ENHANCING CLASSROOM COURSES WITH INTERNET TECHNOLOGY: ARE COURSE WEB SITES WORTH THE TROUBLE?

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a survey of faculty who publish course Web sites associated with their classroom courses. The communication goals and educational objectives of the sites were identified and evaluated, along with the investment of time and resources required to create and maintain the sites. Most instructors indicated that their goals for the Web sites have been entirely or largely achieved, and most consider the sites to be essential to successful course design. Some of the sites have accomplished administration and communication objectives not readily achievable through traditional, nonelectronic classroom procedures. In contrast to Web usage in distance learning courses, however, few of the sites made use of the Web as an instructional medium to deliver partial or complete learning modules online. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the study for present and future classroom faculty.