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Promoting Web Based Learning

Traditional methods of learning are fast giving way to Web Based Learning (WBL). Is WBL the new mantra for sharing and importing knowledge and education? Dr. Sarat Chandra Babu addresses issues related to WBL here.
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The traditional chalk and talk education system based on which we continue to learn has many drawbacks - geographical boundaries, unacceptable student teacher ratio, variation in the student levels, outdated syllabi, shortage of quality teachers, subjective evaluation. Students from remote places have no scope to enhance their skills.  It has been long recognized that the class room teaching has to be supplemented by a number of other means such as -

  • Case studies
  • Cooperative learning
  • Collaborative learning
  • Development of learning communities
  • Coach assisted self study
  • Periodic self assessment

Web based learning (WBL) provides the necessary infrastructure for all these modes of learning. It is an innovative approach to distance (on-line) learning using the latest technologies of the World Wide Web (W W W), the Internet and Intranets. This form of learning presents live content, as fresh as the moment and modified at will, in a structure allowing self-directed and self-paced instruction in any topic. This is an ideal vehicle for delivering training to individuals anywhere and at any time (asynchronous learning). In the present scenario, learning has become a lifelong phenomena and the focus of instruction will be to provide knowledge that is tailored to the individual needs of a learner. WBLwith all its rich multi-media resources provides easy delivery of training to users; options to link with other training systems; creativity and freedom to innovate.

Some limitations of on-line learning often discussed are the lack of interactivity, replacement of labs, personality development of a student. There is scope to improve on such limitations and come closer to class room teaching on the web by creating Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) ‘avatars’ through which the interaction can be simulated in virtual cafes, virtual class rooms.

WBL was started by Digital Think Inc., USA in 1996 as a tool for training in corporate sector. Intel started its first online course on “Pentium processor architecture for embedded design”. Simulation and modeling for effective teaching of interactive and graphic-oriented subjects is easy now. For example, Siman Fraser University’s Dancing in Cyberspace is a choreography Course that introduces students to the creative potential of the virtual body in cyberspace. Several web sites such as Blackboard.com, Thinkwave.com are offering free services. Online campus at www.worldlearning institute.com provides courses for all educational levels.

Web Learning tools

Web learning tools provide a framework for designing, delivering, and managing courses. The salient features of such tools are as follows :

There are four classes of users by name author, student, teacher, and administrator. Learning tools support all these users through the respective modules. The authoring module allows the content creation in HTML, to determine the layout, colors, text and counters for the course pages. The student module allows the student to access resource material and to perform self-evaluations. This module will provide communication tools such as conferencing system, chat, e-mail, whiteboard; on-line evaluation tools etc.

The third module (Teacher Module) allows the teacher to see student’s self-evaluations, to set, mark and analyze exams, to evaluate the course material and to communicate with the class and individual students. There is also an Administrator Module that controls registration and security. It consists of a set of administrative tools that aid in student progress tracking, course access tracking, grade maintenance etc.

Fig.1 lists most of the features expected out of a WBL tool to support these modules.

Some of the popular tools supporting such facilities are WebCT; Virtual-U, Microsoft’s LRN, Lotus Learning Space, ChArLi of world learning system. Free download of WebCT ‘s evaluation version is available on the net (http://homebrew. cs.ubc.ca/webct/ ).

Issues

The main issues today in WBL are (i) how the learning could encompass large numbers (scalability)?; (ii) How the learner can gain more insight into the Knowledge base interactively?  (iii) How easily one can the same course be offered on different platforms (Inter-operability)?  What security mechanisms are built-in? What level of ease  exists while moving from one tool to another (interchangeability)?  Though it is universally accepted that WBL is the best vehicle for supplementing knowledge beyond the classroom, it is a point of discussion whether WBL is more of a supplementary, complementary or comprehensive learning mechanism.

Standards

More than 3000 courses are being offered on the net. How ever, there is tremendous scope to improve in terms of quality offered. There is need for standards to define the framework for on-line learning. Standards are desirable for inter-operability, convenience, flexibility, and efficiency in the design, delivery, and administration. They provide a consistent on-line dimension for all courses being designed so that all authors/ faculty are able to customize the on-line materials with minimal lead-time.

There are a number of organizations that have established such standards; such as Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) of Department of Defence, USA; Learning Technology Standard Architecture (LTSA) of IEEE. Many of these organizations are working in close collaboration. The LTSA system components and their interactions are depicted in Fig.2. 

This scheme of learner centric architecture is evolved considering the following basic steps :

  • Start with multimedia delivery to learner
  • Add coaching/feedback loop for human "unreliability".
  • Add learner records for varying teachers, infer intelligently about learner capability
  • Add rich learning resources, search, and lookup to support diversity of humans
  • Add negotiated learning preferences for direct communication with learner.

More details on this standard can be accessed from (http://edutool.com/ltsa). WBL courses confirming to such standards will satisfy the pedagogical requirements of learning.

Conclusion

Many institutes like IITs, BITS-Pilani, IGNOU are working towards the design of courseware. C-DAC is working in WBL area through training the trainers and working on development of learning tools to facilitate design of multi-lingual courses. WBL is also one of the focus areas of Department of Information Technology. Many universities have started analyzing the need of implementing on-line courses. Thus it is clear that wide access to learning through WBL is gaining significance and becomes essential for the survival in this new, continually changing world in any profession and in any discipline.

Dr. N. Sarat Chandra Babu Programme Coordinator is handling the C-DAC Hyderabad operations involving software development and training. His areas of interest are web based learning, Computer networking, neural computing, processor architecture and analog fault diagnosis. He is actively involved in the training activities of the center.
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