Abstract:
Many of
us have worked long hours creating course Web sites to augment the
instructional activities we use in our classrooms and labs.
Even with commercial tools—general purpose ones as well as those
designed specifically for course Web sites—the task is time-consuming at
best and laborious at worst. But
as difficult as creating a rich
course Web site may be, maintaining
it—keeping its content and links current and updating the site when the
course is revised—is even more arduous.
Even for those of us who are highly dedicated and have the best of
intentions, the amount of work that seems to need to be redone each semester
is so frustrating that we often give up and leave things the way they were.
The
first part of this talk will examine alternative approaches to specifying
course content and links using XML and XSL as opposed to straight HTML (or
HTML generated by course Web site creation tools).
It will examine the pros and cons of such an approach and present
examples of how a good course Web site might be made even better by employing
it, or at least made easier to maintain.
It will also examine the serendipitous benefits of working in XML and
XSL that allow material designed to be used for one purpose to also be used
for another.
The
second part will discuss possibilities for getting material on-line that might
supplant relying solely on instructors to generate material.
The main focus here will be on student-centered models, particularly
those designed to enhance individual students’ learning as well as
that of the class as a whole. This
focus overlaps the area of cooperative learning, enriching student achievement
through enriched student interaction.
Numerous
student and faculty surveys have shown that parties on both sides of the
podium consistently laud the instructional benefits of course Web sites.
This talk explores how creation and maintenance of such sites might be
made more efficient, while continuing to enhance learning.
Biographical
Information:
Jesse M. Heines is an Associate Professor of
Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He
specializes in the implementation and evaluation of interactive,
user‑centered programs with rich graphical user interfaces, particularly
those using Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, Java, C++, and XML and its related
technologies. Jesse has a long
record of applying and evaluating these techniques in educational settings. He
has developed numerous computer‑based instruction programs and course
Web sites, as well as traditional human‑computer interfaces.
All of his course materials are publicly available on-line at http://www.cs.uml.edu/~heines.
Homepage: http://www.cs.uml.edu/~heines
