WWW as an Educational Support Medium: An Australian Case Study

Abstract

Much is being written of late on the promise of the Internet in general and the WWW in particlaur with regards to education. The new medium has been utilised in various disciplines including medicine, mathematics and the physical sciences, though generally on a smale scale. It has been promoted as a research tool, whereby students can gain remote access to research materials.

But many questions are still as yet unanswered. Is it an effective tool for supporting the education process, in particular providing the information students need to progress through a turbulent period - first semester ? Does it appeal to those people with an IT bias ? Does it increase the cost of delivery ? What qualitative and quantitative data is available on student perceptions and visit patterns ?

This paper describes the use of WWW as a support medium for an undergraduate Information Systems unit taken by some 1000 general commerce students over a 15 week semester. It describes the unit content and context, the traditional manner of running and supporting it, the implementation process and the instruments used to determine the effectiveness or otherwise of using this medium. The results obtained and conclusions drawn are discussed, as well as suggestions for further research in the use on new technology to support education where that education is required.

Keywords

Education, technological convergence, communications, world wide web, internet, hypermedia, interactive.

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