DESIGNING, BUILDING AND USING TEACHING WEBS

(Seminar Presentation)

Philip Barker

Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory,
School of Computing & Mathematics,
University of Teesside, UK

Teaching webs based on intranets and the Internet are becoming an increasingly important resource for the support of efficient and effective teaching and learning processes. They can be used to facilitate a shift from instructivist to constructivist teaching and learning strategies; they are also able to cater for both synchronous and asynchronous modes of study. In addition, suitably designed webs can also support problem-based learning and provide a suitable infrastructure for the support of collaborative learning at a distance. More importantly, interactive webs can be used to facilitate the realisation of a wide range of automated monitoring mechanisms. Students can use these for the purposes of continuous self-assessment of progress.

This presentation will outline a methodology for designing teaching webs and will go on to discuss ways of building them with readily available tools. Examples of both stand-alone and dynamic, integrated, shared webs will be discussed. The use of these systems will then be illustrated by means of a 'live' demonstration of a currently operational system that is used to support the teaching of human-computer interaction within the school of Computing and Mathematics at the University of Teesside.