did not retake the quiz after selectively reviewing the material, the instructor might point out in a private mail message that the quiz should be taken again. Also, after a student has answered an assigned practicum question, received comments from group mates and revised the answer, the instructor should then provide a thorough critique of the answer. As practicum questions provide opportunities for the students to use their newly acquired knowledge for solving (scientific) puzzles or (technological) problems and, thus, reflect the extent to which they have acquired higher-order cognitive skills, the critiquing function is especially valuable in helping the students develop these skills, even in an introductory course.

Finally, an especially important role for the instructor in a web-based course is responding to students' questions. This is based on the notion that learning requires that the student personalize knowledge, that is, students must relate what is being learned to their individual experiences and circumstances. As questions are vehicles for helping them to do this, it is important to ensure that their questions are satisfactorily answered. Also, as one of the reasons a student has chosen to take a particular course may be to learn some very specific concepts, processes, or procedures, the instructor should make every attempt to ensure that this occurs, even if what is desired may fall outside the scope of the course.

II. INTERACTIVE COURSEWARE

Interactive courseware for the World Wide Web may be termed Asynchronous Learning Resources (ALRs), and includes knowledge-based and problem-based types. Knowledge-based ALRs help students assimilate knowledge on specific subjects, while problem-based ALRs help them acquire analytical and problem-solving skills.

A. Knowledge-Based ALRs
The heart of knowledge-based ALRs is the "instructional module" consisting of a series of instructional units covering a particular topic, or a related series of [2]. Instructional units are composed of: 1) a graphic with which to convey a concept, process, relationship, or overview, 2) an associated text, perhaps in scrollable form (depending on the amount of text required), to provide a brief explanation of the graphic, and 3) navigation icons by which to access succeeding (or preceding or looped) instructional units.

There are several types of instructional modules, including the linear type, with simple and complex subtypes, and the flexible type. The linear-type module is composed of instructional units organized in a linear series. Once the student accesses the module, he or she may proceed forward through the series using the forward navigation icon (--->) to access the succeeding instructional unit. If necessary, the student can re-access the preceding instructional unit by selecting the backward navigation icon (<---). Students may elect to study a new module any time by using the MENU navigation icon. When all instructional units are organized in a linear series, the module is a simple linear type; however, if some units are organized as loops that can be launched from one of the units in series using the LOOP navigation icon, the module is a complex linear type containing supplementary information that the student may elect to access. The flexible-type module is composed of instructional units in which different submenus and graphic/text combinations can be brought up through point-and-click operations conducted on a single screen. The flexible-type modules work well for accessing an array of information and images relating to particular issues or topics, such as specific diseases, insect pests, or plant species.

The specific nature of courseware varies depending on its instructional purpose. For example, instructional modules may be used to support a conventionally taught, lecture-based course in which students may access the modules to preview the material before attending a lecture, review class material at a later time, or supplant a lecture they are unable to attend. While some students may find the modules a suitable substitute for all lectures, thus obviating the need to attend class except for exams and selected exercises, others find that the modules, used alone, lack some of the essential elements of class participation. A third alternative that appears to offer considerable promise, especially for distance students, is to employ the modules as a constituent of knowledge-based ALRs organized as lessons on the World Wide Web.

1. Lessons
Lessons can be designed with one or more instructional modules sandwiched between an introductory statement for defining the learning landscape and an exercise in which the students' ability to apply newly acquired knowledge is tested. The introductory statement can be supplemented with photographs hyperlinked to words or phrases in the text to enhance visualization, and can conclude with a list of questions that establish learning objectives.

The last component of a lesson is a formative quiz testing student recall and comprehension of the material covered in the instructional modules. This exercise was initially developed using a course-management software package called Mallard developed by Brown and Swafford at the University of Illinois [3]; currently, the quiz feature contained within WebCT [1] is being used for this purpose. Upon completion of the quiz, a student can immediately check to determine which questions were answered correctly and which were not. Based on the outcome, the student may review the material in the instructional modules and retake the same or a similar version of the quiz, perhaps several times. Through successive iterations of instructional-module review and quiz taking, the student can progressively develop mastery of the material covered in the lessons. Through WebCT, students may employ a search command to locate specific instructional units containing the information needed for their review and thus avoid having to navigate their way through an entire module in order to find specific topics.

2. Practicums
Practicums are problem-centered learning resources by which students develop the higher-order cognitive skills important in problem solving. If a problem is expressed in the form of a scientific puzzle, questions to be addressed might include: What is this, what does this mean, or how does this work? If expressed as a simple technological problem, the questions might be: If this is broken, how can it be fixed, or how can this be made to work better? In a complex system one must be concerned not only with specific components of the system, but with the array of interrelationships that exist among components; thus, with complex technological problems the questions might be: If this were done to influence how Component A functions, what might the effects be on Components B and C? Finally, if the problematic situation involves people (see examples of "case studies" in Turgeon and Barbieri, [4]), the important questions could include all of the above plus the following: Will one's supervisor agree that the proposed solution is proper and feasible, and can he or she be convinced to allocate the resources needed for its implementation?

Effectively dealing with problems requires a multiphase process of inquiry [5]. The first phase is divergence. This involves the systematic accumulation of information to accurately describe a problematic situation. If all necessary information is not available, one may be required to fill in the gaps with assumptions regarding key aspects of the problem.

The second phase is assimilation. This involves the use of relevant knowledge of concepts, processes and relationships to properly analyze available information and develop a thorough understanding of the situation. For example, one's knowledge of the etiology of plant diseases would be very valuable in accurately diagnosing a diseased population of plants from symptoms evident in the population.

The third phase is convergence. In this phase, issues emerging from the analysis are identified and various strategies for addressing them proposed and evaluated. Also in this phase, decision-making occurs through the selection of an implementation strategy. For example, in a poorly drained soil in which sharp textural differences in the profile interfere with water percolation and aeration, the issue might be: unfavorable conditions for plant growth due to inadequate soil aeration associated with poor internal drainage. A strategy for addressing this issue might then be: extensive tillage and modification of the soil to blend the constituents of the different textural layers, along with some incorporated organic matter, into a uniform, adequately drained medium.

The fourth and final phase is accommodation. This involves implementation of a selected strategy for either solving the problem or significantly improving the problematic situation. In complex situations involving people, strategy implementation could involve several functions, including: establishing objectives, organizing work, hiring and instructing personnel in tasks to be performed, motivating personnel to obtain desired performance, and tracking progress and making appropriate adjustments en route. In other words, accommodation may involve the classical management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling.

B. Problem-Based Learning
Problem-based learning (PBL) can be characterized as a cognitive process focusing on problems. In PBL, a particular problem type, such as a scientific puzzle, a technological problem, or a case study, is used to provide students with experience in the various phases of the process of inquiry described earlier. While conventional instruction typically focuses on the "lower-order" cognitive skills of recall (memorizing facts), comprehension (understanding concepts), and possibly application (applying concepts to contexts other than those in which they were learned), PBL specifically focuses on the "higher-order" cognitive skills as characterized by Bloom [6]. These include analysis (enriching understanding through interpretation of facts), which occurs in the assimilation phase, and synthesis (developing solution or amelioration strategies) and evaluation (assessing alternative strategies in order to select the best one), which occur in the convergence phase. When first confronting problematic situations, many agricultural-science students move directly from divergence to accommodation as they try to apply cookbook solutions drawn from their technological bag of tricks. In PBL exercises they can begin to appreciate the importance of detailed analysis and careful planning to effective problem solving as they are led through the process of inquiry.

In the face-to-face (FTF) classroom environment, PBL is facilitated by a series of questions posed by the instructor. The processes of asking thought-provoking questions, listening to student responses, and responding to those responses, is collectively called "discussion teaching" and is thoroughly explained in a book edited by Christensen, Garvin and Sweet [7]. Distance students can be engaged in similar discussion classes via interactive television; however, the spontaneity of the discussion is dampened somewhat by the brief lag time between the transmission and reception of each exchange. Where interactive-television facilities are not available, "chat" software is sometimes used as a vehicle for synchronous discussion on networked computers; however, a student's typing skills may limit his or her level of participation in the discussion. Asynchronous exchanges can be conducted using several variations of electronic mail, including listserves and bulletin boards, to engage students at multiple locations. With asynchronous communication, however, the lag time between exchanges can expand to several hours or days, requiring a less-spontaneous, more-calculated approach to discussion teaching.

Another alternative is to incorporate questions directly into Web-based practicums. Following the problem statement, the practicum contains a series of multiple-choice questions designed to lead students through the process of inquiry described earlier. If a student selects the wrong answer to a particular question, a response appears indicating that the answer is incorrect, followed by a brief explanation and an invitation to try again. If the right answer is selected, a response appears indicating that the answer is correct; this is followed by a confirming explanation, as well as explanations of why the unselected answers were incorrect, and an invitation to proceed to the next question.

Computer-based interactive courseware can be developed to enable students to acquire the entire range of cognitive skills contained in Bloom's Taxonomy. Graphic-intensive instructional modules sandwiched between an introductory statement and a formative quiz support recall-type knowledge and comprehension. Practicums composed of problem statements and a series of questions for leading students through a disciplined process of inquiry enable students to acquire the higher-order cognitive skills of application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

III. REFERENCES

1. Goldberg, M. W. Using a web-based course authoring tool to develop sophisticated web-based courses. In Web-Based Instruction. B.H. Khan (ed.) 1997. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Educational Technologies Publications).
2. Turgeon, A.J. 1997.The Turfgrasses, Web-based courseware for a 3-credit introductory turfgrass course. http://www.cas.psu.edu/docs/casdept/turf/turf235/turf235.html, (University Park, PA, The Pennsylvania State University).
3. Brown, D. J. and M. L. Swafford. 1996. MallardTM Asynchronous Learning on the Web (Washington, D.C., ASEE Annual Conference: Capitalizing on Engineering Education).
4. Turgeon, A. J. and K. E. Barbieri, 1996.Case studies in turfgrass management, Web-based courseware for a 3-credit, writing-intensive, resident- and distance-education course for senior-undergraduate and graduate majors in turfgrass science, containing nine decision cases along with study materials, downloadable assignments and other supporting materials. http://www.cas.psu.edu/docs/casdept/turf/turf436/turf436.html (University Park, PA, The Pennsylvania State University).
5. Turgeon, A.J. 1993. Application of Systems Thinking to Turfgrass Management . International Turfgrass Society Research Journal 7:930-936. eds. R. N. Carrow, N. E. Christians and R. C. Shearman (Overland Park, KS, Intertec Publishing Corp.).
6. Bloom, B.S. (ed.), 1956.Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook 1, The Cognitive Domain. (New York, Longman).
7. Christensen, C. R., D. A. Garvin and A. Sweet (eds.) 1991. Education for Judgment: the Artistry of Discussion Leadership (Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press).