Experiences in conducting Web-based, paperless undergraduate software and hardware design courses

Abstract

Summary form only given. The World Wide Web serves as an efficient medium for administering software and hardware courses. In particular, the Web may be utilized to create a constructive dialogue between course instructor and students, that not only serves to reinforce and complement class material, but that also leads to a paperless exchange of information. From the instructor's course management standpoint, lecture notes, handouts, transparencies, project specifications, class grades, course-related links and direct access to e-mail and news group facilities for conducting online course-related discussions, can all be made available to the student via the instructor's homepage. The students, on the other hand, can make their hardware or software design reports (including project-related links) available to the instructor and other students in the class via their own homepages. This paper describes several experiences in conducting web-based paperless instructor-student dialogue in software and hardware design courses. Particular emphasis is placed on discussing: (1) the circular flow of information between instructor and student; (2) the main components of the instructor's homepage; (3) the main components of the student's homepages; (4) the effective use of course-specific newsgroups; (5) the paperless grading of course assignments; (6) privacy issues; and (7) some WWW development tools and browser plug-ins that helped in the construction of the instructor-student information exchange structure.