Instructional uses and effects of World Wide Web course pages: A Review of instructor experiences
Joseph M. Kayany, kayany@wmich.eduDepartment of Communication
Western Michigan University
Abstract
This exploratory study reviews the experiences of college/university faculty who have developed web pages and used them as instructional tools. Based on responses from 78 instructors to open-ended questions, the study discusses the perceptions and observations of the instructors on how web pages have been used by their students and how such use has affected the classroom process. The findings suggest that the availability of course material on the web has the potential to increase students' levels of class preparation, participation, attention and above all, increase interaction between the instructors and students. Proposed directions for future research include an investigation of the extent to which students' use the resource is affected by their comfort level with the technology, preference of teaching styles, and overall academic performance.Introduction
Today a communication revolution is already underway and online communication technologies seem to be the harbingers of a new information age. The new technologies are expected to unleash access to information sources around the world and open up avenues of communication unrestrained by temporal and spatial boundaries. This era of super-connectivity is predicted to empower the individual, democratize societies, and deinstitutionalize learning and work. Unfortunately, the direction of the communication revolution is still uncharted and its effect on human life uncertain. To a large extent, the future will be determined by the current experiments and initiatives in academic and nonacademic climates.The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of web pages that were designed by college/university instructors as instructional tools. The study examines the experiences of the authors in developing these pages as well as their observations and perceptions on the effects of web pages on the learning process. The World Wide Web (WWW or the Web), a subset of the Internet that uses a graphic network interface protocol developed in 1989 by Tim Bernes-Lee at CERN in Switzerland, is currently the most popular application of online technology (Nielsen Interactive Service, 1995). With the surging popularity of the Web the spotlight is increasingly on the Internet's potential for information dissemination more than on its much acclaimed capacity to sustain interactive communication. Currently, many business and media corporations have been flocking to the new media fascinated by its potential for information dissemination. So are many educational institutions keenly pursuing ways of enhancing instruction with online technologies. But there are many instructors who feel overwhelmed and even intimidated by computer technology and computer mediated communication. In the face of euphoric proclamations that these technologies can revolutionize the learning process, many instructors await hard-core evidence of revolutionary impacts promised. They are also concerned about threats to intellectual property rights and proprietary issues in cyberspace. Some are worried about their own roles in the changing academic environment. Nevertheless, there are several innovative educators who have been experimenting with the medium to deliver learning materials to their students. These web pages are yet in their developmental stages; consequently a systematic evaluation of their effects on instruction seems to be premature. However, a review of the lessons the authors have learned from these experiments may be valuable because it may provide models, directions and answers to other educators who are faced with changing needs of today's classroom. Further, the study might also suggest research questions for a systematic evaluation on their impact on learning.
First, the paper reviews the current research on the key attributes of online media and the Web which potentially impact the instructional environment and the learning process. This is followed by a review of the use of web pages in the instructional setting and a discussion based on responses to open-ended questions from a nonrandom sample of college/university instructors who have published course content on their web pages.
Online technologies for instruction
Some of the early applications of media technologies such as radio and television were educational. It was hoped that students, by using these technologies, would be able to stay in separate geographical locations and attend lectures delivered by the very best teachers. The expected outcomes were fourfold: (1) more convenient access to education, (2) improved quality of learning, (3) active involvement of the students in the learning process, and (4) greater student control of the pace of learning (Hiltz, 92). One of the drawbacks, however, of this mode of self-motivated learning is the absence of teacher-student interaction that, according to research, is a major factor in the effectiveness of classroom-based instruction. (Bloom, 1981; Threikeld, Behm & Shiflett, 1990; McHenry & Bozik, 1995; Brown, Good & Prabhakar, 1994; Sprague, 1993). "Learning is not transmitted from teachers to students, but takes place in conversations among teachers and students" (McComb, 1994, p. 160). Perhaps one of the reasons why distance education has not yet emerged as a viable alternative to classroom instruction is our inability to develop cost-effective ways of sustaining interaction between the students and the instructor. If instructor-student interaction is so vital to learning, any medium that can enhance it is expected to benefit the learning process. Thus, online technology with its potential to further horizontal, multidirectional, and instantaneous communication among people in different parts of the world arguably holds the key to revitalizing the concept of distance education. At present, there is a good deal of enthusiasm surrounding the educational potential of online media. Several educational institutions have taken bold steps in this direction and are experimenting with on-line classrooms. (For a review of such programs see Wells, 1990).The focus of this study, however, is not on these distance education applications of online media but on their uses in the traditional classroom setting as instructional tools. Distance education may be the future of instructional delivery but the present is very much classroom-based. Even within the traditional instructional setting, these media have demonstrated positive impacts on the learning process. For instance, they extend learning beyond the classroom, enable inclusion of outside experts in the course, help balance the power between the instructor and students, increase student responsibility and initiative, facilitate student access to learning resources, and increase focused class participation (McComb, 1994). Recent empirical research has also suggested that those students who participated in the class via online media scored higher compared to those who attended the same course in a conventional classroom (McCollum, 1997).
Two of the fundamental characteristics of new media on which scholars have based their predictions of communication revolution are the potential of these media for asynchroneity and interactivity. (Chesebro and Bonsall, 1989; McQuail, 1986; Rice, 1984; Rice, 1989; Rogers, 1986; Rogers and Kincaid, 1981; Rogers and Rafaeli, 1985). Unlike interactions occurring for instance face to face or via a telephone, an asynchronous medium frees the users from the requirement of being simultaneously present to one another in real time during the conversation. In addition to better management of time, the pace of communication is negotiated and controlled by the interacting partners. Further, the underlying organizational and technological infrastructure that sustains the medium is so transparent and unobtrusive that the communication process becomes seamless and direct, making it a unique medium of communication.
Interactivity is widely accepted as the most fundamental characteristic of the new communication technologies and the basis for the hopes of a communication revolution (Plude, 1989; Rogers, 1986). As opposed to the traditional media of communication such as television and radio that are topdown and unidirectional, these new technologies permit multidirectional flow of messages.
Online media uniquely combine both asynchroneity and interactivity. These empowering features that enable the user to control the pace and direction of the communication process, arguably permit communication partners to be active participants in a dialog extended in both time and space.
The World Wide Web is not only just a user-friendly graphic interface but possesses additional features that complement the asynchroneity and interactivity of online technologies. Not only do multiple media formats converge in the World Wide Web but the Web also sustains a new type of interactivity -- nonlinear, asynchronous interaction with information itself.
Convergence is "the coming together of all forms of mediated communications in an electronic, digital form, driven by computers" (Pavlik, 1996 p. 132). Such intermingling of full motion video, audio, graphics, and text into a multimedia format can enhance learning because students learn more efficiently by integrating information from multiple sensory channels (Athapilly, Durben & Woods, 1994).
The type of interactivity that the Web supports enables the user to interact with text. This feature, known as nonlinearity or hypertext, is the most distinguishing feature of multimedia, where users control the pace and direction of their interaction with information. Most media provide information in a linear mode. For instance, television/radio programs, newspapers and books are structured and prepackaged by their producers or authors. Research on the impact of multimedia has shown that nonlinear, user-controlled interaction with information results in higher levels of learning. Further, emphasis in the classroom shifts from teaching to learning and the role of the teacher moves from instructor to facilitator (Greenhalch, 1997). Thus, the integration of hypertext-based WWW in the instructional setting may affect the instructional processes, the learning levels and the traditional role of the instructor in the classroom.
An overview of instructional web pages
The World Lecture Hall is one of the largest lists of instructional web pages. This site at the University of Texas at Austin lists over 1310 web course pages in various disciplines. A recent review of 75 communication related web sites listed at the World Lecture Hall identified four categories of content in these pages (Kayany, 1997).Organizational material dealing with structural issues such as the syllabus, calendar, class assignments and grades, material that is usually distributed to students on paper or posted on a bulletin board. This kind of content was found in all sites reviewed. The syllabus is a student-teacher contract and thus can set the tone for a class and be a critical pedagogical instrument (Kahn, 1997). Thus when the syllabus is available on the Web, not only does it become easier for students to conveniently refer to it at any time but the instructor can also accordingly enforce the contractual obligations.
Links to online resources and other relevant web pages. Often online resources are more current than those available in print. Such links were found in 74% of the sites reviewed.
Course content in the form of lecture notes or topical essays which students can consult at any time; 32% of the sites reviewed contained this category of content
Student work which when published on the web can arguably increase student involvement; 29% of sites reviewed in study contained student work.
Arguably one of the ways to maximize the potential of the Web as a learning tool is to design a page that contains all the four types of content. However, there are very few sites that meet this criterion. However, since this study is based on a discussion of the Web's potential for asynchronous interaction with information, this review focuses on those web pages that contain the first three types of content - organizational content, links, and lecture notes. Moreover, the proprietary issues raised above pertain to those who chose to publish course content on the web. Hence, only those sites were chosen for this study that were described by the World Lecture Hall to contain organizational content, links and lecture notes.
Respondents
Based on the description of the faculty sites at the World Lecture Hall, a list of web sites that met the criteria was generated. The author visited these sites to verify that the sites were active. Using the email link provided in these sites, authors of course web pages who met our criteria were contacted. The web authors are from a variety of disciplines: anthropology, astronomy, classics, religious studies, library and information science, psychology, public health, science and technology, telecommunications, communication, economics, history, linguistics, philosophy, social work, communication disorders, culture studies, and education. Seventy eight of those contacted responded to the open-ended questions.Research Questions
The authors of these pages have evidently invested long hours of work to design and set up a course page of such magnitude and complexity. Obviously, the most important questions pertain to how these are being used and what effects on instruction are observed. Therefore, the following questions were posed to the respondents:How do the students use the material?
A major concern in this context is the time required to set up a course web page. This is especially true because faculty members seldom get professional credit for work done in developing instructional material in media such as the Web whose instructional benefits have not yet been established by research. Misconceptions regarding computer expertise required to develop course web pages are rampant among those who are still struggling to catch up with the onslaught of computer technologies in the workplace. World Wide Web pages are designed with the help of a code known as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). Hence, many instructors are keenly interested in knowing the amount of time they need to invest activities such as learning the required HTML codes, planning and designing the page, creating the course web page, and maintaining the course page.
How much time have the respondents spent developing their course web pages?
Proprietary and copyright issues are also of importance when the authors of these pages post the result of their years of work in a medium that has no established provisions of granting rights to intellectual property. Course preparation involves years of hard work. Since the Web is a global medium of information dissemination, when an educator chooses to publish his/her course material on the web, he/she loses a good deal control and ownership over the content (Kayany & Athapilly, 1996). With the present state of online technology, anyone can download an article, modify it at will and redistribute copies without the knowledge or consent of the author. Therefore the threat to intellectual property rights is an issue that authors of web pages have to address and hopefully reach some form of resolution. Hence, the respondents were asked
A related issue is based on the perception of a teacher as an 'expert' who transfers his/her expertise to the students. It is the expertise that makes him/her valuable to the institution and draws students to the institution. If such a scholar decides is to disseminate his/her expertise on the Web, does he/she become nonessential to his/her employer? At least, would university administrators think along these lines?
Results
Why do authors of web pages invest so many hours of valuable time to design, create, and maintain course web pages? Those respondents who addressed their goals for posting course notes on the web focused on how the page benefited their students. First, the web as a new technology caters to the natural tendency of students to play with newly available technology. When course content is on the web, learning becomes more fun --; incorporated into the 'play'. The asynchronous nature of technology increases the chances of students revisiting lectures on the web. There were some who emphasized how the web can change the classroom. If the Web becomes a platform from which students would learn course content, class meetings can be devoted to discuss issues, interact with students, and answer questions.Did the instructors monitor the extent to which students used the course web page? Many of the course pages are fairly new and because many authors consider their web pages to be still in the developmental stages, systematic monitoring of the use of their web pages and evaluation of the effect of these pages on learning levels have not yet been done, except for one of the respondents who set up a counter to monitor student use. The counter was helpful because the professor knew the extent to which students were prepared for the class and when it was time for a pop quiz as a motivational tool. Those respondents who estimated the extent of student use consider that a third of students use the web notes on a regular basis. Naturally, the best students in the class tend to actively use web notes just as they would use any other learning resource such as the library.
What was the extent of students' use of the web page? In every class there is a group of students who are intelligent and self motivated to learn. They come to the class, participate in class projects, go to the library, and use every instructional aid available to them. According to one respondent, it is often the bright ones who prefer a student driven learning tool such as the web, whereas the poorer students prefer traditional modes of instruction through lectures. According to one of the respondents, a third of the class use the web when they have to and another one third never use the web. Quite many students who miss classes consult the web to catch up with the missed class.
What type of students used the web page? Aside from self-motivation, students' comfort level with computer technology was observed to be a crucial variable. But there was no single group that uniformly enjoyed this comfort level. Some found nontraditional, older students and foreign students more eager to embrace the technology while others found nontraditional and more advanced students demonstrating greater resistance to the web technology. In some institutions, technical limitations increase download times and decrease levels of access.
Did the course web page have impact on learning levels? The question on the effect of web notes on learning levels is considered premature because systematic studies on the effect of course web sites on learning levels are still being designed. However, one of the respondents commented on a study that compared a group attending lectures and another using online tutorials which didn't find any significant difference in learning levels. It was observed by other respondents that those students who use the web tend to perform better in exams, but it is also possible that the better students tend to use the web more often than the poorer ones. Another respondent tried to get feedback by adding questions on the use of the website to the instructor evaluation forms, but failed to get adequate data because of low response rate.
Nevertheless, two informal sources of information on impact are (a) informal student feedback (b) observations by the instructors. Several respondents commented on positive feedback they have received from students, according to which students have found the convenience of having course content available online to revisit it as often as they want very beneficial. Students report that online lecture notes have helped them focus more on lecture content and have increased their appreciation for the topic.
Based on their own observations, the respondents made the following comments about the impact of web notes on classroom teaching. Students were found to have improved acquisition of specific terms and have noticeably better command of basic concepts. Improved levels of participation with course materials and better knowledge of technical features were observed. Because of this experience, one of the respondents proposed to require students to learn the basic concepts and technical aspects from the web so that class-time can be used to deal with more human interpretative aspects of the topics. There were a few who reported that there was an observable improvement in the performance of students in exams after the course web pages were installed.
There were three general contexts in which students used the web pages. (a) preparing for the class (b) participating in the class. (c) reviewing the course material, especially for those classes missed. Some students made a habit of reading the course content on the web prior to the class and visiting related links of interest. Visiting remote sites that pertain to the class topic, according to a respondent, is very beneficial because in a way students already take 'virtual' field trips in preparation for the class. According to some respondents this new level of class preparation drastically changed the classroom process. They observed that interactions between students and the instructor increased. The instructor would deal with high points and tough issues and spend more time taking questions and encouraging discussions. Some respondents observed that they were able to cover the same amount of material in less time, freeing up more time for discussions. When used in conjunction with e-mail discussion groups, these notes enhanced discussion beyond the classroom. Overall, several respondents observed improved levels of participation with course materials.
The second type of use had similar impact. Students would print out the web notes and bring them to class. As they listened to the lecture, they added queries and personal comments to these notes. It often helped them organize their thinking. Students might retain more in this situation, because they don't have to devote all their energies to taking notes and trying to listen at the same time. Students were more relaxed, attentive, and therefore disposed to think more carefully about the concepts being taught and to ask questions. It can be a convenient resource for those who are indisposed to take notes in class (for instance, a broken arm) or those not so proficient in the language of instruction to take good notes while listening to lectures. Although note-taking itself may be a way of learning, many students are so busy scribbling notes that they find it hard to pay attention to the lecture and take notes at the same time. Instructors in several universities have dealt with this dilemma for years by making printed notes available to students to purchase. Students pay more attention to lectures and can always take additional notes without fear of missing the main points. According to some respondents, this too has increased the interaction in the classroom. When the attention of instructors is not exclusively on a comprehensive delivery of material and that of students is not on painstakingly exhaustive note-taking, there is more freedom and time available for the discussion of selected topics.
Third, students were able to revisit the course content, often before the exam. Many respondents suggested that this was the most popular use of the web notes. However, the majority of the students, according to a number of respondents, used course material on the web to access material covered in classes that they have missed. For some courses, video tapes of classes are available to students to review classes they missed or would like to revise. To them web notes is an ancillary study tool. The Web page also becomes an accessible resource to find guidelines at any time for their projects. This facility, according to one respondent, changed the nature of interaction with the instructor outside the class. Instead of meeting with the instructor to find out what the student missed when he/she was absent, they came increasingly to the instructor's office to discuss course related topics.
Are there any negative effects of having course content on the web? For instance, will the availability of course content on the web be a deterrent to attending classes? The respondents didn't think so. A couple of respondents observed a drop in attendance after class notes were posted on the web, in one case as much as 20-30%. Most respondents considered that web notes had no impact on attendance primarily because they had strict attendance policies. Several respondents contended that class-notes on the web cannot replace the class lecturers because often the web notes are sketchy and need to be fleshed out during the lecture. Often these pages are under continuous revision to complement the class sessions rather than replace them. In some institutions, printed versions of class notes were already available to students and so an electronic version did not drastically change the classroom instruction.
How much time is required to develop a course page for someone new to the technology? Most of the respondents felt that they have invested a good deal of time in setting up their course web pages. Granted that the amount of time is determined to a large extent by the author's current computer skills, the following are the major steps in designing the web page.
1. Learning HTML, the markup language used to convert documents into a web readable form. Most of the respondents launched their web pages when the conversion process was labor intensive because the codes had to be typed in. So they had to learn HTML from workshops, colleagues, or tutorial books. The respondents had invested anywhere from a few hours up to 40 hours to learn HTML. Several of them got started after learning only the basics of HTML and picked up the more advanced codes in the process of developing their pages. The browsers such as Netscape enable the users to look at the codes used to generate any web page. However, commercial web editors such as PageMill, Frontpage and Claris Page have simplified the process. These programs convert documents created with the conventional word processing programs into HTML format. Thus there is less need to invest any time learning HTML or coding the documents using HTML.
2. Planning and designing the page: This stage entails the conceptualization of the course package. How many sections (syllabus page, links page, lecture notes, etc.)? How are these sections linked to one another? What kind of layout and graphics will be used? According to several respondents, this stage is the most time consuming stage of web page development. Latest browsers or editors cannot perform the task because it is conceptual and analytical. There were some respondents who had spent only 12 hours to set up their web page. But there were others who had to invest 10 hours every week for a whole semester. The first web project is often the hardest and the most time consuming. Several authors find it hard to assign a number to their time investment because conceptualization of design and layout occurs over time --; often over several semesters, with a good deal of trial and error. But the authors suggest that anyone planning a web project ought to spend sufficient time at this stage because revising or redesigning the page is more time consuming.
There are some respondents who argue that less attention ought to be paid to design because: (1) there is a tendency to spend a disproportionate amount of time with design that is not cost-effective (2) highly sophisticated designs do not take into consideration the end user who is often a student with low end hardware and poor Internet connections. Hence their suggestion is to make pages 'lean' and to minimize the graphical 'fat' that invariably slows down the loading of pages. Trying to create perfection in design or incorporating every latest aspect of web technology into the pages may not be worth the time investment. Your page may look very attractive on your computer but fewer students will have the hardware to use it.
3. Preparing and organizing the content of the web page: Even for those who create a web page for a course they have been teaching for years, organizing the course content into an interlinked web document is a time consuming task. One way is to start with the syllabus at the beginning of the semester and build pages through the semester. According to several respondents, the most efficient way is to integrate the web page creation into the usual class preparation. Even then, the extra time required can range from 15 minutes to 3 hours per lecture, depending upon the complexity of the course content and on the number of times a person has done it. Some respondents say that it has changed their style of course preparation and habits of preparation. It encourages them to work on lectures well ahead of time. Organizing the information for the web by thinking through the relationships between various concepts can be a very thorough class preparation which in turn can improve one's teaching.
4. Maintaining and upgrading the page: This is perhaps the most unrecognized aspect of web creation. Several respondents who are excited about developing pedagogical applications of the new technology admit that they had no idea on the extent of time commitment required for maintaining their web pages. It is harder than either learning HTML codes or creating the page. One of the respondents said that it takes six to eight times the amount of time to convert a class to web format than what you initially think. Or as one respondent put it, "maintaining is like painting a large bridge --; as soon as you have finished you have to start again!". Estimates of time required for maintaining the web pages range from 1/2-2 hours per lecture to 5-10 hours a week.
Maintenance is essential because the electronic address (or URL) of links to resources often changes and everyday there are more and better resources available on the web. If the work of a teacher is perceived as that of a guide who directs the students to where they can find necessary information, researching for new resources and updating links becomes an essential part of instruction. The Web also opens up the document to a larger audience often from other parts of the world. Some respondents say that they receive questions and requests for additional information or recommendations from people around the world to upgrade some outdated information on the web page.
However, some respondents admit that they did spend a good deal of time trying constantly to redesign and upgrade their pages, in a futile attempt to create perfection. Because design changes are labor intensive, their recommendation is to resist any temptation to redesign the page unless it affects the presentation of content. The need to redesign can be reduced by spending sufficient time to plan and design the page the first time. Dividing the document to smaller modules or subsections is another strategy. Revising smaller modules is easier. Most of the faculty members feel that the total time investment in the project is many times more than what they had originally imagined or could afford. Availability of teaching assistants and support staff make the process easy on the faculty member but most people do not have this luxury.
How do the respondents deal with the threat of plagiarism on the web?. Several respondents consider the copyright protection of material posted on the web to be a serious issue. The decentralized architecture of the Internet has made it nearly impossible to curtail the flow of information on the web and thus poses the threat of new forms of plagiarism. However, not many among the respondents are seriously concerned about others violating their copyright. To some who teach undergraduate general education courses, most of the course content is in the public domain and copyright issues do not concern them. However, a couple of respondents protect their course pages with passwords so that only students who have enrolled in the course have access to the notes. A couple of respondents have dealt with the issue by having copyright statements on their pages. Most of the respondents do not consider plagiarism a major concern because the course pages are only sketchy outlines and therefore they are incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't attended the lectures. Also these course pages are constantly being developed and updated and there is very little danger of a final product being pirated. Some of them argue that the Web is a form of publication and that users should award web content the same level of copyright protection usually given to other forms of publication. As far as they are concerned, plagiarism is a problem that should concern the perpetrators more than themselves.
Several respondents say that they are pleased when their colleagues find their material useful. Some consider it part of their responsibility as teachers to use any tool available to them to enhance teaching and let others worry about issues such as this. The profession of teaching is one of sharing information and teachers should share new ways of teaching with their colleagues. It is apparent that even the most generous of them assume that there exists a certain professionalism among their peers so that they will be given credit for their work.
Moreover, based on their own experience with the academia, some of them argue that there is very little danger of anyone appropriating web lectures posted by colleagues. As a couple of respondents pointed out, rarely do two faculty members agree on a perfect textbook because most have well defined ideas of their own on what the content of a course should be. Authors of course web pages invest so much of themselves into their creation that it is difficult for anyone else to appropriate it and use it as an effective instructional tool. On the other hand, a more likely scenario is that these course web pages would give their colleagues ideas on how and what they can teach. Ideally the profession is enhanced by this sort of sharing among colleagues.
Are the respondents concerned that they will work themselves out of a job by providing course material online? Most of the respondents have no fear of a technology replacing them. If it were so, libraries and instructional technology would have made the profession of teaching extinct long ago. Nor would the dropout rates of correspondence courses be so high. Teachers were never meant to be repositories of information (books are); they are mentors, moderators, facilitators of learning and development. As established by research and confirmed by the experience of the respondents, teaching requires human interaction and a person who interprets information, guides the learning process and directs their participation. As one of the respondents points out, even online discussion groups work because of the instructor's high level of participation. The person of the instructor is a vital part of teaching and learning and a course web page is an instructional aid like a textbook. Such fears also rise from a misconception of the teacher's role as dispensers of information. They are rather facilitators of learning, or as one respondent suggested, "human beings who know how to trick people into learning".
Discussion
The feedback from the respondents gave the overall impression that they possessed a realistic appreciation of what the new technology of the Web can do to the instructional process. They did not come across as technology enthusiasts with grandiose expectations of radical effects but as dedicated teachers who made every effort to provide their students with additional avenues to interact with the instructor and course material. However, we ought to remember that The responses indicate that the use of web by students were affected by student characteristics, technology features, and other contextual variables (Fig 1). The more frequent users of the web are students who are comfortable with computer technology, utilize other instructional aids, and have an aptitude towards self-directed learning. Apparently it is the convenience of asynchronous availability of course content that has drawn many students to the web page. Reviewing notes before the exams and catching up on missed lectures have been the most popular reasons for a visit to the course web page.
Fig 1: Factors affecting course Web page use |
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Regarding time investment and computer expertise required to launch a course web page, new software packages make the process of converting documents into web-readable format effortless. But the time required to maintain and update the web is often underestimated. Moreover, as several respondents stress, the conceptualization of course content in terms of interlinked modules of information cannot be performed by technology and is very time-consuming. At the same time, this process provides an opportunity to think through the connections and links between different parts of the course, leading to a new level of course preparation. This calls for a change in the style and habits of course preparation for those accustomed to less structured ways of class preparation.
There is also indication that the emphasis in the classroom shifts from teaching to learning and the role of the teacher moves from instructor to facilitator (Greenhalch, 1997) -- from being a 'sage on the stage' to being a 'guide on the side'. However, a learning resource on the web is not expected to minimize the significance of a teacher's role in the learning process. These technologies certainly extend the spatial boundaries of the classroom and the temporal limits of a class schedule. But the importance of interactions between instructors and students have not been diminished by the web technology; nor have the centrality of the instructor to the interaction process.
One of the limitations of the study, however, is that the methodology is biased towards those who have found web to be a useful instructional tool. There may be instructors who have found the web ill-suited to their instructional goals and teaching philosophies whose experiences have not found a place in this study. Hence, the opinions of the respondents may not be representative of all instructors who have used the web. However, experiences of 78 instructors who have found value in course web pages may be valuable to those instructors who are looking at this new technology and wondering about its instructional potential.
Conclusion
The experiences shared by the respondents in this study suggest that course web pages can be a beneficial instructional and learning tool. Computer expertise required to design such a tool is becoming minimal. There are technical solutions such as password protection available to protect oneself against plagiarism. However, we need to examine in greater depth how the benefits derived from course web pages are affected by students' comfort level with the technology. As reported by several respondents it is often the better students who use the course material on the web, prepare for class by visiting other web sites that pertain to the subject matter and appreciate the opportunity to discuss and interact with the instructor during the class meetings. These students also tend to be proficient in the use of online technology. To some students course web pages may provide an incentive to get started with the new technology but it may also place some other students, who are less proficient with the technology and even intimidated by new technologies, at a disadvantage because these have to struggle with the technology while trying to learn the course material. It is likely that this problem may resolve itself as the use online technology becomes more widespread. Further, differences in learning styles may also affect the use of course web pages. For instance, there may be some students who learn better with supportive communities of people in physical proximity. Despite these situational constraints, the experiences of these innovative instructors indicate that the Web has the potential to transform the classroom process by increasing students' levels of class preparation, participation and attention during class. Moreover, it is likely that we have not yet maximized the interactive potential of the web. This offers a challenge to authors of course web pages to introduce technological features that will draw more students to the learning resource and interact with the course content; perhaps as one of the respondents put it, by designing web pages that engage the students' natural tendency to "play".
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