Recent Developments in Web-based Educational Technologies: A Practical Overview using In-house Implementations
Parviz Doulai
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Wollongong
http://edt.uow.edu.au/
Contact: parviz@elec.uow.edu.au
The Educational Delivery Technologies Laboratory (EDTLab) is an Internet and Web resource development setup that was initiated in 1994 at the University of Wollongong, Faculty of Informatics. The mission of the EDTLab is to conduct research and development on the provision of an environment where state-of-art Web related technologies are incorporated into an interactive educational process. During the last four years, a wide range of Web technology-based educational ideas and resources were developed and implemented in the EDTLab. They were used in classroom settings, public demonstrations and educational workshops, partially administrated by the University of Wollongong Center for Educational Development and Interactive Resources (CEDIR).
This presentation gives a practical overview of recent developments in Web-based educational delivery technologies. Selected sample projects conducted at the EDTLab will be used to demonstrate the status of the technology in light of:
- delivery of information,
- providing an active learning environment for students, and
- helping professional educators to become immersed in new tools and methods.
The first project conducted in the EDTLab was an Electrical Engineering
Clearinghouse aimed to serve as a regional information repository of
educational materials in standard text/image format. It also intended
to foster information sharing and cooperation among electrical engineering
educators and students. The most recent project conducted in the EDTLab was
the design and implementation of a virtual classroom offering synchronised-streamed
audio, video and animation along with hypertext and images. The virtual
classroom project is an example of delivering multimedia resources over
the Internet that includes computers at low speed dial up connections.
Case studies covered in this presentation will illustrate
capabilities of new Web-based educational delivery technologies
in providing a complete learning system. A system that provides
interactions as well as individualized learning experience for
students. Examples included show the integration of following
features into a Web-based courseware: students' self-evaluation,
and secure assessment, survey, students' progress tracking, course
administration and a range of communication tools.
Other projects in this presentation conclude integration of real-time
stream audio and video files into courseware materials, the use of server
and client side computer programs for students' survey and assessment and
the use of Web technology for on-campus education.
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