Developing a multi-author Web site to support large ACL engineering classes Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Instructors increasingly post course information and interact with their students via the Web. However, time to construct and revise a course web site that relies entirely on static HTML coding can be considerable. This paper describes a web application, CENotes, which was designed and implemented around three concepts: It must organize material around students needs as expressed by student surveys. It must add value to the existing situation and not just rehash existing material. It must reduce the HTML maintenance effort as much as possible. Originally designed for two first-year engineering courses and a junior/senior civil engineering course, the application has grown into a multi-course/instructor Web site, serving some 750 students in 15 graduate and undergraduate classes. It has the following capabilities: Instructors are able to incorporate a large volume of evolving material in various formats into the application on a daily basis with no HTML maintenance. Students are able to browse and retrieve the material organized by: topic, by function, or by schedule according to their needs. Student surveys indicate that they want the material organized according to their learning styles, background, and personal desires. Students are able to retrieve individual grade reports enabling quick feed back on daily work and exam scores. Instructors, teaching assistants, and peer teachers are able to communicate with each other and the students through moderated email, notice boards, etc. This paper will present development strategies, based upon input from student surveys, used to enhance the application.

published proceedings

  • ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings

author list (cited authors)

  • Maxwell, D. A., Morgan, J. R., & Fowler, D

complete list of authors

  • Maxwell, DA||Morgan, JR||Fowler, D

publication date

  • December 2003