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Utilization of WebCT in Course Development Asad Yousuf, Mohammad Mustafa, Shinaz Jindani Savannah State University William Lehman, Advanced Systems Engineering

Abstract

In the last decade technological advancement has significantly altered the delivery of teaching and learning processes. As a result of these phenomenal changes, institutions of higher learning across the country have introduced and established electronic classroom in order to attain more effective and productive educational outcomes, especially for students with special needs and those at different learning levels.

In order to achieve similar objectives/outcomes experienced in the traditional classroom, educational technology must be integrated into the entire process of teaching and learning so that it becomes compatible with the conventional classroom practices. The goal of technology is not to replace the traditional classroom but it may be utilized as another tool to enhance what is already established. These tools when used wisely and effectively can further refine and improve upon the methods employed in the traditional classroom.

This paper discusses the findings of study a utilizing the Hybrid WebCT model that was implemented by the Civil and Electronics Engineering Technology faculty during the fall semester of 2005. It also presents the learning outcomes of the student population under study. It was concluded that majority (70%) of the students did not require any additional instruction using WebCT (Table I), 92% found it very useful, 80% stated that it was useful in communicating with the instructor, 62% could upload the assignments using WebCT, 72% experienced no technical difficulties and 60% did state that it enhanced their learning. Majority (82%) of the students stated that they found the tool beneficial and that it facilitated their ability to keep currency with course requirements.

Introduction

The use of Internet or the “www” (World Wide Web) has grown globally as a vital source of information. Within the educational community, the web is increasingly used both as a learning tool to support formal training and as a means of delivering online learning. The main objective of any educational program is to disseminate knowledge and it remains constant throughout the cycle, whereas the delivery system changes with respect to time. The modern developments in Internet started with Arpanet. In the early part of the 90’s, Gophers, a menu based information system with “text only version” was introduced. Later, Mosaic was evolved as a viable information system with both text and a graphics version. The technology has exponentially grown into the modern Netscape, Internet Explorer and other search engines. Web-Based Instructional tools have been developed during the middle of this decade and it has been used largely for distance education. However, it was not well received by the academic population since the user had to learn the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). Now, the modern developments in web technology has minimized or eliminated the need to know the markup language, HTML, and hence it has been happily considered as a practical instructive process for

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Mustafa, M., & Lehman, W., & Jindani, S., & Yousuf, A. (2006, June), Utilization Of Webct In Course Development Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--96