REPORT ON INTERACTIVE
WEB-BASED
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Dr Peter Tylee
7 April, 1998
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Report Request and Status
This report is in response to a request received on
1 April 1998 from the Head, School of Nursing. The author was advised that School Development
Committee asked that the issue of interactive web-based teaching be raised at the Curriculum
Committee.
The report has the status of an interim report on
work in progress. Interactive web-based teaching has been implemented with three subjects serving
approximately 130 undergraduate and postgraduate students who have now accrued almost six weeks
experience with this innovative teaching method. Student and teacher response has been
overwhelmingly positive but the limited time period has not permitted a full evaluation.
This report is restricted to use in full, including
full attribution, both within and outside the Curriculum Committee. Contents
2. Sources of Information
In view of the limited time available this report
is generally restricted to the author's direct knowledge and experience. There has been no attempt
to refer to the literature or to write a quasi-academic paper. Information concerning the progress
made in interactive web-based teaching in other areas of the university has been received by
personal communication as indicated in the report. Feedback attributed to students has been both
anecdotal and part of ongoing formal evaluation conducted by the author. Contents
3. Clarification of Terms
The terms web-based teaching and interactive
web-based teaching are used interchangeably in this report. The author is aware that some
developers claim to be providing web-based teaching while providing little more than overhead
or similar materials, possibly within a PowerPoint viewer or similar product, embedded within
a web page. The term interactive web-based teaching is used to reinforce the importance of the
interactivity and to discriminate between the author's work and that of these other developers.
In other places the shorter term web-based teaching is used as the author takes the view that if
it is to be called teaching at all, it must be interactive, since interactivity is central to
the teaching process.
To avoid confusion, lectures provided on the web
are referred to as modules. In essence then, modules are the web-based equivalent of traditional
lectures, though the exact relationship remains flexible. For example, students may be informed
that a module is equivalent to two lectures. Contents
4. Why Develop Web-Based Teaching?
This section provides an overview of the background
to the development of this new teaching method and highlights several significant weaknesses in
traditional teaching methods that are directly addressed by web-based teaching. Contents
4.1 Background
There were two main reasons for the development
of web-based teaching and two secondary reasons. The two main reasons were:
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The educational advantages of an interactive web-based teaching-learning environment
when compared with either traditional lectures or external studies material.
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The desire to increase access for rural and remote nurses to educational opportunities by
increasing the flexibility of programs on the Albury/Wodonga Campus.
Whilst the most important reason remains the
educational advantage that interactive web-based teaching offers, the following secondary reasons
are acknowledged.
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The author has professional qualifications in information technology, is webmaster for the
School of Nursing on the Albury/Wodonga campus, and therefore had knowledge, skills and
opportunity.
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The author had a growing conviction that La Trobe was progressing far too slowly in this
important area and was running the risk of being left behind unless some initiative was
taken without further delay.
Enquiries have revealed that, whilst there is
considerable interest in development of web-based teaching within the University, the author's
work is the most advanced. A pilot project involving five students is being carried out on the
Bendigo Campus and another Department on the Albury/Wodonga Campus has placed overhead materials
on a web page, but no interactivity is included, beyond starting and stopping the presentation of
static slides. Contents
4.2 Some Problems with Traditional Lectures
Even with the best intentions, careful preparation,
skilful presentation and excellent resources, traditional lectures present several problems to
those concerned with teaching and learning. Some of these include the following.
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Lectures are offered at set times, usually once, with no built in flexibility. If any students
are unable to attend, for whatever reason, they are generally unable to have the lecture
repeated. Videotaped lectures are generally not well received by students due to poor quality
recording, nor by lecturers who sometimes feel intimidated, nor by administrators who are aware
of the cost.
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The lecturer determines the pace at which students proceed. In spite of some rhetoric to the
contrary, in practice, little allowance can be made for the student who is unable to keep up,
or for the student who finds the lecture content redundant. All must proceed at the pace
determined by the lecturer. Frequently this is too slow and students lose concentration.
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Students are passive in the lecture process with the information frequently going from overheads
to a student's paper via the hand without much cognitive processing taking place.
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There is little opportunity for interaction with the majority of students present in the lecture
room. Even with good questioning techniques, if the lecturer asks a question, one or two of the
students may respond but the lecturer is unaware of the understanding achieved by students who
do not answer.
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There is rapid knowledge decay of information that students obtain, which may be heard but not
processed or used in some way. This is the case for most lectures.
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The lecturer has only a limited understanding of how much the students have understood about
the material presented, or what issues the students want to discuss and explore further.
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Neither the lecturer nor the students have much opportunity to correct misunderstandings of
lecture material.
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There is limited opportunity for students to ask questions, especially if they are intimidated
by a large group presence in a lecture setting.
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Lecturers are only human and have varying performance levels: sometimes excellent, sometimes
unsatisfactory.
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Lecturers can be unavailable to give a lecture due to illness or other reasons.
In summary, there are issues clustered around
availability, timing and pace on the one hand, and processing, application and interactivity on
the other. Traditional lectures are not as interactive for all students as might be imagined. Contents
4.3 Some Problems with Standard External Studies
Whilst external studies can address some of the
problems of traditional lectures, if employed to target all of the problems listed above, the
solution may create significant administrative problems. In the usual off-campus application there
are some problems with this mode too.
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There can be a sense of isolation. Students may feel isolated from the rest of the student body
and the lecturer and the lecturer may feel isolated from the students.
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There can be a lack of interaction and 'discussion' among students and between students and the
lecturer.
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There can be a lack of resources such as the library, additional search facilities and other
materials within ready access.
-
There is a lack of ready contact with the lecturer for asking questions and seeking
clarification of the external studies material. Telephone contact can be inefficient.
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There is a tendency for feedback on material that has been submitted to the lecturer to be
returned slowly due to transit delays. Even without significant transit delays there is an
educationally undesirable delay between submitting material for assessment and receiving
feedback.
In summary, the main issues are related to
isolation and difficulty accessing resources. Contents
5. Web-Based Teaching Developments
Three subjects have to this point had their lecture
component conducted on the web. The subjects are WNR 102 Therapeutic Communication in Nursing,
WNR 304 Primary Health Care and WNU 342 Health Promotion/Health Education. The subjects still have
face-to-face tutorials/workshops and WNR 102 and WNR 304 have their clinical components.
Following are specific features that address the
problems outlined above. Contents
5.1 Features of the Current Webs
The web-based teaching offered at Albury/Wodonga
contains the following features.
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Student interactivity with the modules (lecture material), including interactive exercises,
self-test questions, pretest and post-test material.
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Electronic submission of material to the lecturer with subsequent rapid feedback.
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E-mail access to lecturers for asking questions.
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On-line discussion lists for virtual classroom interaction between and among the subject
participants and lecturers.
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On-line links to resources (for example the Australian Bureau of Statistics, virtual libraries
and Australian and International sites relevant to the material covered in the subject).
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Direct links to selected readings for the subject.
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Direct knowledge of who is progressing through the material.
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Posting of information to the students through the notices section of the web.
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Rapid detection of students who do not understand material, enabled through the feedback to
the lecturers.
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Ability to rapidly correct student misunderstanding of material.
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Consistency in the teaching materials.
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Availability at any time the student is able to access the internet.
The web material is dynamic. Adjustments to the
material, additions to the site, directions to the students and so forth can be made at any stage,
including while the web is operational, by those with authoring access.
The students remain active and have greater control
over their learning. They interact with the materials on an individual basis. They can work on the
material when it suits them, take as long on a session as necessary being in control of the pace,
repeat the whole or parts of the materials and obtain feedback readily. The students can interact
with the materials in total privacy as much of their input triggers responses without being
recorded. The addition of direct internet links to such web sites as the World Health Organisation
and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, for example, helps broaden the campus horizon to national
and international levels. Contents
5.2 Development Overview
When developing the material for the web, three
areas were considered.
5.2.1 The educational aspects of the modules
This included the following.
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The information/content, its relevance, recency, sequencing and so forth.
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The interactive aspects of the modules: the interaction with the material, the interaction
with the lecturer and the interaction with other students.
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The direct links to readings that might have been placed on closed reserve.
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The direct links to other Australian and international sites of interest.
5.2.2 The programming of the web
Due to the rapid pace of progress in web technology,
particularly software, and the tendency of major commercial stakeholders to release non-compatible
products ahead of the periodic updating of international standards, consideration had to be given
to benchmarking software versions to establish a commonly supported starting point. The principal
web browsers supported are Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape's Navigator 4. These were
selected because of the advanced features they offer and because they are available across a wide
range of platforms (IBM Compatibles, Apple Macs, etc) and are available free of charge. Microsoft's
Internet Explorer 3.02 is also currently supported, as it too is free and will run on a wider age
range of computers.
Commitment to browsers from both Microsoft and
Netscape meant that the language used to write the programs that operate the interactivity had to
be JavaScript, since it can be executed within both proprietary models. However, there had to be
two versions of some programs to allow for the differences between Microsoft's and Netscape's
implementations of Java.
This programming enables client-sided operation of
much of the interactivity (that is, the program is downloaded within the web page and executes on
the user's computer), which significantly reduces the load on the web server computer. This is very
important when a large number of students all decide to access the teaching web at the same time.
Server-sided programming utilises Common Gateway
Interface technology that provides high levels of security for the server. This is important to
provide protection for the University's computing system.
Actual programming of the HyperText Markup Language
(HTML) was compatible with the HTML 3 standard. A variety of Rapid Application Development (RAD)
tools were used in this process.
5.2.3 The University's equipment and timetabling
The computers in the laboratories on the
Albury/Wodonga campus are being well managed. There is a policy of upgrading on a regular basis to
ensure that students benefit from advances in hardware and software technology. The Information
Technology staff on the campus however, did not have the time or expertise to perform the necessary
installation of enabling software on the web server and associated programming. Although Bundoora
based staff were willing to assist they were not able to. Accordingly, the author had to perform
all of this, assisted by Peter Tylee Jnr, a computer-engineering student, on a short-term contract
basis.
The nature of the content that could be programmed
into the current web was restricted due to limits in the computing technology available in the
University's computer laboratories. The introduction of sound will be possible from the beginning
of second semester 1998.
Since the web based teaching has been implemented
on an internet web server, rather than on an intranet web server, students who have internet access
can "dial into" the teaching webs from anywhere on the World Wide Web. Some students regularly
access their web from home where they have internet access through an Internet Service Provider
(ISP) and others gain access through public libraries, local public schools and their workplaces
(hospitals). Whilst this access is good evidence of flexibility, the author ensured that campus
computer laboratory time was booked to enable all students sufficient access to the teaching webs. Contents
5.3 Evaluation to Date
The evaluation of web-based teaching has consisted
of gathering the following information. Students':
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use of the web modules,
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understanding of the concepts contained within the web materials,
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utilisation of web features such as notices and discussion lists, and
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perceptions/experiences of learning from web based materials.
Preliminary analysis of the data has been positive.
This is particularly the case of the students' perceptions of their web-based learning. Examples of
this include comments such as, "the interactive exercises are great", "everything is there and
there's no time wasting", "you can test yourself", "the learning is great", "I really know I know
things", "the material is really great, I just love it" and so forth.
Although it was considered that students might have
issues or concerns about computer skills, this does not seem to have been the case. Indeed,
students have mentioned feeling empowered by their enhanced computer skills. One student said,
"I feel really good about even learning about the computers". Contents
6. Resource Implications
The web-based teaching was primarily undertaken as
an educational endeavour. This means that accurate records of the amount of time involved in
developing the materials, the programming and setting up of the university equipment and ensuring
that the web would reliably run, were not kept. The first of any innovative projects are always the
most time consuming, as there are a number of decisions and infrastructure setups that need to be
undertaken that are able to remain in place for subsequent developments.
However the three aspects outlined in 5 above could
be seen as areas with resource implications. Contents
6.1 Content development
Content development (in the model developed thus
far) involves more than placing overheads on the web and indeed more than writing a typical
lecture. The process is more like writing a chapter in a book. The material needs to be fully
developed and in sufficient detail to facilitate a full understanding of the material. It is not
a collection of readings, but both a generation of and invitation to a new understanding of reading
via analysis and synthesis of these materials.
In addition to this the interactive exercises need
to be written. This has not traditionally been a part of the standard lecture and requires
considerable imagination and creativity so that the students are able to, and indeed want to,
interact with the material. Similarly, thought has to be given to the material that the students
are going to send back to the lecturer for comment and correction. These areas of feedback need
to be the central/key issues of the subject and again this is a development beyond what is usually
required in the standard lecture-by-lecture process.
The next area that has to be considered is finding
discussion points that are central to the subject but which the students will be sufficiently
challenged by and interested in to make comment on and thus to get the discussion functioning.
One may also find and assemble links to Australian and international sites that are of interest.
Identification of appropriate readings and conversion to an electronic form for web access can
also be completed. Many of these aspects are beyond what is usually developed for a standard set
of lectures for a subject or indeed for the material that is usually developed for an external
studies package.
Sufficient time and monetary resource allowances
need to be made to adequately compensate web authors for developments that go beyond a standard
lecture or the writing of external packages. Contents
6.2 Technical Expertise
This involves at least three distinct levels.
First, expertise must be available to select appropriate hardware and software with which to
implement the teaching webs. The selection must be able to avoid a large number of potential
compatibility problems that could prove costly. This should ideally be available within the
University's Information Technology Services Department. The developer of the programming
applications that enable the interactivity that is central to successful teaching and learning
requires the second level of expertise. The third level relates to the HTML programming. This
level can be made accessible to any lecturer who wants to develop web based teaching materials,
with some oversight and assistance from those with the higher levels of expertise. The ongoing
management of the web sites requires webmaster expertise and various models could be developed
to relate this to the above. Contents
6.3 University Equipment
Clearly the University needs to be able to provide
the necessary hardware and software to enable web-based teaching. The author privately funded
essential software for programming and web server operation on the Albury/Wodonga campus.
The hardware and software required would depend
on what is currently available within the School and the University (such as web server space).
Requirements could range from updated computers to perform as servers to RAD software packages,
digital cameras, and so forth.
Being internet based, it is possible for all
teaching webs within the School to be housed on one server. There are reasons why this might be
desirable, especially in the short to medium term while expertise is being developed, and reasons
why this would be less than ideal. This matter could be explored further. Contents
7. Implications for Inter-Campus Teaching
This section requires further thought and development. What is true of existing materials may not
be relevant to new materials that could be developed. Some of the points to be considered are as
follows.
The subject management could be seen as a part of web authoring. The subject coordinator
communicates with students via the notices section of the web and supports, encourages and
challenges students to extend their ideas through the discussion section. The web can also change
in direction as new materials, ideas or research are uncovered. The material can be directly added
to the content section or set up as a link to a particular reading or an additional site.
Similarly the developments in the field of
information technology are ongoing and the web materials should ideally take advantage of these
developments. For example, the ability to use voice overlay and video clips was not feasible
until recently. It is hoped that advantage can be taken of these recent developments.
(At least when the university has the equipment to support the advancements.) This means that
the web material is different from an external package, which is written, published and has a
shelf life of say two to three years. There is no set and forget aspect to the web authoring. It may be possible to separate the initial
authoring of the web material from the ongoing development and management of the web material,
however the new subject coordinator would be required to have technical competence and author
access.
It is preferable that hysteria related to
competence and workloads be avoided! Contents
8. Preliminary Conclusions
Honest and insightful reflection by
experienced tertiary teachers readily identifies a number of weaknesses in the traditional
lecture-based models of teaching and learning. There are also weaknesses in traditional
external teaching models. A number of weaknesses in these traditional approaches were briefly
described and ways in which they can be directly addressed by the current web-based teaching
model were identified.
Issues of University policy development,
resource utilisation, staff workloads and the like are acknowledged as important. However,
the author invested private time and resources and viewed the policy vacuum as an opportunity
rather than an obstacle. Data now exists to inform discussion on the issues.
There is a significant move towards the use of
information technology in general, and the internet (including the 'web') in particular, in
support of teaching and learning within the tertiary education sector. The developments in
web-based teaching undertaken by the author within the School of Nursing at Albury/Wodonga are
at the forefront in the field and are significantly more advanced than other work being undertaken
within the University.
While student and lecturer feedback has been
overwhelmingly positive already, it is too early to reach conclusions on effectiveness. However,
even at this early stage there is encouraging evidence to suggest this web-based teaching and
learning will prove very successful. Contents
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