British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 35 No

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1 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Oxford, UKBJETBritish Journal of Educational Technology British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, ArticlesColloquiumBritish Journal of Educational Technology British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 35 No Colloquium Using WebCT to teach courses online Michael C. W. Yip Address for correspondence: Dr. Michael C. W. Yip, School of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University of Hong Kong, 30 Good Shepherd Street, Homantin, Kowloon, Hong Kong. myip@ouhk.edu.hk Introduction With the significant changes to the economic situation around the world, there has been an increasing demand for continuing education. Among the different types of continuing education, web-based learning and other off-campus e-learning are the two major approaches people will usually prefer to take. It is because (1) they would like to improve themselves by adding personal value/asset through further education; (2) fulltime education is not possible for them since most are the main source of income in their families; (3) personal and family commitments will interfere with full time oncampus learning. As a result, the concept of online learning grows more popular everywhere. In the online learning mode, web-based teaching is becoming an important route to successful learning. The present study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of one of the online learning platforms the WebCT, a widely-used web-based learning platform in colleges and universities. Using the WebCT* The present study was conducted with a group of 30 undergraduate students in the course of Cognitive Psychology during the spring semester in They studied the course in their own way by surfing on the WebCT platform. Components of the WebCT In addition to the core functions of the course materials and news contained in the course handouts, other relevant materials and items announced by the instructor, there are a number useful components of the WebCT. (a) The main page of the WebCT illustrates all the components of the online teaching environment of the course (Figure 1). It provides an overview of the core functions that students can make use of in learning the course. *WebCT is a product of WebCT, Inc. < Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

2 498 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 35 No Figure 1: Main page of the course Cognitive Psychology (b) The assignment folder of the WebCT provides tools for the students to download the assignment questions (in PDF format) and submit their completed assignments through the Web. (c) The interactive tools of the course provide a two-way interaction among the students, tutors and instructors. All of them can pose leading questions or discussion topics under the section of Discussion Board (see Figure 2) to generate a collaborative learning environment. Other communications between them can be conducted through the functions, including specific questions to tutors or instructors, individual assignment feedbacks to the students, etc. (d) The presentation schedule of the course provides a timetable of the course. It can help the students build up a progressive learning path through the course content. The tutorial schedule will list the date and time at which the online tutor will hold the real-time, spontaneous tutorial session to discuss issues raised in the course through the interactive chat-room/forum function. (e) The Help function provides an online assistant for the students whose are not familiar with the operation of the WebCT in the first place. The online guide will teach the students remote logging on the system through to submitting their assignments. An online multilingual dictionary will be put on the WebCT platform at a later stage. This technical service should undoubtedly reinforce students par-

3 Colloquium 499 Figure 2: Sample discussion question ticipation and interest in the web-based learning environment (Hayward and Tong, 2001). Results and discussion A simple survey, using the five-point rating scale to rate each function of the WebCT, was done after the first quarter of the course. Results indicated that the students generally found it useful to learn the major concepts and ideas of the course through the different functions of WebCT. Some of the ratings are presented as follows: (a) Students found that the concepts and examples provided in the course materials section were useful (mean score = 4.1) (b) Students found that the illustrations provided, along with the interactive medium were easy to understand (mean score = 3.8) (c) Students found that the delivery and submission of assignments through the internet was very efficient and effective (mean score = 4.3) (d) Students found that the function of Interactive tools was particularly useful, enabling them to ask the instructors questions and to discuss issues with fellow students (mean score = 4.2)

4 500 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 35 No Figure 3: DB message analysis (e) Students found that the course schedule listed online was useful for them to keep track of their own progress (mean score = 3.7) (f ) Students found that feedback from the instructors about their assignments and discussion topics was very useful (mean score = 4.5) All the mean scores clearly implied a positive attitude towards teaching using the WebCT. Preliminary results obtained in this study show it is reasonable to consider the use of WebCT a good alternative or supplement to traditional classroom lecturing. In addition to the positive subjective perception of students towards the online course, the time and the level of involvement in the WebCT of the course can also be monitored by the two functions of OLE statistics and DB message analysis (see Figures 1 and 3). These two functions report the frequency of logging on the course platform and the logon time, frequency of posting messages, frequency of chat-room participation of each individual student. Results from the present study also indicated that the time and level of involvement of students in this online course were generally satisfactory by comparison with traditional classroom lecturing (cf Yip and Chung, 2002, 2004), which is consistent with the important role of online teaching in particular and education in general. Because the increased time and interest students involved in the online learn-

5 Colloquium 501 ing environment partially predict the ultimate success of knowledge learning (Frear and Hirschbuhl, 1999). One more interesting point is that students generally prefer online teaching to the traditional classroom lecturing because they enjoy the various ways to communicate with the instructors, tutors and fellow students (mean score = 4.5) for the sake of collaborative learning. Furthermore, students also prefer to progress at their own pace (mean score = 4.1) and enjoy the independent approach of online learning. Basically, all these findings reflect the typical features of the online learning approach. The good responses from this study clearly pose a challenge to traditional teaching methods. Before reaching any firm conclusions on this point, more research from different perspectives is necessary. With the rapid technological advances of recent years, the delivery mode of education will undergo significant changes. So, the core issues should focus more on how to maintain and assure the quality of this brand-new teaching method in terms of planning the curriculum, developing the course structure, delivering the course materials, establishing a user-friendly learning platform and other related improvements to cyberspace. References Frear V and Hirschbuhl J (1999) Does the interactive multimedia promote achievement and higher level thinking skills for today s sciences students? British Journal of Educational Technology 30, Hayward W G and Tong K K (2001) Effects of language on web site usage with bilingual users Usability evaluation and interface design: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human- Computer Interaction LEA, Mahwah, NJ. Yip M C W and Chung O L L (2002) Relation of study strategies to the academic performance of Hong Kong University students Psychological Reports 90, Yip M C W and Chung O L L (2004) Relationship of study strategies and academic performance in different learning phases of Hong Kong. Manuscript submitted for publication.