Developing Interactive Course Web Sites for Distance Education and ...

Informatic and Technology Approaches to Veterinary Education

Developing Interactive Course Web Sites for Distance Education and Characteristics of Students Enrolled in Distance Learning Courses Vikas Diwakar ■ Peggy A. Ertmer ■ Abdelfattah Y.M. Nour ABSTRACT The ubiquity of the Internet has made disseminating information across geographical boundaries a relatively easy task. Apart from text-based materials, the Internet provides an easy means to transmit images, sound, video, and other multimedia content to a global audience, making it an ideal medium for establishing distance learning programs. Two Internet-based distance learning courses were developed to teach animal physiology to veterinary technicians in the School of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University. These distance learning course sites are designed to take advantage of multimedia technology to enhance students’ learning experiences. Multimedia has been used in education to make the learning process more engaging and interactive. The two course sites have a number of multimedia features that complement the textual subject matter. This article describes the features of the course Web sites and summarizes our experiences in designing and conducting Web-based physiology courses to distance learners. In addition, we describe the characteristics of our distance learning students.

INTRODUCTION The Internet offers exciting opportunities for distance education. According to Hayes, Huckstadt, and Gibson,1 “The Internet is currently rapid, widely distributed and unbounded by time and place, providing opportunities for continuing education to an international audience.” Numerous links to information, often not to be found by any other means, provide continued resources for further learning. The Internet offers the opportunity to transmit not only text but also pictures, sound, video, and other multimedia content in an attractively arranged format to users almost anywhere in the world.2 These features of the Internet allow the convenient delivery of instruction to users worldwide. Two Internet-based distance learning courses were developed to teach animal physiology to veterinary technicians. These courses are offered as part of the regular curriculum of the Veterinary Technology Distance Learning Program by the Department of Basic Medical Sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University. A number of multimedia features have been incorporated into the design of these course sites to enhance the learning process by making it more engaging and interactive. The use of these interactive multimedia features is aimed at better explaining difficult concepts in physiology by using images, videos, animations, sounds, practice quizzes, and other multimedia content to complement the existing textual subject matter on these concepts. Understanding the background and characteristics of students enrolled in distance learning courses is an important part of evaluating the effectiveness of the courses and improving course design. Studies are in progress to evaluate student characteristics that may affect their learning. The data gathered from surveys and student feedback will help to determine learner characteristics that influence the studying habits of the students and, ultimately, their performance and learning outcomes. The aim here is to improve the design of distance learning courses to make them more

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appealing and user-friendly to a broader spectrum of the student target audience. This paper describes the multimedia features of the distance learning course Web sites and summarizes our experiences in designing and conducting these courses. In addition, we describe the characteristics of our distance learning students and their opinions about the course Web sites and the use of multimedia features. Graphs and charts representing some of the students’ characteristics and their opinions are presented.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS In designing the online courses, our primary considerations related to ease of use, ease of navigation, interactivity, and accessibility. The course content has been organized to take students systematically from one level to the next and to build their knowledge of physiology through adequate coverage of the material, bulletin board discussions, review quizzes, and case-based examples. The distance learning courses are designed to take advantage of multimedia technology to enhance students’ learning experiences and use the Internet to facilitate delivery of the courses. The two course Web sites incorporate multimedia features that supplement and complement the textual subject matter, including images with interactive labeling, videos, animations of physiological processes, interactive labeling quizzes, review quizzes, and do-it-yourself activities that aim to provide a virtual laboratory environment. A bulletin board is also integrated into each course to facilitate online discussions. The use of these multimedia features requires that students have a certain degree of proficiency in using desktop computers, e-mail, and the Internet in order to gain the maximum benefit from the course. The students are given instructions regarding the minimum hardware required for optimal access and the software plug-ins needed to take advantage of the multimedia features of the Web sites. They are also given instructions on how to navigate the Web site, 351

access interactive images and animations, and use the bulletin board.

INTERACTIVITY OF WEB-BASED INSTRUCTION Development of interactive Web-based instruction (WBI) has been widely discussed and applied in instructional design.3–6 “Instructional design” is defined as the systematic design of teaching and learning environments and may include various facets of didactic methods and media, such as programmed instruction, teacher-led instruction, selfinstructional textbooks, computer-based training, and interactive multimedia.7 In a WBI system, the term “interaction” does not refer to just selecting simple menu items or clicking icons on the computer screen. Instead, true interaction involves complex activities by the learners, such as engaging and reflecting, questioning and answering, pacing, discussing, inquiring, problem solving, linking, constructing, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing. A WBI system offers several types of interactions, providing, for example, both content and social interaction, thus enabling communication among participants for both instructional and interpersonal interactions.

Web pages—and were created using Macromedia Dreamweaver,a a versatile HTML editor. Using an HTML editor makes the process of creating and maintaining a Web site very easy. It allows easy organization of the Web pages into a hierarchical directory structure, which simplifies the process of creating hyperlinks to all the Web pages to build the complete Web site. Creating a Web page using Dreamweaver is similar to writing a document in a word processing application, then saving the document in HTML format. Dreamweaver provides various tools for formatting the appearance and layout of the content. It also manages the multimedia resources required for the Web site, such as images, animations, sound files, and videos. Inserting these multimedia elements, as well as JavaScript objects, Java

DEVELOPING THE COURSE WEB SITES The course content is organized into different physiological systems, each of which contains multiple Web pages covering the topics outlined in the main system menu. The content consists of textual subject matter supplemented by interactive images, animations, and videos. The course pages are written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)—the standard language used for creating

Figure 1: A hand-drawn image, scanned and then colorized in Photoshop (see also front cover)

Figure 2: An image with interactive rollover labeling 352

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applets, and other custom code, into a Web page to make it dynamic and interactive is also easily done using Dreamweaver. The distance learning courses contain many images. These were created using Adobe Photoshop,b a leading image editing tool. After discussion of the physiological concept with the instructor, images were drawn by an artist, scanned into a digital format, and then colorized using Photoshop (Figure 1). Other images are slides and photos acquired from standard sources. Dynamic images with interactive rollover labeling are used frequently throughout the site. These are extremely useful in teaching students how to identify and label parts of physiological entities. The initial image is that of an entity without any labels; then, as the student moves the mouse over the image, a replica image with the parts labeled is displayed (Figure 2). The animations used in the courses were developed using Macromedia Directorc and are exported as Shockwave files that are posted on the Web site. The animations aim to supplement the explanations of physiological processes by showing exactly what happens in each process in order to improve students’ understanding. Some animations represent do-it-yourself activities whose goal is to provide a virtual laboratory environment that teaches students how to perform a task related to animal physiology in a specified manner. The course Web sites also provide video files on certain topics that demonstrate how certain physiological processes and activities actually take place within animals. Interactive labeling quizzes are another feature of the online courses. In Drag and Drop quizzes, shown in Figure 3, students use the mouse to drag the correct labels to their respective placeholders. If the label is correct, it sticks in its place; if incorrect, it snaps back to its initial position, providing immediate feedback to the student. These labeling quiz-

Figure 3: A Drag and Drop labeling quiz zes, along with the dynamic images with rollover labeling, are very helpful in learning about the parts of systems, organs, and so on. In another type of labeling quiz, shown in Figure 4, the student types the names of the parts into text boxes and can then click on the CHECK button to receive audio feedback about their answers. Interactive review quizzes at the end of each section of the course deal with specific physiological systems. The quizzes, which consist of multiple-choice questions, test students on material covered in that particular section. This interactive multilevel quiz system uses questions at three levels of difficulty: Easy, Moderate, and Hard. Depending on how many questions the student answers correctly on each page, he or she may then be presented with questions from a higher difficulty level. Answering the initial questions correctly leads to the presentation of more difficult questions, which carry more weight. A student who responds incorrectly to the initial questions will be presented with easier questions. Each system has a database of questions for each

Figure 4: A simple labeling quiz

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level of difficulty. The questions presented to the students in the quiz are generated randomly from this database, using a program written in Practical Extraction and Report Language (PERL). Care is taken to ensure that no question is repeated during a single quiz session. The quizzes have a time limit, and a timer is displayed on each page to estimate the elapsed time. If the time limit is exceeded, the quiz is stopped and only the questions already answered are graded. The quizzes are standard HTML forms, processed using PERL scripts residing on the Web server. The scripts grade the quizzes and give the students immediate feedback, including their scores, their chosen answers and the correct answer to each question, the number of questions presented at each level of difficulty and the number of questions they got right, the time elapsed for the quiz, and a record of the date and time the quiz was taken. If a student takes the same quiz many times, a log of his or her performance is maintained to enable progress checks throughout the learning process.

At the beginning of each course, students are asked to complete three informational surveys. The first survey gathers information about the students’ backgrounds (such as age, gender, and educational backgrounds) and their proficiency in using desktop computers. The students are asked how long they have used computers and to rate their current levels of computer skills. The second survey is used to ascertain how comfortable students are using e-mail and performing common tasks associated with e-mail communication, such as composing, sending, reading, replying to, saving, deleting, and forwarding e-mail messages. It is also used to ascertain how comfortable they are with using a bulletin board for online discussions and performing common tasks such as reading, replying to, and posting messages on the bulletin board. The third survey ascertains how comfortable students are performing tasks such as using the Internet to search for information, accessing and navigating Web sites, accessing online library resources, and saving and printing information from a Web site.

The bulletin board provides a means of formal communication linking the instructor, the teaching assistants, and the students. It also provides an informal environment where the students can get to know each other, ask questions, and receive answers from their peers or from the instructor. The bulletin board is a learning environment where students hold discussions about physiology cases presented in the course. The students are given points for posting messages discussing physiology concepts on the bulletin board and for leading discussions on a related topic or case. Participation in the bulletin board counts towards students’ final grades, in order to encourage students to use the bulletin board and to become comfortable with its features.

At the end of each course, students complete a feedback survey in which they provide information about their individual learning characteristics, including their perceived strengths, their preferred study times and habits, their motivational factors, their learning styles, what they focused on while studying, and how they tested themselves and prepared for exams. The surveys also gather feedback about the course and the instructor, whether students found particular features of the Web site helpful, problems they faced, and their recommendations for improving the course.

ACCESSING THE INTERNET-BASED COURSES The two courses are hosted on the World Wide Web as part of the course listings of the Web site of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University. Access to the courses is restricted to registered students of the Veterinary Technology Distance Learning Program. Students must log in with a user name and password to access the Web sites. The home page of each course site displays a welcome page with a brief introduction to the distance learning program and the objectives of the courses. The students log in to the site here. Once they have logged in, they have complete access to the contents and features of the site. Navigation through the site is facilitated by a navigation bar at the top and bottom of every page, which contains links to the various sections of the course, such as the Syllabus, Assignments, Exams, and Contents. This makes the course Web sites very easy to navigate, as users are never more than a few clicks away from anywhere they want to go.

Studies are in progress to evaluate student characteristics that may affect their learning by analyzing the data collected from these surveys and from the feedback questionnaires. Analysis of the data provides valuable insights into the backgrounds of prospective students, their current computer skills, and their studying habits. Some of the results from this analysis show that a large majority of the students enrolling in these courses—about 98%—are female. The students’ ages range from 18 to over 50 years; the distribution of ages can be seen in the plot in Figure 5. About 85% of the students had used computers for more than three years, as is shown in Figure 6. Nearly 47% rated their computer skills as “extremely good,” with another 47% rating their skills as “pretty good” (Figure 7).

STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS Understanding the backgrounds and characteristics of students enrolled in distance learning courses is an important part of evaluating the effectiveness of the courses and improving course design and content delivery. Because the learners enrolled in distance learning courses have different ages and backgrounds, their expectations are quite varied. Surveys and feedback questionnaires are used to gather information about the students’ background and to measure their levels of satisfaction with the course.

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Figure 5: Age distribution of students enrolled in the distance learning courses JVME 30(4) © 2003 AAVMC

Figure 6: Number of years students have been using desktop computers

Figure 8: Students’ perception of interactive images with rollover labeling

Figure 7: Enrolled students’ rating of their current desktop computer skills A majority of the students are familiar with common tasks involving e-mail. More than 80% of the respondents said they are extremely competent performing tasks such as reading, composing, sending, deleting, and replying to email messages. At least 60% said they were comfortable performing activities such as posting, reading, and replying to messages posted on the board, while 88% agreed that the bulletin board was helpful in communicating with other students. Sixty-two percent said the discussions on the bulletin board aided in their understanding of the subject. Some of the feedback data indicate the students’ satisfaction with the Web sites and its multimedia features. About 67% of the students found the interactive images helpful (Figure 8), 77% said they found the interactive labeling quizzes helpful, and 90% found the review quizzes helpful in their learning of the subject (Figure 9).

COMPARISON OF STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS (BMS 135 VS. BMS 136) Comparison of responses to the informational surveys, conducted at the beginning of each course, between BMS 135 (Physiology for Veterinary Technicians I) and BMS 136 (Physiology for Veterinary Technicians II) reveals an interesting fact. Students who had taken BMS 135 and then took BMS 136 gave higher ratings for their computer skills and were more comfortable using e-mail, the bulletin board, and the Internet. The student responses to questions on the last two surveys, indicating their comfort level performing common tasks related to e-mail, the bulletin board, and using the Internet, fall into three categories: 1. Unsure/No—indicates that the student does not know how to perform the task 2. Not comfortable / OK doing it—indicates that the student can perform the task but is not comfortable doing so or can just get by doing so JVME 30(4) © 2003 AAVMC

Figure 9: Students’ perception of review quizzes 3. Extremely competent—indicates that the student has no trouble and is an expert at performing the task Table 1 shows the distribution of students into the three categories for some of the questions asked in the surveys. Across almost all questions, the percentages of students falling into the last two categories increased while the number of respondents falling into the first category decreased. This implies that the process of completing the course helps students to improve their computer skills.

CONCLUSION The future of online distance learning is dependent on welldesigned, challenging, interactive, and user-friendly programs, as well as on the skills of users. The aim of the research described here is to improve the design of distance learning courses, making them more appealing and userfriendly to a broader spectrum of the student target audience, who have varied computer skills. The data gathered from the surveys and feedback will help to determine the characteristics and other factors that influence the study habits of the students and, ultimately, their performance and learning outcomes. Careful evaluation of the data gathered will allow us to improve the instructional design, content, interactivity, and quality of distance learning courses. The course Web sites are continually revised to incorporate students’ suggestions for improving the quality of the subject matter, instructional design, and optimal use of multimedia features. Constant efforts are made to add new interactive multimedia features and to keep pace with the latest advances in multimedia technology and programming for the Web. These advances offer exciting new opportunities to further improve the process of distance learning via the Internet.

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Table 1: Comparison of the responses of students enrolled in BMS 135 and BMS 136 Question

Response

BMS 135

BMS 136

Current desktop computer skills

Beginner / Still learning Pretty good Extremely good / Expert

10% 45% 45%

– 27% 73%

Using the mouse

Somewhat comfortable Very comfortable

14% 86%

– 100%

Composing e-mail Table 1 (continued)

Not comfortable / OK doing it

32%

11%

Expert Not comfortable / OK doing it Expert

68% 23% 77%

89% 05% 95%

Identifying undeliverable e-mail

Unsure / No Not comfortable / OK doing it Expert

32% 32% 36%

– 37% 63%

Saving e-mail


05% 23% 72%

– 32% 68%

Posting messages on the bulletin board


27% 46% 27%

– 31% 69%

Accessing the WWW via a browser

Not comfortable / OK doing it Expert

37% 63%

26% 74%

Using search engines to find information


09% 36% 55%

05% 26% 68%

Navigation using hyperlinks


18% 27% 28%

06% 47% 47%

Copying/saving information from a Web site


27% 37% 36%

13% 34% 53%

Printing information from a Web site


05% 41% 54%

– 37% 63%

Sending e-mail

NOTES a

Macromedia Inc., San Francisco, CA.

b

Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose, CA.

c

Macromedia Inc., San Francisco, CA.

REFERENCES 1 Hayes K, Huckstadt A, Gibson R. Developing interactive continuing education on the Web. J Contin Educ Nurs 31(5):199–203, 2000 p199.

4 Gilbert L, Moore DR. Building interactivity into Web courses: Tools for social and instructional interaction. Educ Technol 38(3):29–35, 1998. 5 Khan BH. Web-based Instruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications, 1997. 6 Starr RM. Delivering instruction on the World Wide Web: Overview and basic design principles. Educ Technol 37(3):7–14, 1997.

2 Hayes K, Lehmann CU. The interactive patient: A multimedia interactive educational tool on the World Wide Web. MD Comput 13:330–334, 1996.

7 Gros B, Elen J, Kerres M, Merrienboer J, Spector M. Instructional design and the authoring of multimedia and hypermedia systems: Does a marriage make sense? Educ Technol 37(1):48–56, 1997.

3 Berge ZL. Interaction in post-secondary Web-based learning. Educ Technol 39(1):5–11, 1999.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

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Vikas Diwakar, MS, is the Webmaster, in charge of maintenance and development of the physiology distance learning

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course Web sites, at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests involve the use of computer graphics and multimedia technology in improving the learning process. Peggy A. Ertmer, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Educational Technology in the School of Education at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests relate to helping students learn via the use of case-based instruction, self-regulation learning strategies, and meaningful uses of technology.

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Abdelfattah Y.M. Nour, DVM, PhD, is Associate Professor of Veterinary Physiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests are focused on the evaluation of outcomes of Web-based learning and the creation of interactive learning environments that encourage students to construct knowledge of veterinary physiology through engagement in the learning process. Dr. Nour is also interested in the optimal integration of educational technology in the design of courses.

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