web as an instructional tool | dynamic communications tools | interactive learning tools with realaudio | interactive learning tools with shockwave and authorware | what's to come | brief bio
Developing an educational intranet entails using the web as a "backbone" to build "course guides" that distribute both course information as well as instructional tools used for in-class and out of class instruction. Components of a course guide traditionally include links to a course schedule, syllabi, assignments and other course information. In addition, some course guides contain links to web-delivered course content. This content can be seen in the form of text and graphics presentations, hyperlinked exercises, animation and video, testing routines, and links to external resources. In addition to these instructional tools, we propose that the instructional capacity of the web can be greatly expanded by adding dynamic communications tools as well as an interactive learning environment through RealAudio and Shockwave technology.
As a tool to facilitate group learning as well as in-class and out-of-class communications, we have developed a web-based communications tool through a cgi program that provides instructors with private course discussion areas. With an intuitive chat interface, these areas allow instructors to give students a platform-independent ability to communicate in as many groups as is needed by the class. This communications tool opens the door to instructors seeking flexible online collaborative learning environments. Because this tool is web-based and resides on our campus web server as part of our intranet, the instructor has complete access to all group discussions and the ability to control how the groups are maintainted. Examples of these communications areas can be found at St. Eds in courses such as business communications, education reform, and english writing.
In addition to enhancing classroom communication, an intranet should also provide students with the ability to learn course content by utilizing tools that were once prohibited from being used through the web. Examples of such tools are RealAudio and Shockwave. RealAudio allows for the real-time delivery of audio without waiting for download time. RealAudio also allows an instructor to design an audio track that "triggers" URL events to occur within Netscape frame windows. This allows the web to become more dynamic and "tutorial-like". Shockwave technology allows tutorials created with Macromedia's Authorwar e to be delivered through the web. As Authorware has long been respected as a tool to build highly interactive learning sequences, the ability to deliver this level of interaction through the web drastically increases the web's potential as an interactive learning tool. An example of both RealAudio and Shockwave tools at St. Eds occur in a first semester o rganic chemistry course.
Our intranet at St. Edwards is evolving as a multi-disciplinary interactive learning resource. We propose that courses that open their options with web-based learning materials to include dynamic communications and interactive learning tools will, in turn, open up new learning opportunities for students as a whole.
Keywords
intranet, college courses, shockwave, realaudio, educational model, web design, advanced learning tools
When St. Eds faculty began developing web-based course guides in 1995, the campus network began to be used by students as a way to access educational materials over the web. Since then, as students accessed the web for both in-class and out-of-class assignments and projects, the demand placed on the St. Eds network to support unique instructional materials has also increased. Today, these demands include support for delivery of dynamic tools such as animations, Real-Audio, cgi-based chat discussion areas, javascript and Shockwave-streamed interactivity. We propose that the web can be used as a backbone to build course guides that contain links to these resources as well as to information through text and graphics. As examples from a few St. Eds classes that are using this technology will show, we suggest that building an educational intranet with these tools is both realistic and pedagogically sound.
Technical Note: Although these resources are available in a non-browser intensive form, these examples are best viewed with:
Description
When exploring options for internet discussion areas, the St. Eds
faculty considered several alternatives, including usenet news.
However, as faculty attempted to use newsgroups as a means for
classes to hold dynamic discussions, the lack of a single
cross-platform, cross-browser, easy to use usenet reader precluded
newsgroups from being used successfully in several classes at St.
Eds. As an alternative, we have developed another communications tool
that allows interactive discussions in semi-private "chat areas"
through a web interface. This tool is compatible across all browsers,
including those limited to a text-only display. Through a simple
interface, instructors can set up these areas as part of a "class
communications center". Both the discussion areas as well as the form
that sets up the class communications center is handled by the same
cgi program. A
sample
class communications center has been set up to allow
conference participants to see the class communications area and
experiment with the discussion areas. At the top of the
communications page you should see two pull-down items. These are the
different chat areas that have been set up for this example. After
selecting an area, click the "enter discussion area" button. This
will take you to the web page set up for that specific group. If your
browser supports frames, you will see a form in a bottom frame and
the actual text area in the top frame. To post a message, simply fill
out all the fields of the form and click the "post to discussion"
button. By posting a message you will get all of the new messages
added to that group. To get new messages without submitting one
yourself, simply click the "Reload this page" button. All new
messages are added to the top of the discussion area, pushing the
other entries down. An instructor has the ability to maintain the
pages, archive discussions if they get too long, and even change the
way the page looks (changing backgrounds, titles, etc.).
Class example
In a real class scenario, an instructor would set up the number of
chat areas needed according to the number of groups and projects
students are expected to participate in. For instance, in
Business
Communications 30, a written communications class, the instructor
has set
up one general discussion area and several other smaller areas.
The general discussion area will allow an entire class to participate
in an overall discussion. The other five areas are designed to allow
students that are assigned to different teams to hold "team
discussions" as well as to participate in "cross-team" discussions
while working on a particular project. In this example, the
instructor is requiring everyone to participate in an online
discussion as part of a class participation grade. The class is also
divided up into teams of four to work on a collaborative project.
Because students have a difficult time scheduling meetings for larger
groups, the instructor is providing these groups as a means for
people to communicate about their projects without being together.
Interactive Learning with RealAudio
Description
An advantage of the web is its ability to reach a wide audience,
regardless of platform. Until recently, however, support for delivery
of either audio or video through the web was limited by long download
times. These download times prohibited the use of such media for
large educational applications. Although we are only now exploring
options with video, real-time delivery of audio to a wide audience is
now a reality thanks to
RealAudio. Using a unique
server protocol, RealAudio allows audio to be sent in small,
continuous chunks of data, i.e. to be "streamed" across an internal
or external network to any web-capable machine. This ability opens
the door to instructors wanting to make any lengthy audio clip easily
available to students. In addition to simply offering playback of a
recorded clip, RealAudio allows a student to instantly jump between
different points in an audio clip. To experience a simple example of
what RealAudio can do,
listen
to a sample Real Audio clip from a recently recorded ethics
lecture. Be sure you at least have the
Real
Audio player.
Classroom Example
RealAudio also allows for an instructor to set up a sequence of "web
events" to occur at different points in the audio clip. "Web events"
include everything from loading a graphic to loading a web page.
Because RealAudio also supports frames, these "web events" can be set
to automatically change over time in a new frame window. To see and
hear an example of this, view an example from an
organi
c
chemistry lecture on drug interactions. In this case, Dr. Healy
has timed several images relevant to the audio clip to display at
different points in the clip. In doing so, the student can start,
stop, rewind or fast-forward the clip at anytime. Since the graphics
appear in a separate frame window, the student never has to use the
"back button" on their browser to get back to the parent page. Dr.
Healy intends to make other examples available for students in much
the same way.
Other examples of how RealAudio could be used in a classroom include streaming lecture segments as review material for students wanting to reference important topics. More intriguing, language classes can use RealAudio to deliver practice exercises across the web. Beyond the simple rewind/fast-forward ability found with language tapes, RealAudio allows instructors to construct a dynamic web guide with exercises designed to let the student practice hearing small segments of audio to help them associate sounds with contextual meaning. An in-progress example of this type of use for a language class comes in a Japanese language course. The instructor, Hal Boyles, has built several exercises in his course guide that will eventually take the place of audio tapes as a means to allow students to listen and practice language exercises.
Interactive Learning with Shockwave & Authorware
Description
A tool long respected for its authoring flexibility is Authorware.
Many pedagogically compelling tutorials have been designed with
Authorware and pressed onto CDRoms for distribution. Unlike Director
(another Macromedia product), Authorware allows for complex
interaction through text-entry, click-drag response, computer
tracking, and simulation. Until this summer, distributing the
tutorial was limited to CDRom. This summer,
Macromedia released
Shockwave, a software plug-in to Netscape that allows for tutorials
created with Authorware to be "streamed" across the web. When an
Authorware file is "Shocked", the file is first compressed, then
split up into small (96K or less) fragments. These fragments are
stored on the web server and are referenced (much like with
RealAudio) in a web document. Once the learner selects the link to
the tutorial, the Netscape Shockwave plug-in is loaded and the first
screen of the Authorware tutorial appears. As the learner progresses
through the tutorial, the small Authorware files are transfered to
the client machine. Because these files are small in size, the
process is analagous to the streaming process experienced in the
RealAudio system. This advance allows the interactivity of Authorware
to be available across the web in "real-time". To learn more about
the technical details of Shockwave,
visit
the Shockwave developers guide.
Classroom example
An example
of a "Shocked" Authorware tutorial was constructed by Dr. Healy
for his organic chemistry class. This tutorial spans content from
twelve lectures and contains interactive animations, 3-D models, and
reaction-modeling interactivity. Since this tutorial began to take
copius amounts of hard drive space, and since there was a need to
distribute the tutorial to students in a lab environment, the ability
to place the tutorial on the web has not only solved a distribution
problem, but has also made the web the central focus as a primary
learning tool. Dr. Healy has made use of the tutorial a required
daily study tool. Students are required to prepare for class using
the tutorial as another learning resource. As there are short
practice exercises and simulations embedded in the tutorial, students
are also enouraged to use the tutorials as study tools as a follow-up
to lecture materials. In addition to the ability to "stream" an
Authorware tutorial to multiple client machines, Dr. Healy intends to
make use of a Shockwave feature that allows an author to embed URL
references in the Authorware tutorial. In effect, the tutorial that
is first triggered through a URL reference to a plug-in can, in-turn,
trigger other URL references to web sites. These references will
appear as part of a new Netscape window, or within a frame from a
parent window.
Over the next year, we hope to bring this technology to more of our faculty that are developing technology-based instructional tools. As we do, we anticipate that demands on our educational intranet, comprised of text information, graphics, online chat areas, RealAudio, and Shockwave technologies will continue to grow at an exponential rate. As new technolgies arise and new tools are developed through the use of streamed video and javascript applications, we will need to continue to expand and update our intranet to allow support of these new tools. The burden on intranets aside, these tools offer exciting, dynamic learning opportunites to students of all disciplines and are ultimately worth the research and investment.
|
Jason
Rosenblum |
E
amonn
Healy |
Brief Bio for Jason Rosenblum:
My background includes both academic as well as technical roots. After pursing graduate work in Instructional Technology and serving my time in the world of corporate training and instructional development, I began working two years ago at St. Edwards University. As an instructional computing coordinator, I facilitate the integration of technology as a learning tool in the course curriculum.
N.A.WEB 96 - The Second International North America World Wide Web Conference http://www.unb.ca/web/wwwdev/ University of New Brunswick.