Engineering Education And The Internet: A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Web Formats On Student Learning

There is an explosion of interest in internet classes at all levels of engineering education. The potential and advantages of the internet as an educational delivery mode are huge. The web provides learners with a wealth of resource materials at their fingertips, is available to students at times and locations convenient to the learner, and allows students access to experts across the globe. To maximize the use of this delivery however, the development of teaching materials must be based on a strong foundation of educational research, grounded in appropriate learning theory. To date, the use of web-based learning has out-paced quantitative research on what this media can teach and what type of student can benefit from it. There is a wide variety of ways to present material on the web and little research to guide educators on the optimum format for a given audience. Constructivist learning theory recognizes that learners are active participants in acquiring their knowledge. A web course that allows the student the freedom to dictate pace, sequence and use of resources would be an example of a constructivist approach. The objectivist approach assumes that there is a structure to knowledge independent of the individual learner, reducing the learner to a passive role. A web textbook format would be an objectivist approach. A study of 145 engineering and science students was conducted to determine the relationship between the format of the web material and learning. Other characteristics that were measured were gender, age, verbal ability, self-regulation, and attitudes towards computers. Results indicate that there were no significant differences in student learning between the two web formats. No significant differences were found with respect to self-regulation, attitudes, gender, or verbal ability. 1. Education and the Internet Developments in media and communication technologies are revolutionizing education. Cyberspace has opened an information highway. Technology has gained attention in education today because of its prevalence and its promise to provide low cost education; and it may help some people to participate more easily, to learn more effectively, and to enjoy learning more. Given adequate access to technology, the internet can provide both teachers and students with an ever-growing resource of information. Teachers can introduce and use information from the WWW for instruction and supplement almost any subject matter. It is now possible to deliver lectures, assignments and information to anyone in possession of a modem and computer. The significance of this new technology with respect to education is the ability of the educational superhighway to provide on-demand service; automate assessment techniques and improve instructional strategies. Used effectively, this environment has the potential to level the playing P ge 629.1 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education field for education in rural communities that typically lack the resources found in major metropolitan areas, given internet access. There are many reasons for using the Internet. Some of the reasons include a higher equity of access, an infinite resource, students as active participants, motivational influence of authentic learning activities, student inquiry and cooperative learning, and improved assessment of student progress. Technology adds the ability for students to choose how, when, and where they participate in the learning experience and to bring together a vast wealth of previously unavailable learning resources. On-line education provides the flexibility and efficiency of computer-assisted instruction as well as the individual attention of instructor-guided instruction. The advantages of on-line instruction includes meaningfulness, open communication, organized essential ideas, learning aids, modeling, active appropriate practice, pleasant conditions and consistency. Results also show that on-line use can increase student performance. It has been reported that students using computers focused on tasks for longer periods; found previously boring tasks more interesting; were more eager to participate in and contribute to discussions; asked more questions; and improved their use of the standard conventions of print. There is substantial evidence to suggest that the computer also offers the advantage of making work more stimulating, thereby motivating the individual. However, a major issue of concern to educators is how to effectively design and evaluate different learning formats on the Internet. The use of the Internet by colleges and universities for delivery of distance education is one trend likely to continue. Unlike previous educational trends driven by research and tradition inside the academic community, Internet use for education is enthusiastically supported by forces outside of academe. The most widely used practices are formal courses, self-directed learning, on-line lecture notes, newsgroups, electronic mail, and virtual reality. Both advantages and limitations apply to Internet learners, educators, and institutions. The economy to offer classes to hundreds of learners is balanced by the enormous costs of establishing and maintaining an infrastructure to manage it. The advantage to learners of acquiring customized education at their convenience is offset by the need for expensive equipment to access the curriculum. The list of established universities adopting or seeking to adopt WWW courses for distance delivery is long. 2. Educational Research and Internet Learning There has been little quantitative evidence examining different learning strategies in the use of Cyberspace. With the threat of a massive influx of uses for advanced electronic media in the classroom, an abundance of qualitative research was performed, resulting in basic subjective conclusions on the possibilities of this technology. Much of this work has been performed in areas concerned with attitudes, gender, aesthetics, and the format of WebPages. In addition, other studies were directed toward hypermedia systems, including elements of presentation such as text structure, readability, fragmentation, and text displays; or the effects of font size in a hypertext environment . Many technical journals described the ideologies of electronic mail, chatrooms, Listservices, and networks . Little is known about instructional design issues that affect student’s learning with technology or about the development or acquisition of selfregulation and what can be done to facilitate its development with new technology. After illustrating how today’s computing technologies might support how students become selfP ge 629.2 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education regulated learners, Winne admits that these hypotheses need empirical study. Therefore the key to instructional power of computer technologies will be in basic research. Three issues of particular concern to educators emerge in using the seemingly infinite resources available on the Internet and WWW. The first concern relates to information overload and lack of useful instructional format; the second concern relates to identifying the necessary skills and attitudes to enable users to critically evaluate and use the resources; and the third is to effectively design and evaluate different learning formats. If educators are to take full advantage of the interactive characteristics of new technology then we must do more than simply adapt the technology to old styles of pedagogy. Application of appropriate educational learning theories is critical for instruction in any setting. A firm theoretical foundation offers teachers a starting point from which they can build a series of learning opportunities, responding to all styles and encourage a wide range of strategies in order to facilitate successful learning. Innovative approaches plus access to appropriate technologies will lead to the creation of new learning environments that are flexible and provide a custom education for each student, regardless of class size, time and distance constraints, previous preparation, and personal factors. Selection of appropriate technologies should be defined by the desired learning outcomes and students’ needs to perform tasks according to their individual styles and strategies, not because the technology may provide an alternate "fun" approach to learning. The use of the internet as a teaching medium has outpaced the educational research into the efficacy of the media. It is a mistake to emphasize connecting schools to the Internet without considering the kinds of thinking processes students need in order to learn from the information they access. Assuming that learners will be able to activate appropriate learning strategies in any new learning environment without guidance is insufficient to ensure successful learning and development. Like conventional tools’ students use to learn, indicate that now they will need to be taught how to use computing technologies. Effective integration of technology as a learning/teaching tool requires present and future educators not only to be trained in computer use but also to have effective and practical integration of useful learning strategies. This type of "self-regulated" learning can become a vital and enhancing part of learning through computers 3. Educational Theory and the Internet There are three components of an educational theory; a theory of knowledge; (what is knowledge and how is it acquired?), a theory of learning (how do we learn), and a theory of teaching, or pedagogy . The first two components inform the pedagogical choices made by the instructor. There are competing theories of learning that influence how engineering is taught. The traditional t