Preliminary Investigation into the Use of the

WWW for Remote Access Teaching

 

for the School of Electronic Engineering

by Paul Whelan  

The aim of this document is to present the opportunities and difficulties that exist with the development and introduction of online courses for remote access students. This mode of education may not suit all courses, but by examining the issues involved, it is hoped that each staff member can make an informed judgement on the suitability of their material. This report forms the initial stages on my ongoing brief to keep the school informed about developments in this area. This will involve:

Overview: Interaction and Presentation

Studying a course via the Internet means that you can communicate with your tutor and fellow classmates via e-mail, electronic conferencing and a host of WWW tools, submit your assignments via e-mail, and participate in electronic tutorials from home. The key to this form of education is interaction and not the presentation of course notes, after all a good text book may be far better than static course notes on the WWW. Each staff member will require/use different levels of interactivity depending on the needs of the course, or their willingness to use WWW tools. This form of learning requires a high degree of maturity on students behalf, therefore its is more suitable to postgraduate courses. (On average a third of those who enrol in distance education, never complete the course [1]). WWW interactivity can be designed in several ways [2], including: 

HyperLinks (local and global). All links should be meaningful and add value to the course.

Questions. Questions can increase commitment, motivation and interactivity in instructional materials.

Feedback/Communication. Students should have the ability in communicating with the course tutor and each other. The ability to communicate with other students (including full-time students at DCU) taking the same course may help to alleviate isolation, a key characteristics of distance education. It may be wise to limit the amount of interaction with remote access students, otherwise the lecturers may find themselves constantly on call. It may also be possible to assign course tutors to handle student enquires, although this may not always be possible, since students with the appropriate skills may not be available.

There has been much debate about the merits of using online course material, this argument is summarised below [3]. But it is worth noting that in MIT’s recent report on Education via Advanced Technologies [4], they state that they expect half of MIT courses to make significant use of Web-based resources within the next couple of years. It is expected that a number of courses may be radically changed in the process. 

For

Against

  • A rich medium
    • Text/hypertext (html, ps, pdf)
    • Pictures
    • Video
    • Sounds
    • Interactivity
    • Future: 3D - (VRML), JAVA
  • Publication
    • Wide distribution
    • Virtual universities
    • Immediacy - "Just-in-Time publication"
    • Easy to change
    • Channel for distribution of other Resources
    • Collaborative publication
    • Presentation "package"
  • Resource source
  • If it’s so good, why is it not more common?
  • Fragility!
  • Bandwidth/Speed
  • Link-Rich/Content-Poor
  • Rapidly changing
  • Suited to some subjects more than others
  • Lack of decent tools? - This is changing.
  • HyperLinks - do they actually encourage "deep learning"
  • Expertise
    • Staff
    • Students
  • Access
  • Copyright issues
  • Design issues - paper-based material can be pretty ugly too!
  • Maintenance

Communication Methods [5]

Email

Mailing lists

Synchronous Internet communication

Teleconferencing and video conferencing

Creating your own web documents

Key Issues:

Education

Students will be confronted with more information from the Web than they can handle. They will need guidance as to what is important and what is not, what is correct and what is not, and what is the optimum order in which to learn the various concepts [4]. 

Exams

Online exams will be difficult to control and monitor. I would suggest that students sit the exams in the traditional way, at DCU whenever possible. If the student is outside the country, then we may have to find a host institution in that country to monitor the exam. By having the students sit the exams in the traditional way, we can counteract potential arguments against this approach to teaching, by the accreditation institutions. The Open University [11] runs a policy whereby all students, (whether studying conventionally, or via the Internet), must attend the final examination in person at one of the approved examination centres in the UK, Ireland, or Continental Western Europe or pay the special overseas examination fee to arrange an examination at a local university or British consulate. A similar model may be required by DCU at a university level, run in conjunction with some of our associate universities.

Legal

Unless access is restricted, an implied licence to make copies of the article or picture is granted, therefore it is important to control access to preserve your intellectual property. It is also important to limit your liability, by means of a disclaimer. Although it is "sensible to take extreme care as to the type of information which you put on the net and to ensure that such information is upto date" [12] 

Implementation

See Appendix A for an example of the structure of an online course developed for students of Computer and Machine Vision. Appendix B outlines some of the technical issues behind password protection and the use of PERL scripts in automated self assessment and course review forms. 

Intellectual Property Control

It is also vital that the lecturer keeps control over their course material (i.e. intellectual property). 

General

Possible models:

It is necessary to view these models in terms of economy/cost, IP control, maintenance and ease of development.

1. Full WWW

Implementation:

Considerations:

2. Minimalist

Implementation:

Considerations:

3. Hybrid

Implementation:

Considerations:

Suggested Cost Structure

It would be wise to have a range of fees depending on the level of interaction by the user and whether the fees are been paid by a non-profit or for-profit organisation. For example, the cost of an Open University post-graduate module in software development is in the region of ST£550. In the US their is a price differential of approximately 30% between the cost of an online course for a non-profit and a for-profit institution. This should act as a useful reference. 

  1. Course material only: In this mode the student will gain access to all notes, software and course material, but will be expected to work independently without an online tutorial support. No exams or assessments will be submitted. This mode would be suitable for students/employees who wish to update or expand their skill base, without adding to their qualifications. Provisional cost structure: Non-profit: £300, For-profit: £400
  2. Full Module: In this mode the student will fully participate in the course module. As well as full access to all course materials, the student will be supplied with a fixed number of hours of online tutorial support. Assessments will be submitted electronically, therefore these should not contribute to more than 25% of the overall module mark. Exams will be taken in DCU (at the same time that the full-time students take the end-of-module exam). Special arrangements may be made for sitting exams outside DCU, but this will involve an additional charge (in the order of £100, depending on the location i.e. Ireland, European Union, Rest of the World). Students will gain full credits for the module (including a transcript of their results), and these would form part of the requirements for the M.Eng./Grad. Dipl. Provisional cost structure: Non-profit: £400, For-profit: £550

Tools (freely available)

References:

  1. http://www.montana.edu:80/wwwxs/netscape/teaching.html, C. Stryker, Teaching Successful Telecourses.
  2. http://vcd.student.utwente.nl/~ronny/reports/scrip-f.htm, R. Lohuis, Distance education through the WWW.
  3. http://pc_l231.cchs.su.edu.au/workshop/cons.htm, I. Cathers, Faculty of Health Sciences, Sydney University.
  4. P. Penfield and R. Larson, "Education via advanced technologies", IEEE Transactions on Education 39(3), August 1996. See also the final report of MIT’s Ad Hoc Committee on Education Via Advanced Technologies, http://www-evat.mit.edu:80/report/
  5. http://www.usq.edu.au/material/course/us59/study.htm, Study on the Internet
  6. http://www.montana.edu:80/wwwxs/netscape/success.html, C. Stryker, Succeeding in Telecourses.
  7. http://www.qmark.com/
  8. http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~majordom/hm_archives/softeng1-96.Nov-96/0096.html
  9. http://141.163.121.36/teachinglearning/NetTeaching/online.html
  10. http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/index.html, The World Lecture Hall (WLH)
  11. http://www.open.ac.uk/OU/Studying/Internet.html, Open University, Studying via the Internet
  12. D. Judah, "Internet publishing and the law", Computing and Control Engineering Journal, IEE, Oct. 1996.
  13. http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~majordom/hm_archives/spinners.96/ 

 

 Appendix A: Example Implementation: 

 

Protected page

Main Index

  • Preface
  • Syllabus
  • Course Texts
  • Indicative Reading List
  • Module Assessment
  • Lecture Material
  • Coursework Material
  • Software Utilities
  • Course Review Form
  • FAQ
  • Course Participants
  • Vision Systems Lab.
  • Copyright

Copyright © 1996, by Paul F. Whelan (whelanp@eeng.dcu.ie). All rights reserved. While every reasonable effort is made to ensure the reliability and continuity of these pages, this material is supplied for general reference only and should not be relied on without further specific inquiry. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for any reason or in any form must be obtained in writing from the author. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.

20-Nov-96 

Protected page

The latest postscript version (*.prn) of the lecture notes for this course can be obtained by sending your request to Paul Whelan at whelanp@eeng.dcu.ie (this is the only way to obtain the full course notes). The following material will guide the student through the aims and issues for each of the sections covered in this course. Each link will also suggested the appropriate reading for that section. Links to relevant Internet resources are also included.

Protected page

Introduction

Aims and Issues

Reading List

Self Assessment Questions

Review Questions 

Protected page

Self Assessment: #1  

This is an automatic self assessment form for helping you decide if you should seek some tutorial support. It is important to note that these assessments are no substitute for solving real imaging tasks (see the section on review questions). Do not guess the answers to the questions below as it is in your interest to get an accurate indication of your knowledge in this subject. Leave Don't have a clue! selected if you are unsure. When you are finished press the submit button at the end of the page...and wait for a reply.  

It is in your interest only to submit this assessment once  

  1. Question:

Do you have any suggestions/comments?:  

Appendix B: Technical Details

Locally Controlled Password Protection

1. Insert the following in to the httpd.conf (this can only be done with people with httpd access, i.e. the webmaster) 

# MVCOU protection via a UserID and Password stored in a user directory

# /home/whelanp/httpd/conf/.htpasswd

  Protection MVCOU {

UserID mvcou

GroupID www

AuthType Basic

PassWdfile /home/whelanp/httpd/conf/.htpasswd

} 

# Limit access to Paul Whelan’s vision course notes to MVCOU(both

# proxied and not, just to be sure...):

Protect /home/whelanp/httpd/conf/ MVCOU

Protect /~whelanp/vsg/mvcou/* MVCOU

Protect http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/%7Ewhelanp/vsg/mvcou/* MVCOU

Protect /%7Ewhelanp/vsg/mvcou/* MVCOU 

This will allow the user whelanp to only allow access to http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~whelanp/vsg/mvcou/* via a UserID and an assigned password. The UserID and password are under the control of whelanp, and this information is stored in /home/whelanp/httpd/conf/.htpasswd. <.htpasswd> is a hidden file that contains the users passwords.

2. httpd.conf must also be edited to fix the error "the server is not configured for POST".

Insert: the line:

EXEC /cgi-bin/whelanp/* /home/whelanp/cgi-bin/*

before:

EXEC /cgi-bin/* /usr/cern_httpd_3.0/cgi-bin/*

in httpd.conf.

3. The httpd process (root) will now need to be restarted (this can only be done with someone with root access)

4. To add/change a password in /home/whelanp/httpd/conf/ 

htpasswd .htpasswd <username>

you will then be asked to enter the new password. You will require a local copy of the htpasswd program in your /home/whelanp/httpd/conf/ directory. 

5. You will also require a file <.www_acl> to be located in the region to be protected (ie. /home/whelanp/public_html/vsg/mvcou). This will contain the list of users which have access to your protected region. You must allow access to each file type used on your web pages. This will allow whelanp and guest to access a range of files this region This file contains:

*.html : GET,POST : whelanp, guest

*.gif : GET,POST : whelanp, guest

*.zip : GET,POST : whelanp, guest

 

Course Review PERL Script (cgi-bin/ee101_course_review.pl)

 #!/home/whelanp/cgi-bin/perl -- -*-perl-*-

# ------------------------------------------------------------

# course_review.pl

#

# EE101 Basic Digital Electronics - Paul F Whelan

# Based on an original program by Derek Molloy

#

# Last updated: Dec 10th, 1996

# ------------------------------------------------------------

 

# Define fairly-constants

 

# This should match the mail program on your system.

$mailprog = '/usr/lib/sendmail';

$recipient = 'whelanp@eeng.dcu.ie';

$supervisor = 'Paul Whelan';

 

# Print out a content-type for HTTP/1.0 compatibility

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

 

# Get the input

read(STDIN, $buffer, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});

 

# Split the name-value pairs

@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);

 

foreach $pair (@pairs)

{

($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair);

 

# Un-Webify plus signs and %-encoding

$value =~ tr/+/ /;

$value =~ s/%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;

 

# Stop people from using subshells to execute commands

# Not a big deal when using sendmail, but very important

# when using UCB mail (aka mailx).

# $value =~ s/~!/ ~!/g;

 

# Uncomment for debugging purposes

# print "Setting $name to $value<P>";

 

$FORM{$name} = $value;

}

 

# Print a title and initial heading

print "<Head><Title>Thank you</Title></Head>";

print "<Body><H1>Thank you ";

if ($FORM{'name'} eq "") { print "Anonymous";}

print $FORM{'name'};

print "</H1><p>";

&mail_recip;

 

# Make the person feel good for writing to us

print "<h2>Thank you for submitting the course review form.<P></h2>";

 

sub mail_recip

{

open (MAIL, "|$mailprog $recipient") || die "Can't open

$mailprog!\n";

print MAIL "Reply-to: $FORM{'email'} ($FORM{'name'})\n";

print MAIL "Subject: EE101 - Course Review Form:($FORM{'name'})

[$sum/$number_questions]\n\n";

print MAIL "Subject: EE101 - Course Review Form:

($FORM{'name'})\n";

print MAIL "Class: $FORM{'class'}\n";

print MAIL "Date & Time: $FORM{'date'}\n";

print MAIL "\n EE101 - Course Review Form";

print MAIL "\n\n";

print MAIL "1. $quest1 - $FORM{'q1'} - $q1a\n";

print MAIL "2. $quest2 - $FORM{'q2'} - $q2a\n";

print MAIL "3. $quest3 - $FORM{'q3'} - $q3a\n";

print MAIL "4. $quest4 - $FORM{'q4'} - $q4a\n";

print MAIL "5. $quest5 - $FORM{'q5'} - $q5a\n";

print MAIL "6. $quest6 - $FORM{'q6'} - $q6a\n";

print MAIL "7. $quest6 - $FORM{'q7'} - $q6a\n";

print MAIL "8. $quest6 - $FORM{'q8'} - $q6a\n";

print MAIL "9. $quest6 - $FORM{'q9'} - $q6a\n";

print MAIL "10. $quest6 - $FORM{'q10'} - $q6a\n";

print MAIL "\n_____________\n Comments sent:\n\n

$FORM{'comments'}\n_____________\n";

print MAIL "Server protocol: $ENV{'SERVER_PROTOCOL'}\n";

print MAIL "Remote host: $ENV{'REMOTE_HOST'}\n";

print MAIL "Remote IP address: $ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'}\n";

close (MAIL);

}

 

This file was created by converting a WORD document into HTML using Frontpage 97.

© Paul Whelan 1997.