Web-Based Instruction

Web-Based Instruction Defined Web-based instruction is teaching and learning supported by the attributes and resources of the Internet (Khan, 1997; Relan & Gillami, 1997). The groups below provide guidelines for how to best utilize Internet attributes and resources. Teaching and Learning Activities for the Web (Maryland/Bell Atlantic) Pedagogy and Online Learning (Illinois) Universities in the Digital Age (Brown & Duguid) WebQuest Model of Online Teaching (San Diego State)
Web-Based Instruction Strategies Teaching strategies that utilize the Web can be classified according to several categories as outlined in categories A-J below. A Microsoft Word template created by Kevin Oliver may be downloaded for use with the links below in workshop settings. The content of the template is locked, but it provides form fields for text entry and lesson planning.
A. Conversing, Discussing relating and comparing perspectives with other students and classrooms; students could be tasked with reading a common book and discussing perspectives; helpful to have access to e-mail, listservs, discussion boards, or chat software; see examples below Current Issues in Comparative Education "an international online, open access journal inviting diverse opinions of academics, practitioners and students"
B. Mentoring, Questioning, Supporting a Partner mentors may review student work and provide critique or scaffold process; experts can be "asked" or "interviewed" online; students may partner with and help one another succeed; multi-directional - faculty to faculty, student to student, faculty to student; helps to have e-mail, live, synchronous cameras for mentor/mentee to discuss, chat rooms with white boards, or digital drop boxes for file sharing and written critiques; see examples below Four Directions Electronic Mentoring AllExperts Hewlett Packard Telementoring Telementoring Young Women in Science, Engineering, and Computing Mentor Programs and Activities in Canada Schmooze allows students learning English to "chat" and monitor one another's skills The cognitive apprenticeship / reciprocal teaching approaches described on this web site may help inform the design of mentor activities.
C. Debating students defend a position on some issue, typically involves preliminary research online and in libraries--collecting evidence to support one or more perspectives; instructor may want to develop a Web site that showcases controversies or experts with opinions and theories to promote discussion; debate can be held in class or online with tools such as e-mail and discussion boards; see examples below Arctic Circle Case Debates student teams are given a "perspective" to defend, access relevant web resources, then debate an issue presented in a case study Reintroduction of the Wolf into the Southwest European Law Moot Court Competition The anchored instruction and case-based learning models described on this web site may help inform the design of debate activities.
D. Impersonating, Role Playing interacting with others who impersonate someone; impersonating someone yourself; preparing a document, play, or other work from the perspective of another person (e.g., president); role play may be held in class or online with tools that allow for asynchronous communication (i.e., e-mail, discussion boards, chat) or synchronous communication (i.e., Symposium, CU-SeeMe, live net-cams); see example below International Communication and Negotiation student teams are assigned to represent a country, then prepare a position paper for their country regarding a global topic, discuss perspectives with other "country" teams The cooperative learning and goal-based learning models described on this web site may help inform the design of role play activities.
E. Sharing Data, Analyzing collecting information locally and sharing it with others remotely; making use of data collected globally to analyze trends and issues; excellent for marketing, business, mathematics, statistics, and others; helps to have e-mail, listservs, spreadsheets, and data analysis software; see examples below Journey North Globe Program "Globe students make environmental observations at or near their schools and report their data through the Internet. Scientists use Globe data in their research and provide feedback to the students to enrich their science education." Global Grocery List "Students share local grocery prices to build a growing table of data to be used in social studies, science, health, mathematics, and other disciplines."
F. Developing a New Product or Artifact working on a common project with others locally or distant with the ultimate goal of producing some artifact (e.g., web page, article); sharing resources; exchanging documents and working files; can be round-robin with students creating different acts of a play, parts of a design, etc.; helps to have Web page editors for students, e-mail and other communication tools, digital drop boxes for file sharing, server space to post projects online, tools that allow for voting on or attaching comments to students' work for the purpose of recognizing best or improving weak artifacts; see examples below Anthropology and Sociology World History Chronologies The constructionism and cooperative learning models described on this web site may help inform the design of development activities.
G. Traveling Virtually, Situating Curriculum in the Context of Expeditions online expeditions, communicating with travelers and learning about local cultures, using expedition data for interdisciplinary purposes (math, writing, history, geography, agriculture); helps to have a significant grant budget to create live expeditions, consisting of technology to upload live broadcasts to satellites and back down to Internet servers with live audio/video streams; alternatively, quests could be videotaped and delivered at a later time via standard Internet video streaming; see examples below Second Life The learning environments model described on this web site may help inform the design of situated travel activities.
H. Seeking, Collecting, Organizing, Synthesizing Online Information (Research) can be arranged in terms of a scavenger hunt; notice the student is not simply provided with a page of links or resources, they are specifically tasked with accomplishing some end goal with the resources (e.g., compile, sort, answer probing questions, solve a mystery); in the first set of examples below, the student accesses a few web links selected by the instructor; in the second set of examples below, the student accesses large digital collections and archival resources Economics and Social Aspects of Fisheries and Aquaculture Web Resources for Touring Modern Europe and Rome Valley of the Shadow Project students select a topic of interest from archival documents (e.g., women in the Civil War, doctors in the Civil War) to prepare a paper or project assigned by the teacher (e.g., web page project) Who Killed William Robinson? Race, Justice, and Settling the Land students navigate archival documents to solve this virtual who-dunnit The problem-based learning and constructionism models described on this web site may help inform the design of research activities. In PBL, individual students must research aspects of a problem. In constructionism, students first conduct research, extracting relevant information for re-construction.
I. Exploring Real-World Cases or Problems students explore real cases, or use Web data (e.g., stock market, weather) to practice decision making; can use virtual simulations with students testing personal hypotheses or designs; a cycle of student prediction, testing, reflection, and revision can support rapid conceptual change about complex course concepts; to develop it helps to have Web-page editors (e.g., Dreamweaver), photo editors (e.g., Photoshop), perhaps video editors (e.g., Premiere) and knowledge of video streaming for Internet (e.g., Real Producer); see examples below Case Studies in Small-Animal Cardiovascular Medicine Cases for Undergraduate Educational Psychology Classes The case-based learning, problem-based learning, and anchored instruction models described on this web site may help inform the design of real-world activities.
J. Accessing Tutorials with Exercises, Quizzes, Questions, Online Drill-and-Practice students review content material online, then access interactive exercises to practice or apply the material presented; helps to have software for creating virtual exercises, knowledge of multimedia development programs (e.g., Director, Flash) and/or mechanisms for placing them on the Web (e.g., Shockwave, Java); see examples below Merlot Archive of Online Interactions Economics Interactive Tutorials Interactive English Language Exercises Amusement Park Physics Environmental Smoke and Lung Development Activity Frog Species Tracker, San Francisco Exploratorium (tutorial only) Science of Baseball The audio-tutorial, guided design, and personalized system of instruction models described on this web site may help inform the design of tutorial and practice activities.
Resources to Find Web-Based Instruction Activities and Curriculum The following web sites describe and list thousands of Internet projects that can be joined or adapted for use in college classrooms. Teaching and Learning on the Web (Maricopa) TERC Projects (Boston) Exploring the Environment (NASA) Learner.org (Annenberg) The Gateway to Educational Materials Exploratorium (San Francisco) American Memory (Library of Congress Digital Libraries)