XML, the extensible markup language, is a quickly evolving technology that presents a viable alternative to courseware products and promises to ease the burden of Web authors, who edit their course pages directly. XML uses tags to label kinds of contents, rather than format information. The use of XML enables faculty to focus on providing…

During the past three years, the role of the instructional systems designer has taken on greater significance for instructors. This is because many faculty members have been asked to put their entire courses online over the World Wide Web. Instructors are now creating a substantial percentage of the online courses with little or no background in…

Discusses faster modems and the limits of telephone lines; applying classroom teaching principles to the Web courseware; computer-based education (CBE) versus instructor-led distance education; necessary components of a Web-based CBE instructional solution (management, courseware, groupware); anatomy and components of the PLATO courseware system;…

It is well established that Web-based courseware must not restrict itself to the mere delivery of instructional material, but must be grounded in some sound model of instruction and learning. This paper discusses one such model, based on the best of instructional design principles and tries to overcome two of the most serious problems that are…

Describes a study that used a Web-based survey and a modified Delphi technique to identify criteria important to multimedia instructional courseware evaluation, validate them with a panel of instructional technology experts, and examine the effect of conducting panel discussions online. Shows information accuracy and reliability as the most…

Reviews the research literature about cooperative learning and technology, describes role-playing software programs designed for cooperative learning, and shows how Web pages built on a WebQuest model can be used to augment these programs. (AEF)

This paper describes the design and implementation of an object-oriented World Wide Web-based CAI (Computer-Assisted Instruction) system. The goal of the design is to provide a flexible CAI/ITS (Intelligent Tutoring System) framework with full extendibility and reusability, as well as to exploit Web-based software technologies such as JAVA, ASP (a…

Examines how the use of server-based courseware development solutions affects the instructional design process when creating online distance education. Highlights include pedagogical, visual interface (e.g., visual metaphor and navigation layout), interaction, and instructional design implications of online courseware. (Contains 54 references.)…

This paper describes the experience of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Trento, Italy, in delivering online courses through the Web. The faculty chose to design and build its own system from scratch rather than buy one off the shelf. The paper discusses the considerations informing this decision, and presents the main functionalities…

While many tools exist for the development of individual Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) pages, few exist for the development of complete hypermedia courses. The HTML Course Creator (HCC), developed by students at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point, New York), allows instructors who are not HTML experts to rapidly develop and easily maintain…

Acadia University (Nova Scotia) has completed year two of the Acadia Advantage initiative, which involved 1,500 students and 170 faculty using IBM notebook computers in the curriculum. By year 2000, all 4,000 students at Acadia University will have notebook computers and will be taking part in technology-enhanced courses. To assist faculty, the…

Topics in education are changing with an ever faster pace. Especially in the field of lifeling learning, the aspects that need to be taught by information providers must keep up to date with emerging topics. The Courseware watchdog is a comprehensive module that allows users to focus on existing subfields of a discipline, but thereby be aware of…

The 1999 WebNet conference addressed research, new developments, and experiences related to the Internet and World Wide Web. The 394 contributions of WebNet 99 contained in this proceedings comprise the full and short papers accepted for presentation at the conference. Major topics covered include: commercial, business, professional, and community…

As attention becomes increasingly focused on distance education in the public eye and within the academic community, a sense of urgency to develop online course offerings is taking hold among institutions that wish to be responsive to student needs (real or perceived) and that do not want to be "left behind" as peer institutions tool up for…

Recently, platform independent software components, like JavaBeans, have appeared that allow writing reusable components and composing them in a visual builder tool into new applications. This paper describes the use of such models to transform an existing course into a modular construction kit consisting of components of teaching text and program…