Creating a Course Homepage
Larry Summary
Rebecca Summary
Getting Started
In order to create a homepage on the World
Wide Web, it is helpful (some say necessary) to have some familiarity with
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language that Web browsers such as
Netscape and Internet Explorer read to display your pages. Actually, there
are two versions of HTML, version 2.0 and version 3.0. Not all browsers
support all of the extensions in version 3.0, so you need to make sure that
the browsers that your students use will support your pages. Information
on version 2 may be found at http://home.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/html_extensions.html
; go to http://home.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/html_extensions_3.html
for information on version 3.
HTML is not complicated, and a few hours of study should have you well on your way. There are many good books on the market to help you get started, as well as a number of good Web sites. You might want to take a look at Netscape's Web page help (http://home.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/), The Web Designer (http://web.canlink.com/webdesign/) and the HTML Library (http://copper.ucs.indiana.edu/~mchaifet/htmllib.html) for guides to writing HTML. An alternative is to acquire a Web page generator such as Netscape Navigator Gold (free for educational users at www.netscape.com), Microsoft FrontPage (www.microsoft.com/frontpage), Adobe Pagemill (www.adobe.com/prodindex/pagemill/main.html), NetObjects Fusion (www.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/Hands/011397/fusion.html) or Softquad HotMetal Pro (www.softquad.com/products/hotmetal/hm-ftp.htm). Even with the use of these web page generators, a knowledge of HTML is very useful, especially if you want to edit your pages.
The next step is to decide exactly what will be included in the Web course pages(s). Most faculty begin by placing their course syllabus on the Web. This contains the usual administrative information such as office location, phone, office hours, dates of exams, etc., and information about the content and structure of the course. If you have your course syllabus in Microsoft Word for Windows 95, you can add HTML tags by using Internet Assistant, which can be downloaded from Microsoft's homepage (http://www.microsoft.com/word/internet/ia/sysreq.htm). The authors' limited experimentation with this tool found that it transforms a Word document so that it is readable by a Web browser, but it is a basic Web page that you may wish to edit to add larger fonts, etc.
If you use Microsoft Office 97, tools are included to allow you to publish documents from Word, tables and charts from Excel, databases from Access and presentations from PowerPoint on the Web. It is a good idea to include a hyperlinked e-mail box on your course page so that students can contact you easily.
What makes the Web so exciting is that you can
go beyond the usual static course syllabus to incorporate interactive elements.
In fact, without interactivity, you might as well hand out a printed course
syllabus on the first day of class.
An easy way to incorporate some degree of interactivity is to include hyperlinks to other relevant information. You may wish to start with simple hyperlinks within your own website. For example, upcoming exams may be listed with hyperlinks to old exams. Or, you may wish to add hyperlinks to class discussion questions or examination study questions. Another possibility is a hyperlink to your Power Point presentations, transformed into HTML using the Windows 95 or 97 version of Power Point.
External hyperlinks are next. Finding appropriate, high quality Web sites will take some time. A good place to start is to utilize Web search engines such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), AltaVista (www.altavista.com), Lycos (www.lycos.com), InfoSeek (www.infoseek.com) WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com), Excite (www.excite.com) and Magellan (www.mckinley.com).3 Each of these search facilities works somewhat differently, and so it takes practice to become a proficient Web hunter. The complaint heard most often is that these search tools return too much information to the user, and so it takes time to sort through and find relevant Web sites. However, the time is usually well spent. For example, a collective bargaining course Web page at Southeast Missouri State University (http://economics.semo.edu/rSummary/index.htm) includes links to Web sites of unions (including a great site with union history in a multimedia format), corporations, the National Labor Relations Board, law firms specializing in labor relations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Labor. It also has links to Web sites that include negotiation games, a dictionary of collective bargaining and labor relations terminology, collective bargaining FAQs, court decisions and labor laws. This semester, the class has been following the American Airlines/Allied Pilots Association negotiations via Web pages. A genetics course homepage at Southeast (http://Biology.semo.edu/web/courses/genetics) includes a link to a virtual flylab, where students may select characteristics and breed flies. These sites are used during class to focus attention on real life applications of course material. They may also be used by students to gather information for research projects.
Another way to include interactive elements into Web pages is to incorporate forms. These may be used for a variety of purposes. A philosophy instructor at Southeast Missouri State uses forms for students to submit homework assignments (http://economics.semo.edu/dholt/ASSIGN.HTM). An MBA course homepage at Southeast includes forms for students to submit feedback concerning the structure and content of class sessions (http://economics.semo.edu/economic/ba661/index.html). Students can make comments or ask questions. A form may be written in HTML or it may be included as a CGI script which is executed when a button or hotword is clicked.
Bulletin boards are useful for communication between students and instructor and among students. Economics instructors at Southeast use bulletin boards to announce assignments and to carry on conversations about current economic events (http://economics.semo.edu/economic/econbull.htm). Bulletin boards are especially useful for students who might have to miss class because of illness or other emergencies. They may also be useful when group assignments are part of the course requirements. Members of a group may carry on at least part of their communication via the bulletin board. Including a bulletin board on a Web page requires software installed on the Web server; a relatively easy system to install is WebBoard by O'Reilly and Associates (www.ora.com). Talk with your system administrator about software appropriate for your campus system.
Listserves are another useful resource for course management and communication. Students sign up for a listserv and then receive messages from the instructor and/or from other students in their e-mail box. Again, this is especially useful for students who may be absent from class or for students working on group assignments. It also gives the instructor the ability to announce changes in assignments or other relevant course information. Including a listserv on a Web page also requires special software installed on the server; an example is Mailsite (http://www.rockliffe.com/contact.htm). You will need to talk with your system administrator.
Interactivity can become somewhat sophisticated with the introduction of database applications. Faculty in some disciplines may include assignments linked to databases, and the databases may be accessed by students via the Web. For example, a faculty member in the economics department at Southeast Missouri State is designing a database assignment which requires students to complete calculations using yearly data for Gross Domestic Product. Other faculty at Southeast use database gradebooks on the Web (http://economics.semo.edu/dholt/StudentGb/search.cfm). Students may access their grades via a password protected interface. The faculty member has his/her own interface (password protected, of course) for entering and changing grades. Simple database applications for the Web may be developed using the Windows 95 or 97 version of Access. More sophisticated applications may be developed using software such as Cold Fusion.
Video and sound may be incorporated into a Web page. These require plug-ins such as EchoSpeech (http://www.echospeech.com), RealAudio (http://www.realaudio.com/products/ra2.0) and CineWeb (http://www.digigami.com/cineweb) to be added to the students' Web browser as well as specialized software on the server. There is also the capability to incorporate real time conferencing into your Web site via software such as iChat (www.ichat.com) and Microsoft NetMeeting (www.microsoft.com/netmeeting). These also require software on the user end as well as software on the server.
Faculty may also design their own multimedia presentations and incorporate them into Web pages with the use of software such as Asymetrix Toolbook (www.asymetrix.com) and Macromedia Authorware (www.macromedia.com). This degree of interactivity requires specialized software and hardware and may require the assistance of an instructional technology specialist. It also requires that students have access to appropriate hardware (sound and video cards) and software (appropriate versions of Web browsers and the necessary plug-ins).
Finally, you will want to pay some attention to the appearance of your Web page. Include some graphics or clip art, which you can purchase or download from Web sites such as Clip Art Collection (http://www.ist.net/clipart/index.html), Multimedia Source (http://www.itec.sfsu.edu/multimedia/multimedia.html), or Psyched (http://www.econ.cbs.dk/~gemal/psychedupgraphics/index.html). You can also add color or wallpaper to your background; any of the HTML sources listed above will tell your how.
Interactive course Web pages may be simple or quite
sophisticated. Don't be content with static pages; some degree of interactivity
is necessary to fully utilize the power of the Web. Your page is a work
in progress, always under construction. Course Web pages are a way to make
public the scholarship of teaching, a way to make all of your knowledge
and creativity available to others.
NOTES
1. Take a look at www.economics.semo.edu/cstl/workshop/index.htm
to view information and sites listed in this paper.
2. The Internet Assistant add-on is also available for the Windows 95 versions
of Power Point, Access and Excel.
3. A short review of search engines is included in the March 1997 issue
of PC Computing on pages 123-126. This issue also includes lots of other
information about the Internet.