netcourse is only as good as the technology that supports it. Most of the short history of netcourses has depended on text-based documents used with electronic mail and primitive conferencing software. Research on projects using those technologies has shown that netcourses are feasible. More recently, the World Wide Web has begun to make hypermedia available. Imagine how much better netcourses will be when the medium becomes even more expressive, robust, and flexible.

The netcourse design we use in all our work, including INTEC and VHS, involves creating virtual spaces where participants construct a shared understanding through thoughtful discussions. It would be an impossible burden for participants spread coast-to-coast and globally to talk online at the same time (synchronously). And it would be a logistical nightmare for us. So netcourses presuppose asynchronous communications-discussions that do not require the sender and receiver to be present at the same time.

Our first application of netcourses was in our INTEC project. Initially the materials were prepared and presented as HTML files. (HTML or HyperText Markup Language is the language of the World Wide Web.) We also needed a way to present a Web-based threaded discussion (a flexible, organized question and comment format.) An e-mail-based listserv, while easy, provides no organization of messages-each message, whether a new topic or a response to someone's new topic, arrives in every member's mailbox. The lack of organization inherent in a listserv creates an added burden for users trying to follow conversation threads. Our search for a program which would be easy for users as well as easy to administer lead us to HyperNews.

INTEC had another major need: the ability for participants to include images in their Web-based communications. The Web, after all, is a visual medium. INTEC's curriculum includes discussions of concepts and ideas most easily conveyed as pictures or program files. (A few examples include spreadsheets, concept maps, and landmass photos from satellites.) Because we are committed to using the Web as our medium for offering INTEC, we are also restricted to what's available for current Web technology and Web standards. Because Web-browsers (e.g., Netscape and Internet Explorer) cannot include a file when communicating to the HyperNews discussion, INTEC's systems administrator built a program that participants could use to upload graphics. The process required a number of steps, but it provided our participants with the ability to share graphics with others.

When all the course material and the various programs associated with the specific services needed for offering INTEC were presented on a single LINUX server (a shareware version of the UNIX operating system), INTEC was up and running.

Though INTEC is built on an asynchronous model, there is a schedule. It is not self-paced. INTEC is based on a seminar model in which participant discussion leads to shared learning. INTEC first presented a calendar using HTML tables. It quickly became apparent that editing was an administrative headache. We found a scheduling program that presented a calendar display of information to a Web browser. The program ran on a Macintosh, so we added a Mac to our server pool.

HyperNews, however, proved to be brittle, quirky, and inflexible. It was almost impossible to change a message after it was posted. The technologies available had also changed by then. Lotus had introduced the Domino server. Domino now gives us the ability to transmit a Lotus Notes database dynamically to a Web browser and it includes a threaded discussion database template. In five minutes we can create a new threaded discussion area on the Web. Customization of the database is also possible. With a database as the underlying structure, the format can be modified while it's being used-without data loss.

The Future

Netcourses need software support for the same administrative functions that any course needs course planning, assignments, enrollment, and student records. Because of our asynchronous design and the teacher not being present in the classroom, it is particularly important to be explicit about assignments, due dates, and evaluation criteria. In addition, each netcourse needs a special library in which copyrighted material can be made available on a limited basis to the class.

It has to be easy for non-technical teachers to set up a VHS netcourse. In addition, we anticipate a very large number of courses and a large total student enrollment. If our software is not reliable and simple to use, our technical staff will be overwhelmed by putting out fires and answering technical questions. Our experience with the brittleness of HTML pages indicated that they were not practical. We examined some interesting systems used at several different universities but found them to be insufficiently robust for large scale use.

Our final choice for these administrative functions was Learning Space, a set of applications in Notes that can be served as Web pages using Domino. Learning Space has five interrelated databases that provide many of the functions we need. Lotus Development has worked with us to modify Learning Space for our needs.

We are looking at ways to make netcourse discussion groups even more expressive. One experimental approach is to invert the current threaded virtual discussion group, which permits graphics to be attached to text. GrafittiTree puts the graphics up front and allows users to append text: a threaded graphical annotation system. As a user, you can see a thumbnail sequence of graphics showing how the original has been modified by each commentator. At any point a participant can jump into this graphical "discussion" and make his or her own modification, which starts a new thread. A nice set of graphics tools, including shapes, color palette, and brushes, are provided. The stamp tool can take a rectangular section of any graphic on the Internet and stamp it over the graphical workspace.

The editing tools use Java applets which are not yet quite stable under the Macintosh OS. You can view GrafittiTree with any browser, but to edit a graphic, we recommend using a Java-enabled browser on a non-Mac computer. Because of this limitation, we are waiting until these system bugs are fixed before we incorporate GrafittiTree into our netcourses.

This graphics capacity is now used for art critiques, collaborative creation of graphics, and generating maps of environmental study sites with overlays showing various features and collection sites. If you have the current release of any of the major Web browsers you can visit the GrafittiTree Web site to view and modify one of their public discussions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Welcome :: Masthead :: The Future Is Now :: VHS Netcourse ::
MayaQuest Expedition :: Prof. Development :: Personal Inquiries :: INTEC Tech ::
Power & Portability :: Here Comes the Sun :: Reform Education :: Perspective :: Get Involved! ::