Breakout Session

Learning in a Digital Age: Web Site Structure and Formats to Enhance Learning

Facilitator

Bob Joyce
University of Texas Medical Branch

Summary:

Over the last few years the World Wide Web has proven to be a valuable tool for education in
terms of connecting students to an enormous fund of information and delivering various
multimedia learning materials. There can be no doubt that computers and allied technologies
have meant that huge quantities of data are available to students. Access to the Web, CD-ROM
and other systems, means that there are sufficient reading and associated learning materials to
meet everyone's needs.
 
The hypertext and hypermedia format used by the Web has received wide acclaim and its
potential as an educational tool is derived from the nature of the learning that it supports. It has
the potential to facilitate student-centered approaches, thus creating a motivating and active
learning environment (Becker & Dwyer, 1994). It also supports and encourages browsing and
exploration, student behaviors that are frequently associated with higher-order learning.
Additionally, hypertext and hypermedia facilitate a very natural and efficient form for linking to
and retrieval of information (Dimitroff & Wolfram, 1995). These and other advantages offered
by the medium have created considerable enthusiasm among learning theorists and teachers
toward the Web and hypermedia as a learning tool.
 
However, as with all instructional technologies, potential and reality are frequently not
synonymous. An example of potential vs. reality centers on the tendency to see the Web as a
convenient, valuable, efficient, and inexpensive medium over which to conduct learning. In an
article that examines findings from experimental studies of hypermedia technology, Dillon and
Gabbard (1998) report:
"So what are we to conclude from the studies reviewed in this article? Clearly, the benefits
gained from the use of hypermedia technology in learning scenarios appear to be very limited
and not in keeping with the generally euphoric reaction to this technology in the professional
arena." (p. 345)
 
In other words, the Web (through Web-based courses and computer-assisted learning), along
with hypermedia technology, only have the potential to support self-directed, constructivist
learning. Consequently, faculty who design Web-based courses must take the total "virtual"
learning environment into account, and not just provide access to educational resources; equating
access to educational resources with self-directed, constructivist learning is insufficient.
This paper will look specifically at two elements that can enhance or inhibit self-directed,
constructivist learning in a Web-based educational environment: Web-site formats that advance
Interactivity and Learner Control. The specific objectives are these: 1) To identify optimal
ways to organize educational Web sites for self-directed, constructivist learning; and
2) To graphically display ways of linking educational course content with referential links that
encourage interactivity and learner control. We argue that faculty must take on the responsibility
for not only providing traditional reference-related links to information within the context of
their Web-based course, but also for activities that encourage reflection and metacognition
through increased levels of learner interaction and control.
 
References
Becker, D., & Dwyer, M. (1994). Using hypermedia to provide learner control. Journal of
Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 3(2), 155-172.
Dillon, A., & Gabbard, R. (1998). Hypermedia as an educational technology: A review of the
quantitative research literature on learner comprehension, control, and style. Review of
Educational Research, 68(3), 322-349.
Dimitroff, A., & Wolfram, D. (1995). Searcher response in a hypertext-based bibliographic
information retrieval system. Journal of the American Society for Information Science,
46(1), 22-29.
 
Benefit in Attending Session:
Providing Web-based instruction is a relative new approach to teaching and learning in medical
school. While much discussion has taken place concerning curriculum reform, including
problem-based learning, little discussion has occurred on various pedagogical approaches to
teaching on the Web. Faculty and administrators need to be informed about the implications
of the choices they make in organizing instructional content on the Web so that in encourages,
not inhibits, self-directed, constructivist learning.
 
Bob Joyce
University of Texas Medical Branch
Office of Educational Development
144 Gail Borden Building
301 University Boulevard
Galveston, TX 77555-0664
 
409-772-0261
Fax Number(s):
409-762-8896
E-mail Address(es):
bjoyce@utmb.edu