Kenn Martin, Centre for Staff Development, University of Western Australia,Nedlands, WA 6907, Australia. Phone +61 9 380 1503 Fax: +61 9 380 1156 kmartin@csd.uwa.edu.au Home Page [HREF1]
World Wide Web, Higher Education, HTML, Authoring, Communities of Practice
Are courses and workshops a requirement for new HTML authors within the University? An alternative may be to investigate the skills development of existing HTML authors within the 'communities of practitioners' at the University to suggest a model for future authors. A survey was conducted by the Centre for Staff Development amongst departmental and section Web authors to determine how the skills were acquired, what resources might be useful to support their continued development and how they might be shared with new authors. Results of the survey are discussed .
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) authors within a
university share common experiences and problems as well as disparities
in experience and skill levels. They are required to convert existing
documents to present on the Web as well as designing and editing
HTML pages. Wenger (1996) describes informal networks of individuals
pursuing similar tasks as 'communities of practice' sharing common
problems and common solutions. As University HTML authors these
staff possess accumulated knowledge that outsiders lack and beginning
authors need to acquire. The manner in which problems are identified and solutions shared is of interest. Is this a direct transfer of knowledge between expert and apprentice or are answers inferred through the inspection of documents on the Web? The boundaries of these separate communities
might be drawn within a work area, a University department, faculty
or a subject discipline area or intersections of any of these.
Perhaps as a result of the university environs, there
is an expectation by those wishing to produce HTML for their department
or section that training is required; training that will be delivered
in a course or workshop. Institutional support at the University
of Western Australia for HTML skills mastery is provided by the
position of Campus Wide Information System (CWIS) Officer whose
responsibility it to 'provide first class, up to date training
and reference material for information providers throughout the
University.' [HREF2]. Even casual inspection of the CWIS suggests
that some staff make good use of this material.
The Centre for Staff Development has responsibilities within the University that include:
Accordingly, some staff seek information from the
Centre concerning 'Web authoring' workshops that might be available.
These requests are forwarded to the CWIS Officer. Workshops have
been provided by the CWIS Officer and are currently scheduled on demand
[HREF4].
Are courses and workshops a requirement for new authors? This approach has resource implications for University departments whether staff are sent to outside providers or seek support from the CWIS Officer. An alternative may be to investigate the skills development of existing communities of HTML practitioners within the University to suggest a model for future authors. This would require determining how these skills were acquired, what resources might be useful to support their continued development and the sharing of those skills within the community. This paper discusses a survey conducted by the Centre for Staff Development of departmental and section HTML authors to determine preferred resources and advice for new authors.
Existing Web authors within the University were identified
by email addresses on their respective pages listed in the UWA
Faculties, Departments and Centres (Alphabetical) page [HREF5].
An email notice sent by the author to 75 identifiable addresses inviting participation in a web based survey resulted in 25 responses. Questions for this survey were included in an interactive form [HREF6] with answers that required either forced choices, a numerical response on a 7 point Likert-type scale or open ended text responses. Some questions were not answered by some respondents. A summary of survey responses listing specific resource recommendation is included in Self-directed Learning to Improve Your HTML Authoring [HREF7]
While not a majority of the chosen population, the respondents possess a broad range of experience levels as shown in Figure 1. combining both beginning authors and HTML veterans.
Job titles for these authors were spread across academic, administrative,
computer support and other general staff positions (See Figure
2). Only one respondent had a specific job defined responsibility for
HTML authoring. All but four of the respondents volunteered for
the responsibility.
Replies to the question 'How much of the work you
do as an HTML author involves converting existing documents for
web presentations?' suggest that a majority of authors see this
as a large part of their work. (See Figure 3)
And in answer to the questions 'How much of the work
you do as an HTML author involves designing the 'look and feel'
of web documents?' and 'As an
HTML author how much control do you feel you have for the content
of your web pages?' replies suggest authors
feel a large degree of autonomy over the presentation and content
of web information (See Figures 4 & 5)
As a measure of the degree to which authors
might attribute their skills development to viewing other University web
pages, respondents were asked to evaluate degree of influence of viewing other web pages
on a seven point Likert-type scale ranging from 1- Not at all to 7 -Totally.
Results shown in Figure 6 show slightly less than half reported minimal influence while more than half reported influence in the middle to upper portion of the scale. There was no clear relationship between amount of HTML experience and degree of influence of other HTML authors.
This was followed by a question to determine the
perceived influence of an individual's web authoring on others
within the University (See Figure 7). Not all replied to this
question, one commenting 'I have no way of knowing'
but of those that did the implication is that authors are influenced
by others but see their own efforts having a minimal impact on
the practice of others in the authoring community.
Respondents were asked who had provided support for their work as an HTML author, either inside or outside the University. One replied,
Some limited support. But basically it's do your own thing, or learn your own way. ... My office staff have sufficient to do without having to learn this new skill. It is an important skill but doubles the work load if one wants to prepare pages for print and the web. Some persons adapt naturally to new challenges and environments, and can be encouraged in these areas, provided the time available was there as well. Others find it hard to cope with normal wordprocessing skills, including both academic and general staff.
Other respondents were more successful in identifying areas of support. Their replies, in decreasing frequency of occurrence, included : (frequencies of response are shown in parentheses)
The majority of respondents to the question 'What classes or workshops have you attended that were useful for learning HTML skills?' used the opportunity to to suggest that self-teaching was the 'best and quickest way to learn' in the 'school of hard knocks'. This self-directed approach included watching others and asking questions, looking through various reference materials and checking other peoples HTML code. Other respondents cited CWIS scheduled workshops and personal contact with the CWIS officer that, according to one respondent, 'confirmed what I had learned from experience and gave me an excellent grounding in the basics'. That commercial workshops were less useful was suggested by one respondent's comment that 'by the time I attended a workshop I already knew more than it covered'.
Replying to the questions 'Looking back to when you started, if sufficient material had been available to support you as a beginning HTML author, what would you have wanted it to cover?' respondents suggested:
To the question 'What print references (journals, magazines, books etc.) have you found useful for learning HTML skills?' one respondent wrote 'Any HTML book that came to hand in the new books section of the library'. Others mentioned email correspondence that was benefical for understanding how to set up tables or notes supplied by the CWIS officer.
Replying to the question 'What web references have you found useful for learning HTML skills?' respondents listed:
A majority of respondents reported the use of simple text editors that would require them to type all required tags. One commenting 'I enjoy the pain of doing it myself'. Strong comments about the inadequacies of available tools were supplied by those who did not 'enjoy the pain'. More sophisticated editors providing menu options to insert tags were suggested as were WYSIWIG editors that translate from existing document formats to a comparable HTML form. Shareware and commercial graphics programs were mentioned by some. Two web reference sites that validate the HTML coding of a page were supplied. Two authors mentioned Java and Javascript development tools. One instance of a site maintenance program was mentioned as well as a local search engine program .
In reply to the question 'If sufficient material was available to satisfy your current needs as an HTML author, what would it cover?' one respondent suggested that trial and error was more effective than any resource material as long as there was access to a teacher with phone support as required. Other suggestions included:
Asked 'What pages on the UWA CWIS have you found useful for learning HTML skills?' respondents cited:
The following compilation was contributed to and compiled by the author but belongs collectively to the community of practitioners that supplied it.
University HTML authors have followed different paths to develop necessary skills. There is no single way. Some have attended workshops but they are a minority in the group sampled. The suggestion is that HTML authoring is a set of skills to be learned but not necessarily taught.
Common experiences revealed in the survey that have helped develop skills include viewing other authors work subjectively, examining the source code to see how it is done and then finding someone to provide support for any questions. A variety of tools are used for authoring and opinions vary on the value of learning the functions of HTML tags versus the use of sophisticated WYSIWIG editors. HTML authors at the University seek and receive support for their work from a number of people including near and distant colleagues, friends, relatives and computer support personnel at the university.
Manville and Foote [HREF9] describe communities of practice sharing knowledge through the pull of the individual member. Anything that makes it easier for individuals to communicate within the community of existing authors at the University should facilitate not only their individual learning but help spread HTML innovations. The compilation of references and advice for beginning authors in the pamphlet Self-directed Learning to Improve Your HTML Authoring [HREF7] developed from this survey enables authors to find a comfortable way to find which questions still need asking. The next step is to convince them that it's alright to ask!
Kenn Martin ©, 1997. The author assigns to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grants a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers, and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.
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