Steve Hansen, Faculty of Informatics, Science & Technology, University of Western Sydney Macarthur, PO BOX 555 Campbelltown, NSW,2650, Australia s.hansen@uws.edu.au
Yogesh Deshpande, Faculty of Informatics, Science & Technology, University of Western Sydney Macarthur, PO BOX 555 Campbelltown, NSW,2650, Australia y.deshpande@uws.edu.au
San Murugesan, Faculty of Informatics, Science & Technology, University of Western Sydney Macarthur, PO BOX 555 Campbelltown, NSW,2650, Australia s.murugesan@uws.edu.au
This paper presents work being carried out by the PlatformWeb Development Team in conjunction with the Web Based Information Systems & Methodologies Research Group (WebISM), the Centre for Enhancement of Learning & Teaching and the Department of Computing & Information Systems (Faculty of Informatics, Science & Technology) at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur, in making use of the Web medium for online delivery of courses.
In particular, the paper presents findings and recommendations of a pilot study run over a thirteen week teaching in the later half of 1998 with 19 subjects and 800 students. This pilot study being part of a major ongoing project called PlatformWeb.
With the ever increasing acceptance and availability of access to the Web, various web based teaching initiatives, are either being developed or are being adopted by educational institutions. There are teaching delivery packages such as TopClass, WebCT, and Lotus Notes, which facilitate the delivery of web based courses; there are individual projects in specific subject areas; there are also online quizzes supplied by book publishers and the like; also there are many library information packages providing online searchable databases.
Increasingly, educational institutions have also started to make use of the web as a convenient media for conducting various staff and student administration tasks from online registration and enrolment to information regarding courses and student progression.
Traditionally these two areas, namely the educational delivery and the university administration have been viewed and implemented as being separate, distinct and basically mutually exclusive, with separate staff, buildings and computer information systems. The two areas typically being named "administration" and "academia".
This paper builds on the premise that the web medium can allow a "seamless" integration of both an institution's teaching and the institution's administration functions. This integration can then provide an "infrastructure" for effective online and flexible delivery teaching modes.
Based on preliminary survey work and the results from the pilot study, this paper also put forward the premise that in terms of supporting a large number of subjects/courses and academic staff making use of online web based teaching delivery, this integration of administration and academia is not only desirable but is mandatory.
The first section of this paper briefly outlines the now well known advantages that web based teaching delivery "promises" to traditional and to flexible teaching delivery modes. Also covered is a brief discussion of the advantages of using the web to extend current administrative information systems.
The second section, discusses the PlatformWeb project, its objectives, scope and rationale. This project was initiated to determine the environment and means to accelerate the "diffusion" of web use into general teaching delivery. The use of the web medium being in conjunction with traditional teaching and also in the development of flexible delivery methods.
In addition, the rationale behind PlatformWeb is presented. This being based on the adopter-based (Burkman, 1987) model for the adoption and diffusion of innovation.
The third section presents a survey of "real" and perceived problems as seen by academia at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur in both traditional and web based teaching delivery. From this survey, the importance of the administrative support systems in teaching delivery in general emerges.
From this preliminary work, the paper presents a specification for an integrated web based infrastructure for web based teaching delivery which is presented in the forth section.
The presented specification provides an infrastructure "platform" for web delivery more than specifying an actual teaching delivery product. The overall aim being to provide an environment for mass movement of staff into making use of the web medium and in providing an incremental methodology of developing web based education.
The forth section also outlines the specifications for the pilot study of PlatformWeb. This study included 800 students in 19 subjects with a "barebones" implementation of the PlatformWeb specification.
The final section of this paper presents the findings and results from the pilot study and outlines the continuation of this project into 1999.
Many desirable features of the web medium that relate to teaching delivery in general have been identified (Oreizy & Kaiser ,1997). Some of the most promising are listed below.
The global accessibility by students and staff being certainly one of the most attractive features as seen by education administrators. The global accessibility having many implications for the growth and outreach of an educational institution.
Many (if not most) educational institutions are also developing "flexible delivery" programs to accommodate the needs of a wider set of students, to be competitive in terms of other institutions and to make more efficient use of existing resources.
In terms of utilising the web medium in the development of flexible teaching delivery modes, the following considerations also make the use of this medium attractive.
The rationale behind PlatformWeb has been developed bearing in mind the adopter-based (Burkman 1987) model for the adoption and diffusion of innovation. The overall aim of the PlatformWeb Project being:-
"To provide the necessary infrastructure for staff to make use
of the Web medium for teaching"
further…...
"To promote the development & implementation of a variety of Web Based, Flexible Delivery teaching methods (in conjunction, as appropriate, with other delivery media)"
The adoption of web based education represents an example of Instructional Technology Diffusion as part of the standard Innovation Decision Process theory (Rogers, 1995). That is, the adoption (or diffusion) of the use of a process occurs over time and can be seen as having 5 phases. These phases being Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation and Confirmation. According to this theory, potential adopters of an innovation must:-
As part of this theory is the prediction that individuals who are predisposed to being innovative will adapt an innovation earlier than those who are less predisposed. On one extreme of the distribution are the "Innovators". Innovators are the risk takers and pioneers who adopt an innovation very early in the diffusion process. On the other extreme are the "Laggards" who resist adopting an innovation until rather late in the diffusion process, if ever. The diffusion process following an "S" curve as shown below.
Figure 1. The adoption of innovation. The vertical axis represents numbers, the horizontal time. Initially a few "innovators" are involved, then the bulk. The PlatformWeb project aims at compressing the time scale
The PlatformWeb project aims at moving up the rate of adoption of the web medium in education along the "S" curve as quickly as possible.
In order to maximise the rate of adoption, the PlatformWeb project makes use of the Adopter-Based Instructional Development Theory (Andrews & Goodson,1991) for the specifications and implementation of this project. Basically Instructional Development theories model the acceptance of technology innovation as either developer-based or adopter-based models. (An excellent summary by Surry and Farquhar is found at HREF 1 )
As summaried by Surray and Farquhar, in the developer-based model, the assumption is that a "top-down" approach of a developer with a supposedly "superior" technological product will increase the diffusion, along with the assumption that potential adopters are viewed as predisposed to adopt innovations that are quantifiably superior.
In contrast, the adopter-based models (as used by this project) focus on the human, social and interpersonal aspects of innovation diffusion. Adopter-based models view the end user, as the individual who will ultimately implement the innovation in a practical setting, as the primary force for change. In particular, these models reject the assumption that superior product and practices will automatically be attractive to potential adopters.
In particular the approach of Burkman's (Burkman, 1987) theory of user-orientated instructional development (UOID) is used. This model sees the needs, and perceptions of the potential adopters as being the primary forces that influence adoption. The UOID process consists of 5 steps each of which is concerned about the characteristics of the individual adopter:
From work done by Tessner (Tessner, 1991) the recommendation is to analyse the "environment" as an unique stage of front-end analysis to identify the physical and use factors of both the instructional and support situations.
In pragmatic terms, the adoption of web based delivery, for all the advantages it theoretically can bring and regardless of the technical superior of any particular product, has as the primary force the end users, that is the staff and students involved.
The models predict the emergence of "innovators" who will actively use and enthusiastically promote the advantages of specific products, or methods, or potential rewards. However, the diffusion into general use will depend on addressing the perceptions and needs of the bulk of the end users who are not "innovators" .
Following the UOID approach the following steps have been implemented.
The adopters model used is that the end users are the staff and students with staff including administration staff. The model been put forward is that of these the teaching staff are the primary adopters.
Adopter (or staff) perceptions were sampled in terms of real or perceived problems firstly in existing traditional teaching delivery and secondly in moving to web based teaching. Both perceptions being considered important in determining the adoption strategies. The sampling for the survey has included individual "focus" type work with course coordinators through to general teaching staff and has included feedback from participating staff at workshops and seminars. This survey work is curently being extended across another network member of the Univesity of Western Sydney, during 1999 and is also part of a survey of skills requirements for web participants (Hansen, Deshpande & Murugesan, 1997)
A summary of these is presented below.
The main concerns can be grouped into three main areas. These were:-
Following are some examples of these problems
From this survey work, the importance of the administration information systems in supporting existing traditional teaching methods, becomes apparent. The survey also indicated that some (if not many) of the attitudes students develop regarding their learning experiences (particularly in large subjects) are influenced by the administration related problems encountered in the first few weeks of their studies, particularly regarding communication with the staff and administration.
From an examination of a number of commercial teaching delivery packages, there is a lack of administration integration due to either proprietary backend databases and lack of data "gateways" (Sawers & Alexander, 1998, make interesting and candid comments of these types of problems with a major university implementation).
The main concerns for this area were grouped into three main areas.
The following is a selection of some of these problems.
This step was approached as follows:-
repeat forever
Add to the adopters' perceptions:-
- The technical experience of team members in both web engineering and in online teaching delivery
- Experience and perceptions from other workers in the area
Based on the above (and not on existing products) produce an overall specification
Trial an implementation and monitor the results
loop
Although some assumptions have been made as to the nature and components for web based teaching delivery, the design approach has concentrated on the adopter's perceptions. The importance of providing an administration infrastructure along with the use of legacy material being paramount. The design methodology was also based on evolutionary, tailorable system development (Paul, 1994 and Patel, 1995)
From the above work, it is proposed that for the movement of a large number of teaching staff into using the web medium for teaching delivery, a variety of infrastructure issues need to be addressed along with an adoption or diffusion model that is based on the users (students and staff) environment, needs and perceptions. This being applicable for both web based delivery in conjunction with traditional methods, and in the development of new "flexible" delivery modes.
Based on the survey work, it is proposed that the infrastructure needs to provide up-to-date, automatically provided student enrolment information, since staff baulk at entering up to 700 student names and details into a system manually (Sawers & Alexander, 1998). Further the infrastructure needs to incorporate the uploading of a wide range of legacy material formats in an easy manner. To facilitate communication, the infrastructure also needs to have a single entry point for students and staff, from which subject delivery, messaging and other information can be accessed. To cater for the wide range of web and technical experience of academic staff, it is proposed that a range of activities at different levels of complexity are incorporated rather than fixed methods and activities. Finally, the infrastructure needs to be able to accommodate future changes and developments in the web medium.
Based on this, the PlatformWeb specification is:
The above specification being generic in form, can also be used to assess various vendor's products for suitability for mass use in an institution for web based education delivery.
In particular, without the last two specifications plus the incorporation of legacy material, from the survey work, it is proposed that there will be a resistance from the "bulk" of teaching staff to move into web delivery.
A pilot "barebones" implementation was conducted in the Spring Semester of 1998 with 19 subjects and over 800 students. From the results of this pilot a major trial across the University of Western Sydney Macarthur is being conducted over 1999.
Further details of the pilot are given later in this paper
This being conducted by the following strategems:-
This step is in the process of being implemented during 1999
Based on the above previous work , a pilot study covering 13 weeks of teaching, with 800 students and 19 participating subjects was conducted in the second half of 1998.
This being the initial stage of a major trial in an implementation of the PlatformWeb specifications.
The pilot study implemented a "barebones" web based infrastructure linking together the administration student database, the staff information database, the timetabling database, the course information databases, with a student messaging system and a simple interface for uploading legacy and html material.
Starting with the cutdown pilot study, the guiding design philosophy for implementing this project has been based on the previously given rationale. That is, based on the adopter-based theory of technology diffusion, that holds the end user will ultimately implement innovations in practical settings rather than the glamour of superior products being the primary force for change . The generic design specification being as follows:
A summary of the PlatformWeb product specification for the pilot implementation is given below.
The physical platform was a twin CPU Pentium server with a half gig bytes of RAM. The server side coding being all under the ASP environment and based on MS SQL server 6.5 database. The server side coding for the pilot study amounted to approximately 4,000 lines of code at the start and is now close to 15,000 lines. The projection is that the steady state implementation will be about 40,000 to 60,000 lines. The security of the site is maintained with session state variables. HTML files are mapped to the asp DLL and headers are placed in them according to the access required.
The pilot study implementation is shown below. The left hand block of databases are the administrative support information. This also includes the passwords issued to students. Since 1997, all these databases have been available to students through the faculty web site. In the pilot study they were integrated into the infrastructure. From a single entry point with one password, the teaching delivery and administration support were "seamlessly" available through a common web interface.
Figure 2. Overview of the PlatformWeb Pilot Study
The overall site map from the students view point is given below, with some of the actual web screens shown following. The front end can be seen at HREF2 on the UWSM PlatformWeb server.
Figure 3: Student view of PlatformWeb Pilot implementation
Screen 1. This is the initial web page the student sees, on entering their student ID and password, students are taken to the a listing of their enrolled subjects (see below)
From the student entry of their student ID and password (screen 1), PlatformWeb displays a listing of their currently enrolled subjects (screen 2).
Screen 2. Student enrolment details. If a subject is in the pilot trial, a link is enabled. Also if there are unread messages, the message flag is set against that subject. (The student's name has been blocked out for privacy reasons)
A link is automatically provided on a subject if it is registered with PlatformWeb. A message flag appears besides a subject if there are any unread messages. The message flags are cleared when messages are actually read. From this screen, the students can also change their password if desired.
On following a subject link, a home page for that subject is displayed
Links are automatically provided for timetable, staff, subject and the message pages. along with links for any activities that the staff member has added. Examples of activities include word documents, html files, PowerPoint presentations PDF files and links to other web sites.
Screen 3. The links to various teaching activities for a particular teaching unit. (The student's name has been blocked out for privacy reasons).
Screen 4. Material is viewed inside the PlatformWeb Frame. (The student's name has been blocked out for privacy reasons)
On entering their staff ID and password, a list of registered subjects available for that staff member is shown. On selecting a subject a series of menus are available for:
.
Figure 5. Staff view of PlatformWeb Pilot implementation
The subject developer can assign names to "units" of activities. Under each unit name, can be uploaded static material, linked html pages and links to other web sites. This makes it possible to include under PlatformWeb various types of legacy material , html material and complete web sites developed on other servers. (Additional modules for quizzes, interactive material, forums/discussions/chats, student uploading have been added on in 1999). Individual staff negotiate with their students as to the appropriate format, some classes used MSWord document files, other used PDF while others made use of PowerPoint Viewer downloads to run PowerPoint presentations.
From this pilot the study, the following results emerged.
The pilot "barebones" implementation has now been extended (to about 15,000 lines of code) with an online quiz module, student assignment upload module, a progression and marking module, extended group allocation functions, various link interfaces to extend functionality to separate web sites and a discussion module. In keeping with the given rational, the quiz module is designed to make use of "legacy" material. By inserting a small set of "tags", existing quizzes in word processor form, including graphics, can be uploaded and parsed to form question banks. Quizzes are made up from the question banks and a variety of delivery methods are selectable. At the time of submission of this paper, there are about 50 (plus) participating subjects covering about 3,000 students (counted as students/subject). Participation is from staff across the campus and includes the Faculty of Law, Faculty of Business, the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, the Faculty of Informatics, Science & Technology and the Faculty of Education. A two hour workshop is initially attended by these staff prior to registration and an advanced workshop is available on request.
For use in the second half of 1999, a video/audio online conferencing module is being designed, for an initial trial with a set of postgraduate students.
Alongside PlatformWeb, an accompanying project is being developed called "Students OnLine". This project aims at providing a "one shop stop" for students (from bus timetables, online enrolment changes, timetables, through to sports activities) and will operate in conjunction with PlatformWeb.
From the viewpoint of providing the means for the use of the web medium by large numbers of teaching staff either in conjunction with traditional teaching or for the delivery of flexible teaching methods, four main factors arose from this pilot study and preliminary survey work.
Firstly, the importance of the administration information system being available and integrated into the teaching delivery.
For targeted delivery, based on password access, the administration integration was crucial for variations of student participation, changes of enrolment, access to supporting information and for the management of a large number of students, staff and delivery subjects. With this integration, the use of the web medium became another aspect of "normal" teaching delivery and as such was readily accepted by participating staff/students. This integration also assisted in overcoming a number of existing problems with traditional teaching delivery.
Secondly, the importance of incorporating legacy resources into web delivery. Although not so critical for the "web enthusiast" staff members, this was a crucial factor for the staff with low web or technical skills.
Thirdly, from this pilot study, there is support for the premise that for the mass acceptance of staff into using the new web medium, the incremental approach is effective. That is, the approach of providing a variety of activities and skills requirements, which can be chosen or implemented by staff at their own pace and experience.
Fourthly, a web based teaching delivery system does not have to incorporate the full features of a multi-media interactive medium for successful use and acceptance by academia and students. Given the necessary administrative support structure, even a "barebones" teaching functionality provides a useful complement to traditional methods and also provides the incremental experience for staff and students to move into the areas of new and flexible delivery methods.
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HREF2
http://spyder.macarthur.uws.edu.au/platformweb/
Steve Hansen, Yogesh Deshpande and San Murugesan, © 1999. The authors assign 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 grant 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.