(University of Northern British Columbia: Web Courses)


Basia Siedlecki

University of Northern British Columbia
e-mail: basia@quarles.unbc.edu
URL: http://quarles.unbc.edu/english/adindex.html

Working with a grant from several agencies, our team's goal, at the beginning of the summer of 1996, was to produce a framework for web course development specifically suited to providing this option to people with limited Internet access in isolated northern communities in British Columbia. In conjunction with this project we also developed four on-line senior level and graduate courses in English. The challenge was to include a large database, but keeping in mind slow modem connections, allow for reasonable access times. To facilitate this one of the members of our team developed a virtual pagination Perl search engine. This program permits a standard page-based referencing system, both for bibliographical and study purposes. It also permits an indexed access or word search, yielding the results in a menu, so that only relevant material need be down loaded, a page at a time (naturally we also built a text conversion program to transform ASCII text to a form that the search engine can use).

In an effort to make the courses as accessible as possible, we pursued a minimalist look, keeping graphics uncomplicated (16 colour maximum with a strong bias towards 2 colour line drawings) and redundant (though we did indulge in a few line drawing image maps to foster a sense of spacial orientation and atmosphere). We customised existing communications software to foster a wide range of interactive potentials, including community input and commentary. As well, we provided students with long-distance connections the option of down loading large chunks of learning materials at a time, rather than insisting on on-line work. Finally, where Web access was not an option, we wrote mirror courses on CD-ROM, which included a browser. Naturally, the aim of our programming was to make the whole package as friendly as possible, both to students, and to future course developers.

Calma e buona volonta contribuiscono alla cultura dello studioso

N.A. Web '96 Home Page

This page updated and maintained by:
Hope.Greenberg@uvm.edu Last update: 22 August 1996