Figure1:Web-form for the collection of data
Kathy Lynch [HREF1], Faculty of Education [HREF2], Monash University Wellington Road CLAYTON, Melbourne Australia 3168 kathy.lynch@education.monash.edu.au
Academics in higher education are obligated to pay attention to the client's wants, and where achievable, change the way they deliver education to meet these wants. Web database applications have traditionally been used for administrative tasks (Lynch 1997 [HREF3]). This paper outlines another side to Web database applications - the non-administrative side of an academic's work. The side that involves research, teaching and learning. The paper describes several non-related Web database tools that have been developed to assist in research, in the collection and retrieving data; as a teaching tool for the organisation of a subject's content; and as a learning tool for the student to customise the pathway in which they wish to progress through a subject.
Over the last few years, much work has been undertaken in creating policy and implementing recommendations with respect to the integration of the World Wide Web into business and educational environments. Today, use of the Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, by all sectors is rapidly expanding with some 12% increase in domain name registrations per month in Australia alone (INC 1997). The Australian Government's Information Technology Policy of early 1995 (EdNa 1995 [HREF4]) encouraged the growth of communications networks, and clearly indicates its intention with respect to the relationship between information technology, telecommunications and education. The Australian government has been taking a proactive stand "..to ensure Australia is well placed to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the development of the so called 'information superhighway' " through the support of research and innovation in all sectors of education. As cited by Carr (1997 [HREF5]) there are "...undisputed and inevitable changes taking place in Australian education and training as we become part of the global communications network". On an international perspective, the Bangemann Report (1994) lists distance education and the networking of universities and research centres within the ten top priorities in addressing the key issue of critical mass having access to electronic services.
In response to these directives, the traditional teaching and learning environment is being transformed by the World Wide Web. Web-based teaching is becoming commonplace. Johnson (1997) predicts that, over time, this transformation will have a greater impact on education than the introduction of direct-sales had on business. To make the most of this transformation sectors, whether business or education, need to take full advantage of the offerings of Web technologies and not just the miniscule ability to duplicate print based material in an electronic form over networks. Just as Gerstner (1996 [HREF6]) argues that a change is required by those who operate businesses, Freeman (1996) points out that "If the potential for information and communications technologies to bring better education and training to more people is to be realised, it is vital that teachers be on the side of change." And change is more than the static duplication of print onto the screen.
To date, the most substantial innovation to stem from the World Wide Web is the joining together of World Wide Web technologies and database application. Maurer (1996) has described this as '…second generation WWW systems'.
The integration of Web and database technologies allows for the creation of Web pages dynamically upon a user request. The variable data on the Web page is contained in a database. Malaika (1996 [ HREF7]) is not the only person who has stated that Web databases are opening new avenues for businesses using the World Wide Web. Oracle's marketing manager Rob Bruce (quoted in Conspectus October 1996) stated that '…by integrating database power to the Web, intelligent Web tools will allow dynamic, interactive applications to become a reality'. This is what education clients are demanding. This is what education providers must deliver.
When using a database to generate Web pages, a template page contains the common information and style, with the variable content for the page retrieved from the database. This allows users to select from the available data to obtain the information they require from the database. The requested data is filtered and retrieved from a data repository: then the resultant data is displayed using a consistent layout.
Inline (1998 [HREF8]) suggests that Web pages created dynamically often display several or all of the following features:
To businesses that base their operations on databases, this technology has come at a critical time (Lynch 1997 [HREF3]). Administrative areas have accepted the potential of Web databases. To education institutions this technology offers a challenge in using the technology to drive a more innovative and acceptable learning environment than that offered by the static Web pages of previous years. What is required now, is the classroom environment to adapt this technology into every day practice.
The opportunities that the World Wide Web can bring to education need to be supported not only by information technology and telecommunications but by applications that allow for its easy adoption, and the adaptation of existing functions in the environment. The surprise and hype is going out of the Web. It is a stable and acceptable technology in Australia. It is now commonplace in business and education. We now need to look at how can education take advantage of, and make effective use of the advance in Web technologies and telecommunications.
Gerstner (1996 [HREF6]) makes the following strong statement regarding the use of Internet technologies in education: '…If one billion people are going to access education, universities have to change the way they teach.'
The following sections of this paper describe several Web database applications which are changing the way the author conducts her academic work. The applications developed evolve around research, teaching and learning. (The applications use Microsoft Access (database) and Allaire Cold Fusion (Web database engine).
Though the author works in a tertiary educational environment these applications could be easily migrated / transposed to a business environment. The applications described in this paper are for non-administrative tasks (the inclusion of administrative tasks would be a conference in itself), encountered during the day in the life of an academic.
The examples described in this paper describe work begun in late 1998, and which are in practice in 1999.
There are a range of definitions of what is research. One of the most commonly used is drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) as a basis for the Australian Standard Research Classification. This states:
- Research and experimental development comprise creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man (sic), culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications. (ABS, 1993)
The collection, administration and management of research data is not always an amiable task. The collection of data for research is often a mammoth task and one many researchers shy at. It can take many hours of walking, talking or mail-outs to collect the data, more hours to enter the data into an appropriate 'housing' system, and still more hours to create reports and analyse the data. Using fill-in forms on the Web, with a database being the repository for the data collected, eases the data collection process and places the appropriate emphasis on the process as just a process.
The Faculty of Education is making Web databases available to its researchers as a means of collecting data. Once the data is collected (or at any time during the collection process), the researcher obtains the database and uses the data in a way their study requires.
A recent example of this is where a researcher required data on the computer literacy skills of current students undertaking the Graduate Diploma of Education or the Bachelor of Education course. The researcher designed the questionnaire, the database was constructed and the Web-form was designed and created. In this instance a database programmer developed the database and Web forms for the researcher. It is planned that in the future the researcher will develop the Web-form and possibly the database. The researcher will always design the data collection instrument.
The Web-form (Figure 1) contained drop-down boxes and radio buttons from which selections were made thus minimising the typing required. This also assisted in the data analysis process because responses conformed to a meaningful legend. Where a more detailed response was to be entered, students had the opportunity to type in either single and multiple line text boxes. Due to the requirements of the study data entry into many of the fields was mandatory. Once the data collection process was completed, the researcher created reports and analysed the data according to the parameters of the study.
Figure1:Web-form for the collection of data
A second application of Web databases as a research tool is in an education specific articles or publication database. The contents of the database are treated as objects &endash; anything that can be viewed using a Web browser &endash; text, a URL, a sound file, a video or an image file. Data can be retrieved using a Web browser according any of a number of search options such as author, or title, or by using a full text search of all fields in the database (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Retrieving data using a full text search
The uniqueness of this Web database is in so far that it was designed specifically as a repository to store and retrieve abstracts, URLs or other artifacts that relate to subjects taught in the Faculty.
Another unique feature of this Web-database application is the group ownership of the tool, as the database is populated by Faculty of Education academics and students. When an academic or student wishes to make an entry into the database, they complete a Web-form, the entry is validated and the database is re-indexed. One of the required entries on the form is the location of the object (particularly useful if the object is held within the Faculty or Monash University). This features does not duplicate Library services as many of the articles, publication, conference proceedings and in particular URLs are not in the Library collection. With a fully text searchable engine integrated into the tool, the database can become a very valuable resource for the education community as a whole, not just researchers.
How many times have you used components of one subject for another subject? Or used a seminar presentation as a lecture for a given subject?
With the advent of Web-based teaching and the integration of the Web and databases, this application has been developed to house the Web address of modules, lectures, presentations, snippets of content, or other objects. The application is a natural progression for those who are familiar with Web-databases and Web-based teaching.
This tool has been designed to make work easier, quicker and efficiently use Web resources that a lecturer has at hand. It is a personal tool, the lecturer populates the database with their own content, they have total control over what is extracted from the database and the instructional design of the resultant pages created using the database.
Using the Web as the interface to the database, the lecturer can conduct a text search on a topic from their personal database of content. The results are displayed and could contain hyperlinks to URLs, multimedia artifacts, lecture notes, student guidelines for assignments, references, or full presentations. The lecturer then selects the most appropriate components for the lecture being composed. To construct the final pages, the lecturer either creates a unique page or selects one of the database template pages, and the content from the database is inserted into the page.
This tool does require experience in Web page authoring, an understanding of databases and a working knowledge of the Web database engine. The tool is in early stages, and only over time will it provide data for an efficiency appraisal &endash; or its value as a tool for lecturers to manage their content.
Educational institutions are developing Web-based teaching programs that take advantage of the scope of delivery mechanisms that use high and low capacity communication services. Carr (1997 [HREF5]) suggests that the use of high capacity communication services by education and training have the potential to build more effective approaches to learning and teaching through;
- increased flexibility of program delivery,
- changed interaction between students and teachers,
- individualised learning programs, and
- a new understanding of knowledge and learning.
The development of a student learning tool designed around a Web database relates to the first three points above. Though the use of a ‘guided learning’ environment over the Web is not a novel idea (software such as TopClass, WebCT, and Learning Space, have been in the marketplace for years), what the author has tried to develop is content related to individual student's needs or profile.
In Cunningham (1997, p. 155), Laurillard (1993) states that hypertext is pre-determined by a programmer/designer; the student merely chooses whether or not to follow the link, but does not create it. This learning tool does allow students to create their own learning program for a particular subject. It enables them to select what they want to learn, plus what they need to learn according to the subject objectives (as pre-determined by the subject designer). At any time during the program the student can change their program or visit the ‘complete’ subject. This concept supports Constructivist theorist such as Piaget, Papert, and Resnick who believe that focussing on the motivation and ability for humans to construct learning for themselves is the way education should be perceived (Forrester and Jantzie [HREF9]).
Another way to view the tool is that it customises learning for the student by the student. Tapscott’s (1998) ideas of the shifts in learning today include customised learning (rather than one-size fits all), a more learner-centred (rather than teacher-centred) education, and learning how to navigate through (rather than absorb) learning material. This tool has the potential to accommodated these shifts. The learning is customised by the student and is self-directed.
Version zero of the tool is restricted in such that it includes only limited in-built collaborative tools and is not the only contact the student has with the subject &endash; if the tool proves useful a full instructional design audit will be conducted and the tool will be redesigned.
A student in a given class completes a Web-form. The form contains drop-down boxes, radio buttons and ‘free’ text areas. The content contained on the Web-form is related to the subject’s objectives.
The data collected creates a profile of the student. The student can then view the subject schedule and make adjustments are they feel necessary. using their schedule, the student will be ‘guided’ through the subject. At any time during the subject they can view the full content of the subject and re-direct the schedule according to new selections they may have made. No matter the pathway the student has chosen to follow the objectives of the subject - and thus any assessment, remains unchanged.
In this way the student is in control of what they wish to study with a full awareness of the objectives and requirements of the subject.
The interface between databases and the Web is not new. The time has passed from using databases for sheer administrative tasks. It is now time to make Web databases assist in research, teaching and learning.
I believe what needs to be done is to harness this technology and make it do more for those who need (and want) to work in the on-line educational environment. The applications that have been presented as ‘the flip side to Web databases‘, are an attempt to do just that. The applications are still in development, and in all cases are far from complete. They have been developed to serve several purposes - reduce some of the pressure associated with developing for, and using, an on-line environment, to extend the use of Web database technology to the academic and student community, and to act as a catalyst for the development of other Web database applications.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, (1993), Australian Standard Research Classification, Catalogue No. 1297.0, Canberra.
Bangemann Report, The (1994), The High Level Group on the Information Society- recommendations to the European Council. In J Martin (1995) The Global Information Society England: Aslib/Glower
Carr J (1997) The Future is Already Here: A National Strategy For Australian Education and Training to Maximise Opportunities Offered by High Capacity Communication Services 1997. Available on-line April98 at: http://www.educationau.edu.au (under Archives)
Cunningham S, Tapsall S, Ryan Y, Stedman L, Bagdon K and Flew T (1998) New Media and Borderless education: A review of the convergence between global media networks and higher education provision. Canberra: DEETYA
Education Network Australia (1995) Development of a Business Plan for Education Network Australia. Issues paper. Available on-line April98 at: http://www.edna.edu.au/
Freeman C (1996) The two-edged nature of technological change: Employment and unemployment. In W Dutton (ed) Information and Communication Technologies: Visions and Realities New York: Oxford University Press
Forrester D and Jantzie N (1998) Available on-line March99 at: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~gnjantzi/learning_theories.htm
Gerstner L (1996) IBM Chairman. Keynote address at Internet World '96 , New York Dec. 11. Available on-line April98 at: http://www.ibm.com/thinkmag/features/killer/index.html
Inline Internet Systems Inc (1997) White paper on product iHTML. . Available on-line April98 at: http://www.ihtml.com/white/dynwhite.html
International Network Information Centre (1997) Communique 85 Australia: Microsoft Corporation
Johnson T (1997) Time to Take Control Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann
Lynch K (1997) A lesson learnt from AusWeb96: Web databases. Proceedings of AusWeb97 conference. July 1997, Gold Coast: Queensland. Available on-line at http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/proceedings/lynch/index.html
Malaika S (1996) Database Management Systems and the