Newsletter No. 186

4 No. 186 19th June 2001 CUHK Newsletter How Useful in Reality Is the Virtual Classroom? Students and Teachers Share Their Thoughts on Web-based Teaching The Web-based teaching (WBT) platform ( h t t p : // www. cuhk . edu . hk /wb t ), wh i ch consists of three interrelated tools: WebCT, CU Forum, and Web- based t each i ng l i nks, was l aunched by the I n f orma t i on Technology Services Centre (ITSC) last August. The platform accommodates course materials, online tutorials, teaching calendars, exercises, quizzes, ass i gnment submi ss i on, s t udent progress t r a c k i ng and assessment, discussion f o r ums, and a master i ndex to all online courses of the University. As of March 2001, approximately 750 courses published their web links i n the master index. A n d a t o t al of 480 WebCT courses and 214 discussion groups i n CU Fo r um were created. To f ami l i a r i ze teachers w i t h WBT and to enable them to acquire the skills for using it, the ITSC has organized instructor-led workshops. Two self-paced and web-based WebCT training courses are also i n place to allow teachers to learn WebCT on their own. Teachers who have used WBT have also been i n v i t ed to share t he ir experience w i t h their colleagues at seminars and workshops targeted at i nd i v i dual faculties. To nurture a culture of self-support, a WBT Commun i ty consisting of 82 members has been established. Members help one another solve t e c h n i c al p r o b l ems c o n c e r n i ng t he WBT platform. They also have a f o r um for discussion, a mon t h ly digest, and weekly tips, etc. A similar g r oup is the WBT Pioneer, a ma i l i ng list of teaching staff who have been pioneers at this university i n applying IT to teaching. They share among themselves their web-based teaching experience as we l l as resources, such as good articles about WBT and useful tools. A n i m p o r t a n t f ac t or d e t e r m i n i ng t he effectiveness of WBT is how course materials and mu l t imed ia technology are integrated. As the ITSC holds the key to the technical side of the ma t t e r, i t o f f e rs a cou r sewa re de s i gn and d e v e l o p m e n t s e r v i ce u s i n g m u l t i m e d i a technologies. I n the process of des i gn i ng the courseware, the ITSC (Academic Support Team) maintains close commun i ca t i on w i t h the user, who cou ld be a teacher, faculty, or college, i n o r der to have a clear u n d e r s t a n d i ng of the content side of the matter. Eng l i sh Phonetic T r ansc r i p t i on is one of the latest web-based courses developed by the team. Encompassing mu l t imed ia technologies i nc l ud i ng animation, games, online exercises, video, 3D modelling, this course serves close to 4,000 students. I n the comi ng academic year, web-based Cantonese and pu t onghua phonetic transcription courses w i l l be launched. To give some idea of h ow useful WBT has been to those w h o have used it, the CUHK Newsletter has i n v i t ed f our teachers and t wo students to share their experience of and views on WBT w i t h our readers. Comments from S t uden ts Eileen Lie, Year 3, Ge o g r a p hy I have been using WebCT for a year. I think it is a useful tool for web-based teaching. When we enter WebCT, the first thing we need to do is to enter our login name and password. I don't like this requirement because it is a waste of time. Whenever I want to go to WebCT, I have to re-enter my login name and password before I can use it. Besides, I cannot go to the web-pages of the courses I have not registered for, and because of this I cannot gain as much knowledge through WebCT as I would like to. There are some special functions in WebCT such as private mails, drop box, calendar, chat rooms, and so on. I think they are useful and interesting because they allow me to contact my classmates and teachers easily. However, they are less convenient than regular e-mail which allows me to contact my classmates and teachers without having to enter WebCT. Another problem for me is I do not know how to use all the functions. For example, till now I don't know how to use drop box to hand in my homework because no one has taught me how to do it. Also, my teachers never ask me to submit my homework using the drop box. And if my English Language Teaching lecturer had not taught me how to use the chat rooms and the bulletin board, I do not think I would have been using them either. Pear Yeung Ho - c h e u n g, Year 2 , Economi cs I have been using CU Forum since Year One. I t was introduced to me by one of my hall-mates. I usually read the messages in the newsgroup rather than post them. As I want to know more about what is going on in the University, CU Forum provides a good place for me. People usually talk about their daily lives, love affairs, or even political issues. Sometimes it is quite interesting, but some materials are very boring. Once I found two students using the newsgroup as if it were ICQ; they were discussing something that only the two of them understood. They have abused the forum, I think. There may be more than 300 new messages in the newsgroup a day and it is very time-consuming to read all of them. So, I would only read those I am interested in and which I think are important. As the president of the Student Council of the United College Student Union, I sometimes need to post the agenda or collect t he opinion of my fellow students about certain issues. CU Forum is really helpful for this purpose. I can get the information I need quickly and directly. I can also print out the messages if I find them useful. Although the forum is very user-friendly, I do think one improvement is needed — the deletion of wrongly typed messages in the forum. Typing mistakes are common and sometimes people may be misled by your typos, which could even lead to arguments. The only thing I can do in such a case is to post another message, but it may already be too late.