People have claimed that the Web can free teaching and learning from the physical boundaries of the classrooms and the time restraints of class schedules. By using the Web, we can make education more attainable to more people (Access to Learning) by providing educational opportunities in the work place, community, or at home. In my opinion, I really think that this idea of teaching on the Web is great. The only thing that I think that could be done to improve the teaching of CS on the Web is to review the basics of how the Web works, so that students don't have much of a problem understanding and completing their assignments. I know that I felt very overwhelmed by this class at the beginning of the semester because I did not have a lot of experience using the Web. Cognitive Science covers a lot of material, and I think that if students are more comfortable and experienced with how the Web works, then students will be able to learn outside the classroom.
I think Web-based teaching is a good way to teach. It has many advantages: no programming is necessary, the browser does all the work, and it's not that hard to prepare your own Web page. Other advantages are that it's accessible from anywhere and there is 24 hour availability. I enjoyed this course because it allowed us to start our own Web page. It was a good, hands on experience which made learning easier. The only thing that I think would improve this course, would be for the classroom to have many computers available for the students.
Don't make the students teach the class. Cognitive science is hard enough to understand, and when you add a bunch of kids teaching something they know nothing about and the majority don't care anything about it, it makes it difficult to learn from them when they don't even care about the subject. I would rather have a structured class where I come in and everything is planned out and I know just what we're going to be studying the next day because I read it in my book the night before. I think the Internet is too broad a thing to get all your information off of. A book can only hold so much. And sometimes that's good, like when it comes to test time. I like the take home tests, but the questions require too much information because the Internet is our book.
Ways to improve the Web-based teaching of Cognitive Science:
The Web based teaching is a good concept because of the amount of information that is accessible to the students. Perhaps incorporating a log of URL's into the course so that each time a useful URL is found it can be logged into a source where every student would have access to it.
This class should be held early in the morning, so that the Internet will not be so busy. I also think that each person should give an individual presentation and they should be required to add to it as the semester progresses. I think this would make the class more interesting. I also think that videos should be added as a part of the class.
I must admit, I thought I was in for an easy ride and easy grade, being there was no book. Boy was I shocked. I really enjoyed not having the traditional lectures compared to the this Web-based class. I don't think I could have learned this material better or perfected way than to just get on the Internet and search. Learning succeeded the classroom. This class increased my knowledge, not just in Cognitive Science but also about the Web. When we had assignments such as creating our Web site, the search became very tedious. However, the Internet can be used at your convenience, and that makes learning a little more accessible. For me, the most frustrating part of creating the Web site was I had over 500,000 sites on my topic, and every time I would try and go back to a particular Web page I couldn't get back to it. Our first test was very frustrating also because we had no definite answer for what you were looking for. We had all these sites, but we didn't know what you wanted us to write or how long did our answers need to be. I like the way you do the test now by having suggested URL's; however, I found the first test to be the most beneficial to help familiarize myself with the Web. I learned more when I had to search until I felt I had some good information, but it was very time consuming. Overall I enjoyed the course. I can now say I created a Web site, and I feel like I could do it again. I learned a lot of vital skills in this class that I feel will help me as I further my career.
Using the Web for a course can free teaching and learning from the physical boundaries of classrooms and time restraints. The Web can help us re-focus our institutions from teaching to learning, from teacher to student. "Access to learning," means making education more attainable by more people. By access of the Web, educational opportunities, whether they are in the workplace, community, or the home, for those unable to attend school or college because of cultural, economic, or social barriers, are becoming reality. Until recently, schools always relied on correspondence, traditional, print instructional materials, and audio and visual cassettes, or television, to provide educational opportunities to students unable to attend classes. Using the Web to teach creates an inviting, graphical screen layout, interactive multimedia learning materials, simplified access and searching of databases, exponential growth of new resources around the world, and open technical standards and allows any brand of modern computer access to the Web, and allows more people to learn more. A good example of Web teaching is through CyberEd at the University of Massachusetts' Dartmouth Division of Continuing Education. CyberEd courses make extensive use of the Web complete with images, sound, video, to present material, test, communicate amoung students and faculty, and submit assignments. The goal of the CyberEd is "to create a distance learning environment that rivals the traditional classroom environment in the quality and content of the learning experience...to encourage a new educational paradigm in which the instructor is no longer regarded as the sole source of all knowledge." Participants and visitors at its Web site suggest that CyberEd is well on its way to achieving its goal. (www.umassd.edu/cybered/distlearninghome.html) I think that this program at Dartmouth is a really good idea. SAU ought to try out a program that is similar. If students don't have to stay cooped up in a classroom and can explore the course on their own, they might learn more because they, with the help of the Web, have to more or less teach it to and learn it themselves. It might even teach a few students something about responsibility, knowing they have to do it more or less on thier own. If I had to improve the Web-based teaching of the course, I would make the students research more on their own on the Web, rather than sit in class two or three times a week, and have the students leave all of the learning and teaching up to the professor.
This has been my first experience with this kind of interactive, multimedia presentation of instruction. Consequently, I had no preconceptions about what it would be like. Personally, I found it to be very stimulating. The strengths were in the self-paced structure of the work. I selected an area to concentrate on and was left to my own devices to master the subject. This resulted in my doing far more work than in a normal class environment. There was no other person to say when enough work had been done. And with no testing on assigned reading I really never had any idea of what was enough. The result was a fourteen page website on Logic, Mathematics and Information Theory with probably several hundred links to other sites.
Early in the course it would have been helpful to me to have more instruction on the actual use of Claris Home Page and Macintosh OS. I put this off until nearly time to do my page which created some diffifulties for me. My suggestion is some early forced work with Claris Home Page perhaps in the form of a minipage which would serve to bring everyone up to speed on the software usage and answer any manipulation questions early in the course work.
I also suggest the use of some form of textbook. Perhaps this could be something that you'all put together. Something along this line would have focused my learning. I came into the course with no real understanding of what was involved in the fields of Cognitive Science. I learned quite a bit about this by using various library textbooks in preparation for the first written examination. Only after studying those various texts did I really come to a better understanding of CS. You sent quite a few webpages at us in this area but those primarily overwhelmed me until the texts began to pull everyting together. They provided something in a logical order for me to read and refer to in the attempt to understand what all was involved. I am suggesting a text to provide a logical framework for the initial entry into the field.
Generally, however, I liked the structure of the course. Particularly the way it all began to pull together with the addition of various student pages. It did seem like we were all contributing something to the course study. Rather than being merely recipients, we were participants in the learning process. I find that I always learn something better if I am actively involved in some manipulation rather than just the learning and rote recitation of material. The actual presentation of our personal work was also interesting since it required a verbal presentation of the area. I could have spent more time preparing this part. Students should be encouraged to consider this facet of the multimedia work as very important and be encouraged to practice and actually prepare for the verbal presentation. This would provide an opportunity to ensure that all links worked, outline what would actually be presented, and practice the speaking and computer interface.
My suggestion for the final is to require some part of it, such as the research portion, on Claris Home Page. This would be a final check that the students had mastered the skills necessasry for utilizing the software. I am sure that in some group projects only one or two of the participants had actual experience with the software. To me, this work [using the software] was one of the more important skills I gained from the course.
Generally, if found the equipment useable and available and the instruction sufficient for the multimedia portion of the work. As in the Appendix A by McFarland, I believe that this course is revolutionary in education. Lecturing for a set amount of time over a set amount of material will probably fall by the wayside if the complete implications of this type of course ever catch hold. I believe the material was more accessible and presented in greater variety and detail than possible in a regular class setting. It is also apparent that the quantity and quality of learning was improved by the multimedia presentation. At the same time, we were learning general issues of Cognitive Science, specific issues raised by other students, researching and presenting our own work and learning to manipulate not only the Web but Claris Home Page as well. Truly a lot of work going on in various directions all at once.
Overall I found this course fun because of the constant usage of the Internet. I had no previous in-debth experience on the Internet before this class so I had no knowledge of the enormous amounts of information within my reach.
Benefits of using a Web-based course include:
and what I found best was the fact that course material is made more interesting when presented on a computer instead of a plain lecture with no visual stimulus.
Problems I found with the class included:
While surfing the net I found a Web page where a professor put a series of multiple choice tests for use by the students. I thought it was a good way to keep up with class materials that the professor deemed important. Here's the page and address:
http://www.hull.ac.uk/biosci/year1/resources/animal_div/multichoice.html
Multiple choice test on Animal Diversity
By following this link you can access a series of multiple choice tests. There are a total of 100 questions covering the topics dealt with in the lecture and laboratory modules. In order to take the tests you will need your personal number (obtainable from Ian McFarlane orPaul Chin). This number will enable you to take each test once. If you wish to remain anonymous don't fill in the name field.
The programme will not only tell you your score, but where you went wrong. These tests will help you see how your revision is progressing. The best way of using them may be to take them before revising and again after (you'll need another number). Compare the results - you should have improved! If you haven't then you may start worrying.
The scores you get may be interpreted as follows:
- <25% Pure chance, try engaging brain next time.
- 26-49% Not much better than chance.
- 50 - 59% Fair start.
- 60 - 69% Some promise, a little more work needed.
- 70% and above. Good effort.
- 100% Would you like to teach the module next year?
As you can see, the tests are not accessible to everyone, just students. Through this method students can reinforce materials covered in class by taking the exams and then studying the items which they missed. Surfing the net was the best aspect of this class. One of my major problems was that because of lack of knowledge I didn't know how to narrow my searches until later in the course. A week spent on how to get the most mileage from the Web and shortcuts to take would definitely be worth the time spent.
The only thing I would do to improve this course is update the Cognitive Science Home Page and make it more informative. Maybe add a couple of graphics, but not so many that it takes forever to download. Add just enough to give a little life to the page.
I think this course could be improved by possibly you doing less "teaching" and let the students do more learning on their own via the Internet. Maybe you could e-mail the students the particular URL's you want them to look at for the day's class instead of you standing in front of the class telling about them. Also, I think it would be a good idea for the student's Web pages if you gave them a set of criteria to follow that you would like to see covered on that particular topic and maybe base their presentation grades on how many sites they found tht fit the criteria that you set. I also believe that a instruction session should be taught on how to use the Internet during the first part of the course (first week) or you should push a mandatory course on using the Internet for all freshmen entering SAU. These are all my ideas on how the course should be changed because 99% of the material of these URL's are things we already do. All of the questions on Appendix A are relevant to SAU and most of the answers are yes to those questions.
The Web based teaching of this course was highly useful in my opinion. The Web appears to offer at least three distinct advantages that can be capitalized upon by the instructor to promote improved learning.
The ideas above are discussed by Ronald Owston (http://www.edu.yorku.ca/~rowston/article.html) in his article "The World Wide Web:A Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning?" but I believe these ideas are true for our class. I feel the class was a success in getting people familiar with computers, but I also feel that some were overwhelmed by the amount of information thrown upon them. Maybe you could kind of hold their hands for the first couple of weeks and then throw them in to sink or swim.
While browsing the suggested URL's for this particular question, one comment caught my eye. It mentioned something to the effect that courses of this nature presume students to be computer literate. True, at this level of education most of us can sit down the night before its due and spout out a paper on Word Perfect, but in all honesty, before this course I NEVER got on the Internet I think it a good idea to initially give a crash course about the 'Net. Include short-cuts, hints, suggestions to decrease the level of frustration. Also,you may want to give your definition of "quality" site, so there will notbe any quesion as to what that is---does it have a lot of info, does it have a lot of cool links, does it need graphics, does it matter, what is user friendly on the 'Net. Something else that was metioned was the use of a projector as a lecture aid. You mentioned something in class about equipment, and thought I don't know what all is available, it would be nice to have a "non-squint" screen, and would be even nicer to have our own monitor to look at. One the whole, I liked the set up. The information could be accessed almost 24hrs. a day, and we received updated material almost immediately. This sort of instruction not only allows for classroom learning, but more flexible and self-paced learning.
This semester, we have seen the many ways that the Web can be used in learning. Clearly there are many advantages and disadvantages in using the Web as part of a course. For our cognitive science course, it worked very well since the idea behind the course seems to be to teach students how to build Web pages. Students could work on their own pages and tests at the times convenient for them and could access the pages from off campus. However, there are ways that the Web-based teaching of this course could be improved. First of all, it would be much easier to teach this course if the students were taught earlier how to search the Internet and how to build Web pages. This problem is slowly being taken care of as more professors require students to do research on the Internet. Perhaps spending the first couple of weeks of class in the computer lab learning how to use the Internet and the Claris Home Page program would benefit the students in our class. Another problem is that there are students who are afraid of computers. (I was one of them a couple of years ago.) Although this seems to be less of a problem each year, it still exists for many non-traditional students who did not use computers in high school.
One problem in our class that we have discussed previously is the equipment available. Often it is hard for students to see what is on the projector screen, although this problem should be taken care of in the next year. A great solution for this problem would be to have the class in a computer lab, but of course the lab would have to be bigger than it currently is. This way, the students could each sit at a computer and see for themselves what is going on. The hands-on method seems to work very well for many people.
Another area that could be improved is the Web pages that are created. After going through so many, it begins to become confusing and easy to get lost. We have discussed in class and should implement a standard interface that is user-friendly so that anyone can easily navigate through our pages. Another thing that would be beneficial is to limit the number of links we use in our pages and to use only the ones that are interesting and appropriate. I believe that navigating through so many links gets confusing after a while, and it is very frustrating when you are lost and can't find your way back to the home page.
One area that seems to cause some difficulty is motivation to look at the Web pages. For many students that never came to class, the only sites that were examined were the ones on the take-home test. This often gives students the idea that there is no use in coming to class or in looking at the pages when they miss class. I think the take-home test are a good way to get students to use the Web pages, but perhaps on a couple of the questions they should have to find their own answers, such as the last question on this test.
There are several ways that we could improve the Web-based teaching of our cognitive science course. Some of those ways would take too much money, and some are on the verge of happening, but in any case, I enjoyed the class. I think it probable benefitted each of us by teaching us how to build Web pages and helping us to become comfortable with the Internet.
Some people refuse to become a part of the computer world. This would pose a problem in some instances. My father will probably never set down at a computer terminal and "go surfing." As to this course, I think that computer usage is instrumental in trying to understand cognition. It acts as a model. I also think that by the students be such an important part of the Web page generation, we've learned more about the process, than if you had just lectured out of a book. One of the problems was technical difficulties. The computer labs were not always available. Search engines are sometimes hard to use because your topic cannot be any more specific.