University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 29 November 1996

Education course on using the internet taught completely on the internet

Education developers awarded North American Web award

By Michael Robb

Craig Montgomerie figures if you're going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. In internet language, it means that if you're going to teach a course about using the internet, you have to teach the course completely on the internet.

"We recognized that students needed a lot more information about how to use the internet than they were getting in Education," says Dr Montgomerie. The result is the development and delivery by Dr Montgomerie and PhD student Dwayne Harapnuik of a three-credit course: The Internet: Communicating, Accessing and providing Information, delivered completely over the internet.

Over 100 students signed up for the course, delivered during May to August 1996. Its first distance learning registrant: a 74-year-old doctor from Calgary. Rural Albertans signed on. Some signed on from the remote areas of British Columbia. And people in rural Saskatchewan also enrolled. And while it has captured the attention of students, it has also captured the attention of web site educators across the continent. The course was recently awarded the Best Educational Web Site: Single Course Award at the North American Web '96 conference.

"We designed the course to follow good adult learning principles, particularly that the user should be in control of their own learning-content, pacing and sequencing-that alternative methods of learning the same material should be available, and that the subject area for assignments should, if possible, be the student's choice," explains Dr Montgomerie. Adds Harapnuik, "We handled the course very flexibly, so that students could work at their own pace."

The course was first taught face-to-face from September to December 1995. A number of web pages were developed to support the course. Then it was offered a second time the following term, again face-to-face. While the course was being delivered, students were asked to provide information on what would make the course more amenable to use by distance students, and a few students took the course over the web. They were encouraged to phone the instructors and communicate by electronic mail.

The EdPysch 497/597 course is now an optional course and strongly recommended for instructional technology students.

"A lot of people are designing these kinds of courses," says Dr Montgomerie, "but a lot of people are not worrying about the pedagogical issues." For example, the instructors built in office hours. And class participation marks were built into the course based on electronic conferencing and initiating discussions on the web. The course had a higher drop-out rate than regular courses, but a lower drop-out rate than correspondence courses.

When the students were asked what they liked most about the course, they answered, "I like being responsible for my own learning." And some students, when asked what they disliked most about the course, answered, "I didn't like being responsible for my own learning." Dr Montgomerie says instructors have to be prepared to deal with students who find the "technology gets in the way of learning". One student was intimidated by the technology. She lived in a remote area, but was determined to learn. She hired a graduate student as a tutor, and ended up developing a very good web page for her antique store.

And, perhaps most encouraging, Dr Montgomerie points out, was the tremendous help students gave one another over the web.

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