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Session 2520

Student Assessment of Web-Assisted Instruction

Robert LeMaster, Ed Wheeler

Department of Engineering College of Engineering and Natural Science University of Tennessee at Martin

Introduction

There is much interest in the use of Internet based technologies to deliver or to enhance the delivery of engineering course material. Papers describing the use of various web-based technologies in engineering and technology courses are reported in previous ASEE Conference proceedings1,2. The use of the Internet to deliver (on-line) or enhance the delivery (web-assisted) of engineering courses is accelerating rapidly, and it is now possible to receive an MS degree using on-line technology3.

Although there is much interest in and an explosion of the use of Internet-based technologies in engineering education, there are important questions being asked concerning the effectiveness of the methods being proposed. “The rapid expansion of multimedia technology including CD- ROM, World Wide Web, and video technologies is providing engineering educators with unprecedented opportunities to break away from the traditional black-board based paradigm. However, this rapid introduction of technology into the classroom is not being accomplished by an equivalent level of concern for the impact of these technologies on the educational experience of the students4.” Therefore, there is a need to not only develop and implement, but to also assess of the effectiveness of the learning experience of students taking courses that use Internet technologies.

There are many issues associated with trying to assess the effectiveness of teaching methods in general and Internet-based methods in particular. Do students learn the material presented using Internet-based technologies just as well, better, or worse than if a traditional blackboard based lecture is used? Is there a need to break away from the traditional blackboard paradigm? Many engineers have been successfully educated using the traditional blackboard paradigm, and for every instructor advocating the use of Internet technologies, there are just as many or more who are advocating caution. The rapid rise and equally rapid collapse of many dot.com companies which were going to change the retail shopping paradigm via the Internet should be enough to make people look at other Internet motivated paradigm shifts with caution.

Furthermore, not all of the issues associated with the use of Internet based technologies are driven by education quality or effectiveness issues. There is certainly interest among

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Wheeler, E., & LeMaster, R. (2001, June), Student Assessment Of Web Assisted Instruction Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9804