The basic tools

E-mail
Electronic mail is now available for both faculty and students at most post-secondary institutions. A 1997 survey of higher education found that one-third of all college courses used e-mail, up from 25% in 1996, and 8 percent in 1994 (Green, 1997). The more technologically advanced institutions have network connections to every dorm room, which of course is ideal for promoting computer-mediated communication. Most other universities and colleges have computer labs where students can receive and send e-mail. Because of the increased availability of home computers and Internet connections, even commuting students are now able to make use of e-mail at relatively low cost.

The number of ways that e-mail can be used in a course are limited only by the imagination of the instructor. He or she can use it to deliver course materials or special instructions. The student can submit assignments and can ask the instructor questions outside of the sometimes intimidating atmosphere of the classroom. The student can give feedback on a course presentation or receive feedback on a completed assignment. Group projects can be coordinated and enhanced by student-to-student electronic communication. Sometimes it is even possible for learners to contact subject-matter experts or scholars who are willing to provide assistance through e-mail. In addition, students can subscribe to subject-specific mailing lists or discussion groups, provide an opportunity to learn from practitioners in their respective fields.

Each of the above practices require only e-mail and incur no additional costs. If an instructor wants to go further with computer-mediated communication, he or she can seek assistance to set up online bulletin boards or live "chat room" sessions. Again, the best approach is to start modestly and expand the uses of the tool as the instructor becomes more familiar with the technology and learns how it fits with the goals and philosophy of the course.

The World Wide Web
With a minimum of technological sophistication, it is relatively easy to produce and set up a course Web site that can support virtually any subject area or instructional objective. Course Web sites can serve at least three useful functions:

1. The posting of course material such as syllabi, lecture notes, handouts, supplemental reading, and logistical information.

2. The creation of Web pages that can link the student to primary and secondary sources of information related to the subject area.

3. The posting of Web pages developed by students as part of a course assignment.

The first use is perhaps most obvious and straightforward since an instructor needs to develop a syllabus and other written materials anyway. After converting the documents to the HTML (hypertext markup language) format, an instructor can get the assistance of the college's technical support staff or computer department to transfer the files to the institution's Web server. Knowledge of HTML is handy but not absolutely necessary, since modern word processing programs will automatically perform the conversion.

The second use is equally uncomplicated if the instructor has spent some time researching online sources that can be of use to students. Whether the subject is astronomy, economics, or Russian literature, it is generally possible to find dozens of informative sites among the estimated 100 million existing Web pages. A page of annotated links can help point a learner in the right direction without, in effect, doing too much of the work for him or her. Often these sites will lead students to other sources, and the students can be enlisted to help add to the list of links.

The third strategy can be very empowering for students since they know that posting their work on the course Web site makes it available to the rest of the class and, in fact, to the rest of the world. Depending on the goals of the course and the student's level of technical competency, the posted work can be a simple text-based written assignment or it can incorporate hyperlinks, graphic images, or multimedia files.

Next:

Advantages of Internet-enhanced Instruction