A novel application of Web Services in Computer Science education

Abstract

Many computer based tools exist which facilitate collaboration among groups of students. The majority of such tools, however, simply serve as communication devices in substitute for face to face communication. This paper describes how computer science students can use their skills to collaborate in a new way. Using Web services to develop interactive content, a group of undergraduate computer science students collaborated to develop solutions for an assessment in an artificial intelligence course. The term Web services describes a new and exciting family of technologies for connecting online programs. Although they are rapidly becoming popular in industrial applications, we feel they have been ignored in educational environments, where they can serve as simple mechanisms for collaborating to develop content. This type of collaboration requires technical skill of a level higher than that of a computer user, but it provides collaborating computer science students with an excellent opportunity to employ the networked computer as an enhanced learning tool, and not simply a communication device