Course Websites: Are You Giving Your Students What They Want?

A year-long study of students and faculty members in the engineering program at the United States Military Academy in the 2002 spring and fall academic terms revealed a surprising gap between what the creators of course web content perceived as most useful for students and what the students actually desired or used from various course websites. Students from eleven mechanical engineering courses were surveyed over two academic terms to obtain feedback on their actual usage of the course websites. This information was compared to survey data from faculty members who develop and maintain course web-sites in order to evaluate discrepancies. The results indicate that most students typically used the basic features from supplemental course websites for test preparation and administrative information and did not frequently use more advanced website features such as online tutorials and quizzes. Our faculty members tended to underestimate the usefulness of basic website functions such as homework solutions and syllabi.