Developing Skills for Weaving a Richer Web

Mariusz Kovler*; Bob Loss
Curtin University of Technology
rlossrd@cc.curtin.edu.au

To meet the very high level of student interest and the need for increased Web literacy, a one semester unit, has been piloted as a general, 2 hour per week, undergraduate elective for Curtin University of Technology students.

The new unit, Web Science 101 (WS101) is co-ordinated by staff from the Department of Applied Physics and incorporates a number of aspects of the Studio teaching/learning model. 'Studio' environments consist of IT resource rich classrooms and an instructional model in which students integrate theory and practice in a student centred, 'hands-on' learning manner. From the first class of semester, students model the activities and methods used by professionals who will use the Web in their daily work. These include extensive use of IT tools to communicate with instructors and peers, and plan and carry out collaborative electronic searching and publishing exercises relevant to their major discipline. Coping with the wide range of student academic and IT backgrounds posed a number of problems. The 1997 first semester class consisted of approximately half science and half non-science majors, covering from first to third year in their courses. To assist students, most of whom were at best only word processor aware when they first enrolled in this unit, special catch up sessions were held to develope their email and FTP skills.

A major aim of Web Science 101 was to increase student Web literacy through a set of practical "on-line" searching and publishing activities, a selection of which were used for assessment purposes. The major assessment consisted of a Web based group project in which teams of students designed and set up a complete Web site. Only a limited number of formal activities were held during classes in which electronic publishing concepts were discussed and/or explained. Students were shown how to learn the majority of their electronic publishing skills either by peers or through use of the Web. The WS101 philosophy required that students place all of their assessable materials back onto the Web (on their home page) and link it as much as possible into the existing Web framework. Thus all of the students were able to view each others work, comment and discuss on each item as a "work in progress" and learn from each others experiences. This approach differs considerably from other methods which use the Web primarily as a one way conduit from which information is only extracted. Although not initially envisaged as such, WS101 became a paperless unit but the needs of students with limited computing backgrounds means that it cannot yet be taken by these students in a completely external or on-line mode.

The student evaluation of this unit showed that it was consistently rated by them as amongst the best and most useful units they had ever taken at University. Another measure of the success and level of interest raised by this unit as a teaching delivery mechanism has been the subsequent doubling in student enrolment (including 6 university staff) in second semester. Staff reasons for attending this unit ranged from improving their personal electronic publishing skills to being on-site to experience the student centred mode of instruction.

From the instructor's perspectives the operation of this unit has been a dynamic and very exciting educational rollercoaster ride which we believe has only just touched on the future possibilities in this area. This paper describes some of the many aspects of the background, development, operations and evaluation of this innovative unit and discusses the implication of this mode of instruction on other university subjects.