The World Wide Web as an Instructional Delivery Medium James L. Mohler Purdue University ABSTRACT The number of students connected to the World Wide Web is increasing at an exponential rate, as is the number of course related pages and sites. Sources estimate that nearly 2,000 new users log onto the Internet each day. Now more than ever educators must regard the World Wide Web as a needed means of distributing classroom materials. As part of their duties, educators must provide time and resources in the classroom, but now they must also provide their materials via the Web to help expand their classroom efforts beyond their four walls, and more importantly, beyond their finite time with students. Due to the tremendous demands on their time already, efficient means of creating and utilizing Web-based documents must be used. Many tools exist that can aid educators in converting existing materials to Web-based media without knowing HTML. Tools also exist that promote managing and maintaining a site on a remote server without an information systems background. This paper presents several tools which can be used to aid instructors in their quest to provide Web-based instructional materials. This discussion include the three primary Web development tools: HTML editors, HTML converters, and HTML generators. INTRODUCTION Looking at the history of the Web, from its roots in ARPAnet and CERN to the vast number of commercial, private, and educational networks that make up today's Internet, it is no surprise that the World Wide Web is one of the most powerful communication media we have ever had. The Web provides us with several distinct advantages over other communication media such as interactivity and user-involvement, time-independence, and world-wide access (Mohler, 1997). Interacting with learning materials is an important aspect for learning to occur efficiently and effectively. More than passively viewing the information, it is important that the student interact with concepts, precepts, and theories (Krueger & Lieu, 1996). Planned interactions are known to have a very positive affect on learning. Learning theorists state that to reach an objective it must be practiced to help the learner cognitively incorporate it. The interaction, or "doing the objective," helps the learner reach the objective and recall the information, skill, or behavior that was practiced (Dick & Carey, 1992). To support the use of the Web and interactive multimedia, we can look at many studies that have focused its use in the educational setting. Lindstrom (1994) states, "that individuals retain 20 percent of what they hear, 40 percent of what they hear and see, and 75 percent of what they hear, see, and do (p. 26)." A 1987 study indicates that students using interactive programs learn and retain 25 percent more of the information presented and learn 50 percent faster than those who use traditional learning methods (Kolowski, 1987). A series of six studies conducted from 1990 to 1992 show that multimedia students have a 55 percent learning gain over students receiving traditional classroom teaching. They learn the material 60 percent faster, and their long-term (30-day) retention ranges from 25 to 50 percent higher (Adams, 1992). By requiring human interaction, the learner acquires knowledge more efficiently. Beyond these studies concerning the impact on education, we can also view Web materials as special due to the characteristics of the medium. Web-based materials allow engineering educators to overcome the limitations of time as well as the physical limits of their classroom. Distributing classroom materials allows student to access the materials at any time of the day. In addition, they have access to materials from any location that can be connected to the Internet. For instructors who administrate courses located at remote sites, Web delivery can reduce many of the costs associated with travel, replication, and shipping. For those who can utilize the Web, it provides an exceptional means of course material delivery; making education occur faster and more effectively, reducing costs and providing world-wide, time-independent accessibility for students and other instructors. MEDIA ELEMENTS ON THE WEB Today's World-Wide Web has grown to be more than what Ted Nelson (who defined hypertext and hypermedia) and Tim Berners-Lee (visualist of a Web communication system) could have ever imagined. The Web the we have at our fingertips is capable of not only delivering graphics and text, but also video, sound, animation as well as an entire range of other digital files that impact the engineering discipline. Examples of this can be seen in AutoDesk's commitment to enable users to distribute AutoCAD drawings directly over the Web. Conceptual animations and developmental simulations can be found frequently across Web sites around the world; allowing many individuals to discuss them from remote locations. We are seeing the beginning of an integrated communication and computer work world where there is no longer a separation between computer applications and communication. These items alone have significant implications, but when applied to educational situations, they are exemplified even more. Realize that the Web is not only affecting engineering education, but that it is affecting every field that includes a visual component. The Web allows us to communicate and provide visual information in a way that was previously inundated with technological limitations. However the bar for the hurdle is slowly being lowered. As the software and hardware capabilities of the Internet continue to be more supportive of high-bandwidth material, the wall between communication and computer networks will be removed completely. Currently we are seeing the emergence of tools that enable everyone to publish materials on the World Wide Web. These tools range in complexity, capability, and price. However, they are all designed at making the Web a usable medium for everyone. Some tools require knowledge of the HTML language while others draw upon experience with other applications such as word processors and spreadsheets. TOOLS FOR WEB DEVELOPMENT For many, learning the HTML language is not a desirable task. For those who fit this category, there are many commercial and shareware tools that can be used to assist educators in creating content for Web delivery. These tools range from simple assistants that allow a digital document to be converted to HTML code, to complete graphical authoring environments designed to create entire Web sites. Applications such as Microsoft's FrontPage, Adobe's PageMill, and Macromedia's Backstage Designer allow individuals to create Web pages and sites with little knowledge of the HTML language. Programs such as these, ones that allow complete site development and implementation, are often called generators. It must be acknowledged that the need to learn the HTML language is decreasing. As the development tools become more sophisticated and support more of the HTML tags and attributes, it becomes easier for the novice to generate pages of information. Today, however, it is still important that the educator have an understanding of how the language works. Many of the generators that exist do not support all of the things that the educator may want to develop or that the language supports. Learn a generator and you learn only what it can create. Learn the language, and you can create anything the language supports. Looking at the wide variety of tools available for creating pages, the three that have the greatest impact for educators are editors, converters and generators. Editors are stand-alone programs that make creating the ASCII text, HTML files easier. Converters are simple plug-in utilities that convert a digital file from one program to HTML code. Generators, as previously established, allow the educator to create individual pages as well as entire sites using a graphical, rather than a code, environment. Editors Since the HTML language is a simple ASCII text file, any capable word processor can be used to generate Web documents. However many of these programs can be made to more easily generate HTML files through the use of styles as well as add-on plug-ins. Once such example is the HTML assistant for Microsoft Word. This small add-on program can be easily downloaded and installed from Microsoft's Web site, which is listed at the end of this document. The Word assistant allows educators to more quickly create Web pages, albeit you must have knowledge of the language for it to be effective. The Word assistant adds several menus, buttons, and templates to the normal software allowing the educator to create Web pages within Word. By simply typing in the text that you want to appear in the Web page and using styles to set the HTML characteristics, Word is able to generate a viewable HTML document. In addition to the Word assistant, Microsoft has also created assistants for Excel and PowerPoint. Both of these enable the instructor to respectively publish spreadsheets and presentations on-line. This allows students to track their progress in the class as well as review lecture presentations on-line. Aside from plug-ins and add-ons for common commercial applications, there are also several stand-alone HTML editors that can be used to create Web pages. If you are even remotely familiar with the HTML language, you understand that the most time consuming part of the process is entering the HTML tags and attributes which control the layout of elements on the Web page. This is where stand-alone editors, such as SoftQuad's HoTMetaL Pro and Sausage Software's Hot Dog Pro make creating pages much less time consuming. These programs are designed to allow quick entry of tags and attributes so that the developer can focus on the content rather than the tags. They also reduce the likelihood of typographical and programming errors. Most of the stand-alone editors that are used are shareware programs. Many of these can be downloaded directly from the Web. Since they are shareware programs, the developer can try the software before purchasing it. This advantageous for those who don't want to make a major investment in Web development software, but do want some of the advantages that stand-alone editors can provide. As a courtesy, shareware should be registered and any applicable licensing fees paid for continued use of the product. The licensing fee for most shareware programs is less than 50 US dollars. Convertors For those who desire to publish on the Web, but do not have the time to expend on learning the HTML language, there are many converters that will convert standard documents such as Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, Excel or other files to HTML code for distribution on the Web. Most of these conversion programs do a acceptable job of converting application documents to HTML. Some require the use of intermediate file formats such as the Rich Text Format (RTF) for the conversion to occur correctly. Generators One of the most powerful tools available for publishing on the World Wide Web are HTML generators. Programs such as these allow the educator to set up individual pages as well as entire Web sites. The advantage to using an HTML generator is that is graphical in nature. Pages are designed akin to laying out pages in a word processor. Charts and tables can be drawn very easily and graphics can be inserted without having to worry about the code behind them. This alone makes the generator not much more than a glorified editor. The biggest attribute to a generator is that most, such as Microsoft FrontPage, allow the developer to create an entire Web site visually. Using graphic icons and lines, the application displays the Web site like a chart which makes managing it much easier. By manipulating the site graphically, the educator can create links to and from the pages in the site visually. Changing the page order is equally easy, the educator simply drags a page from one location to another. This is a significant improvement over hard coding and using a program like FTP to transfer files. In addition many of these programs provide the capability to run an entire Web site from any computer connected to the Internet. Once the software is installed, a Web location, based on the address of the computer, is created. Any user around the world can then access the pages on the computer. These programs also provide a measure of security so that mischievous individuals are unable to access the rest of the computer system. CONCLUSIONS The Web is becoming an increasing viable means for course material delivery. The Web overcomes many of the physical limitations of traditional publication methods. Providing materials using this medium allows the educator to overcome the limits of time, accessibility and can increase the effectiveness of those materials. The need to learn the HTML programming language is also becoming less and less important. Many of the tools discussed are in their infancy and have only been introduced within the last year. Undoubtedly as the tools become more capable, supporting features that make development easier, knowledge of the language will no longer be a requirement. The tools that are available today make it possible for almost any one to publish their materials on the Web. Indeed there is time involved in creating Web materials. But using the tools described here will help reduce the amount of redundant work that has to be done to create traditional and digital materials. REFERENCES Adams, G. L. (1992, March). Why interactive? Multimedia and Videodisc Monitor, 10, 20-24. Dick, W. & Carey, L. (1990). The Systematic Design of Instruction. US:Harper Collins Publishers. Krueger, P. S. & Lieu, D. K. (1996), An interactive multimedia tutorial for engineering graphics instruction. The Engineering Design Graphics Division 51st Midyear Conference Proceedings, pp. 94-104. Kolowski, N. (1987, February). Development of interactive instution materials. Instructional Delivery Systems, 1, pp. 8. Lindstrom, R.L. (1994). The Business Week Guide to Multimedia Presentations: Create Dynamic Presentations That Inspire. New York: McGraw-Hill. Mohler, J. L. (1997). Teach Yourself to Be a Webmaster in 14 Days (in manuscript). Indianapolis: Macmillan Computer Publishing. WEB RESOURCES Microsoft Word, Excel, & PowerPoint Assistants URL: http://www.microsoft.com/ Various File to HTML Converters URL: http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Tools/Word_proc_filters.html Microsoft FrontPage URL: http://www.microsoft.com/ Adobe PageMill URL: http://www.adobe.com/ Macromedia BackStage Designer URL: http://www.macromedia.com/ Contact the author at: 1419 Knoy Hall West Lafayette, IN 47907 765.494.9089