Web Course Design and Creation for Language Learning
Robert Godwin-Jones
Virginia Commonwealth University
ABSTRACT
This article discusses issues involved in creation and use of course Web sites for language learning. Examples are drawn from German courses taught by the author. Course Web sites created “from scratch” are com- pared with sites created with a template-based authoring tool, Web Course in a Box. The development of Web Course in a Box is also discussed.
KEYWORDS
Authoring System, Web, Web Course in a Box, Language Courseware, German
INTRODUCTION
I will be discussing the design and creation of course Web sites for lan- guage learning, taking as examples Web sites for German courses I have taught. This will include discussion of the development of a template- based approach to Web authoring (Web Course in a Box).
BACKGROUND AND DESIGN STRATEGIES
I began to explore the use of the World Wide Web for language learning in 1994. There were a number of features of the Web which seemed to me to offer promise for support of the use of technology in language teaching and learning. Some represented alternatives to authoring tools I had been using at the time (principally HyperCard). Other aspects of the Web of- fered capabilities not available in desktop applications.
© 1999 CALICO Journal
The over-arching goal was to use technology to reinforce a student-cen- tered, communicative approach to language learning. Specifically, I wanted to try to provide the following opportunities through the use of the Web:
• Comprehensible access to authentic language materials The Web has become a treasure chest of authentic language materials, offering students direct access to culturally and lin- guistically authentic documents of a variety of kinds and for- mats. The hypertext structure of the Web allows for annota- tion possibilities as well as potential re-use of the same docu- ment for students of varying language abilities. Audio and video delivered over the Web can give students access to a variety of native-speaking voices.
• An Interactive and inviting environment for collaborative learn- ing
The fact that the Web is a networked environment has pro- vided from the beginning opportunities for student-to-student collaboration with possibilities for peer learning and incorpo- ration of native speakers through tandem learning and other means. The on-line environment for interactivity should be easy to use, responsive, and engaging, in order to encourage as much student participation as possible.
• Flexible opportunities for drill and practice
Web forms provide a means for active reinforcement of gram- matical structures and vocabulary. Ideally, form-based exercises should provide for self-assessment and encourage students to take responsibility for their learning. The environment should also provide feedback catered to the needs and desires of learn- ers and be adaptable to a variety of learning styles.
The technology resources for my German classes were designed to be used outside of class in order to maximize in-class time for person-to-person communicative activities. The Web sites integrated all the technology com- ponents of the courses.
PROJECT CONTEXT
The first course Web site I created was for an intermediate German class (German 201) in 1995. The Web site was originally designed to be primarily an interface to a series of AuthorWare exercises for grammar
review and vocabulary study I was codeveloping with a colleague. These in turn were based on a set of HyperCard stacks, ToolBook programs and CALIS exercises I had created for my German classes. It soon became apparent that the development of the AuthorWare exercises was going to be more complex and time-consuming than anticipated, while the cre- ation of the Web site progressed more rapidly than planned. In fact, one of the advantages of Web development is ease of authoring and the ability to develop a Web site progressively.
During the Fall of 1995, as I was teaching the course for which the Web site was developed, I was asked by the Director of the Virginia Common- wealth University (VCU) Multimedia Center to become part of a VCU team participating in discussions at the Institute for Academic Technol- ogy (IAT) at the University of North Carolina about institutional collabo- ration in the development of networked teaching tools and resources. These discussions eventually led to the creation of a consortium of institutions—
the “Partners for Distributed Learning” (PDL) under the auspices of EDUCOM’s “National Learning Infrastructure Initiative” (NLII)—inter- ested in shared development of Web-based tools. The VCU team proposed the development of a Web course development and management system.
Eleven institutions signed on as beta testers and funded the initial devel- opment of what became Web Course in a Box (WCB). These funds were used to buy my time for the spring semester of 1996, during which the first version of WCB was developed. Development work on WCB was, and continues to be, a joint effort of Sue Polyson of the VCU Instructional Development Center, and me. WCB is owned, and development is sup- ported, by VCU. Commercial distribution is through madDuck technolo- gies.
WCB was developed to be a general set of authoring tools for course Web sites with the goal of providing a means for faculty with minimal technical expertise and interest to create a Web site with similar function- ality to those I had developed for my course Web sites in German and those Sue Polyson had created for a Health Sciences program. Subsequent Web course sites for my German classes were created through WCB.
CONTENT CONSTRAINTS/ADVANTAGES
There are several immediate benefits to using the Web as a platform for the delivery of technology-enhanced language learning. Students have anytime-anywhere access to materials. Web pages are platform indepen- dent and offer a familiar and uniform interface with simple navigation.
Local and remote resources can be easily and seamlessly integrated.
At the same time there remain a number of limitations. While accented characters in Western languages pose no problems, other character sets
on the Web are often problematic for users. Multimedia, while Web deliv- erable, is constrained in quality. Audio and video are not as easily inte- grated into Web pages as in traditional authoring environments. Web sites from abroad can offer valuable cultural and linguistic materials, which can be integrated into course Web sites, but access may be slow or unreli- able, and the Web resources may be taken off-line with no warning.
TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS/ADVANTAGES
As a hypertext environment, the Web offers a built-in linking mecha- nism and a simple means to achieve a branching structure for organiza- tion of materials. However, page design using HTML is limited in flexibil- ity. In order to accommodate all users, Web authors often limit the page design for good display in a 640 by 480 pixel window and also constrain colors to a limited “Web-safe” palette. One of the most significant limita- tions of the Web as an authoring environment is the fact that HTML is a static display language without dynamic screen update capabilities. Once a page is displayed, the screen must be redrawn to display new informa- tion.
A major advantage of using the Web in instruction is its server-client structure. Since Web pages are stored and served centrally, updating is achieved easily and universally without the need for redistribution of fixed media. Access to specific Web pages can be controlled on a user, group, or domain name basis through standard Web server functionality. User au- thentication provides the server with user information which can then be used in performance tracking or individually personalized display/use of materials. Web servers also provide a means for user input to be sent and processed by the server through the use of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts. This possibility enables both individual interactivity, which can be in the form of automated checking of student responses, and col- laborative use, such as submissions to threaded discussion forums.
DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
I will discuss my initial creation of course Web sites for German courses, then how that work informed the development of Web Course in a Box, and finally come back to the use of WCB for subsequent German course sites. In the process I will be dealing both with the design of Web sites for language learning and the creation of a set of authoring tools for Web course creation.
German 201 Web Site (1995)
A course Web site usually has a home page such as that shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
Course Home Page for German 201 (1995)
This page serves as a home base, orientation guide, and quick link to key resources. The page organizes the Web resources into six categories and links to submenus for each of the six. Direct links are included to specific information or tools (e.g., student roster, chat, and instructor con- tact information) as well as to other resources of possible interest to the student.
Graphics (by Wilhelm Busch) are taken from one of the stories read in the courses and are used as navigational aids throughout the Web site.
The background graphic for the Web site was intended to imitate parch- ment in color and texture. The goal was to create a common “look and feel” to all course pages using a unified theme (German children’s stories of the nineteenth century) which is then carried over into the content as well (readings, on-line games, discussion topics). The power of the Web
lies to a great extent in the ability of users to navigate easily from site to site, but users run the danger of becoming disoriented. Creating a unified look to a course Web site (by placing navigation links and icons in stan- dard locations) can help students verify where they are and make naviga- tion within the site easier.
The General Info page shown in Figure 2 links to general information about the course such as that included in the paper syllabus but adds additional information on learning strategies.
Figure 2
General Info Page for German 201 (1995)
One of the key advantages of the Web is the ease in providing such op- tional readings which may be of interest only to some students. Students can e-mail directly from the form. (This feature predates the “mailto” pro- tocol.) Included as well is a link to Fern-Sprechstunden ‘virtual office hours’
which automatically launches CU-SeeMe teleconferencing to my office computer.
Web sites for courses can easily combine class management with course content. The advantage to an electronic version of a schedule is that it can be updated on a regular basis and can contain direct links to assignments and resources (see Figure 3).
Figure 3
Course Schedule Page
A number of assignments for this class could be submitted in paper or through the Web. Additional exercises for particular topics are included (under Resources). The “Reflexives” and “Future” links to exercises prac- ticing the use of the reflexive verbs and future tense, respectively.
The course offered several collaborative options to the students shown in the Interactions page in Figure 4.
Figure 4
Interactions Page
Stammtisch ‘conversation table’ links to a chat room created for German 201 students (direct link to a telnet session) which was used synchro- nously. Kaffeeklatsch ‘coffee klatch’ provides a threaded discussion fo- rum using a CGI script created in AppleScript (WebChat). The discus- sion forums were more widely used than the chat; students found it easier to post messages at a time of their convenience rather than arrange times to be on-line together. One of the features of these forums was the inclu- sion of thumbnail pictures of the students (or alternative icons). Ausbruch
‘outbreak’ is an interactive game based on class readings and requiring group interaction. Students seek clues and fill in forms to receive pieces of the puzzle. This was created by a series of CGI scripts written in AppleScript. This was not as popular as I had anticipated in part, I be- lieve, because it was overly complex. The last link is to a Web site (TandemPartner) for obtaining an e-mail partner from Germany (a Ger- man student learning English).
If a course Web site is to be used for active language learning, creating such opportunities for peer networking and learning is vital. Another fea- ture of the Web site designed to further the creation of a “community of learners” was the list of students with links to personal home pages. Stu-
dent home pages (written in German) were created through the use of a form (with a CGI backend) which eliminated the necessity for students to learn HTML. This process allowed initial creation and subsequent revi- sion of the content, thereby encouraging process writing in German. The form provided (along with similar forms Sue Polyson had developed) the initial idea for Web Course in a Box which is built around a series of similar CGI scripts.
The Web site was designed to combine all technology resources for the class. Going to the Study & Master page from the course home page (see Figure 1 above) allowed students either to start up directly from the Web page practice and drill programs created with AuthorWare and HyperCard or to download the programs to their own computer. Almost all students used the Web site in the Department’s computer lab, where the process of using the exercises was very easy. The Read-View-Listen page contains links to on-line readings which, in some cases, included audio and video selections. Most of the readings were selections from classic German children’s stories that I had digitized. The Apply & Explore page provides an annotated list of recommended Web sites as well as a form for students to complete to add automatically student-suggested sites to the list (CGI script). Relatively few students used this feature, but I believe, nonethe- less, that it is important to include this kind of means for active student participation in building the Web site.
Web Course in a Box Development
Subsequent “hand-crafted” Web sites for German offered design and functionality similar to the one discussed above. Although much of the work done to provide interactivity (CGI scripts) could be reused with little or no modification, the content and design of the Web pages was redone completely, a time-consuming process. At the same time, colleagues in the department and outside the department were expressing interest in creating similar course Web sites, but they lacked the technical background to do so. These local requests and the interest of the PDL consortium provided the impetus for Web Course in a Box.
Our goal was to enable faculty to create course Web sites without the necessity of learning HTML, FTP programs, or other Internet tools. The only required skill was the ability to use a Web browser. We wanted fac- ulty not only to create and design basic Web pages for course manage- ment—schedule, announcements, course info, student roster—but also interactive pages such as discussion forums, chat rooms, and self-correct- ing exercises. We also wanted to put access to and control of the site into the hands of the faculty member. We decided to group Web pages in a similar way to the way I had organized my German classes (see Figure 1
above) and to have six default categories which, however, instructors could modify. We developed a number of different “looks” to the course home page, including variations in graphics and color. We used graphic icons in a similar way to the way in which they had been used in my German classes.
After the initial design of the course Web site, we set out to develop a means to create it—and interactive features as well—through an intercon- nected series of CGI scripts. I wrote the first prototypes in AppleScript, but we decided for production purposes to use Perl which had the advan- tage of being cross-platform and supported by virtually all Web servers.
Since we were developing a product to be used at a variety of universities, we needed to keep it as generic as possible. This meant not requiring a commercial database backend. Instead, we chose to use Perl-based “dbm”
files as our database. Another advantage to using Perl is its large commu- nity of users and the availability of many freeware Perl scripts. In addition to the individual CGI scripts, we also developed several Perl modules which act as common code libraries for often used subroutines and to initialize variables.
We released the first beta of WCB in spring 1996 to the eleven beta testers from PDL and received valuable feedback from users. The first version of WCB was released in late summer of 1996. We were able to release betas and the final release on schedule. Since that time several more versions have been released; as of this writing (June 1999), the cur- rent version is 4.0.
In order to illustrate the development process and considerations that went into it, I will briefly discuss the evolution of one component of WCB for which I have been responsible, the QuizBuilder. One of the issues we have had to deal with from the beginning is browser compatibility, as well as, in some cases, OS-specific browser implementations. Each new ver- sion of a browser adds new functionality which, unfortunately, is not back- wards compatible. At the time of the initial development of WCB, Netscape’s current browser was version 1.1 with version 2.0 in beta. After evaluating the added functionality of JavaScript introduced in Navigator 2.0, we decided that browser scriptability was so significant a feature that we would require use of Netscape Navigator 2.0 (or a compatible browser).
This decision enabled us not only to add significant functionality to the authoring interface but also to implement a much more interactive ap- proach to drill and practice exercises. Traditionally, Web forms containing text entry fields, checkboxes, and radio buttons are processed by server- based CGI scripts. The user completes the form, then the feedback is re- turned. Using JavaScript, feedback can be given after each question, and, since JavaScript interactivity is local, it can be significantly faster than server-based interactions.
For the WCB QuizBuilder, we decided to use CGI to create JavaScript-
based quizzes and exercises which interact locally with the user and then send the results back to the server (also optionally e-mailed to the instruc- tor). The added interactivity of JavaScript, however, has a drawback in terms of security. Since the JavaScript is imbedded in the HTML code, enterprising users can view the HTML source and see the correct answers.
We instituted a mechanism of hiding the answers by encoding the answer string as a temporary “cookie” (not saved in the browser cookie file) which is then parsed by the JavaScript code in evaluating the answer. For users requiring additional security but needing less interactivity (such as in for- mal assessment), WCB also offers server-based testing. We discovered that one of the benefits of a server-based distribution of JavaScript quiz- zes is the ability to randomize question order as well as to allow distribu- tion of a subset of the total number of questions. We also decided to en- able plain text import/export of quizzes. This feature enables instructors to create quiz files in their favorite word processor and then import the file into the WCB QuizBuilder. Another purpose behind the import/ex- port utility is to enable interchangeability between WCB and other authoring tools. In fact, our approach has become more modular in order to provide maximum flexibility to faculty members in using the authoring tools.
German 201 Web Site created with WCB (1998)
Figure 5 shows the course home page for German 201, created with Web Course in a Box using a standard set of WCB graphics and colors.
Figure 5
Course Home Page for German 201 (1998)
The layout of the page and structure of the site are quite similar to those of the earlier intermediate German course. Most of the content pages, however, are linked from the Learning Links page. An additional feature used here is the tracking system which requires students to sign-in and sign-off and provides information to the instructor on frequency and du- ration of individual student use of the Web site.
WCB is designed for use with any discipline. Course Web sites from different disciplines are likely to differ in their selection of specific Web functionality. To accommodate that kind of diversity, WCB uses the main course pages for couse organization and management, while allowing in- structors to build the Learning Links page to accommodate those aspects of the course they wish to include. The Learning Links page for the Ger- man course includes links to external sites, a chat room, discussion fo- rums, and lesson pages created with WCB (see Figure 6).
Figure 6
Learning Links Page
An example of a Lesson page is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7
Sample Lesson Page
The WCB LessonBuilder allows instructors to build Web pages which incorporate text, graphics, links to external sites, uploaded files, forums, whiteboard/chats, and quizzes/exercises. The sample lesson page shown in Figure 7 contains a list of verb prepositions combinations in German, links to information on use of the site, and links to several self-correcting quizzes on the topic created with the WCB QuizBuilder. The exercises use
JavaScript-based interaction to supply the student with feedback on each question, including specific help on anticipated wrong anwers. They also include remediation suggestions based on individual performance.
The Students page links to personal home pages, e-mail addresses (mailto links) and student portfolios (see Figure 8).
Figure 8 Students Page
Students can use WCB to create individual Web portfolios which link project pages (also doable in WCB), uploaded files (of any type), and external sites. No knowledge of HTML or Web authoring is needed. Web portfolios are not course-specific so that a student can build a portfolio across several courses and over successive semesters.
CONCLUSION
If the two Web sites discussed here are compared, several advantages and disadvantages to a template-based approach emerge. WCB clearly adds functionality which would be difficult for individual instructors to duplicate, including creation of self-correcting quizzes, student portfo- lios, and student tracking. The discussion forums have added features which can be quite helpful, including file attachments, archiving, forum manage- ment, and subgroup use. Especially valuable for instructional use is the fact that students can edit submitted postings (only their own). Other aspects of WCB can be accomplished by other means. The lesson pages, for example, could be created in an HTML editor such as FrontPage or HomePage. However, use of these authoring programs has a higher learn- ing curve than that of WCB .
Some design features and functionality are sacrificed using WCB. The course home page can not be customized beyond a certain level. The basic look and structure of the course remains the same, although individual titles and icons/colors can be changed. By default, all the contents pages are linked from the Learning Links page, although this can also be changed.
WCB only goes so far in terms of student customization. Individually crafted interactivity could supply significantly more learning opportunities. In particular, it would be valuable to provide students with selectable feed- back options, different looks for page layout/font, and additional means for collaborative work. Of course, individually created pages can be easily linked to WCB pages. However, there is no easy or automatic means for adding such functionality to WCB pages.
Web Course in a Bo x has been widely used by instructors at VCU and other institutions and has proven to be helpful, particularly to novice Web authors wishing to create a Web presence for their courses. However, us- ing a template-based system such as WCB also has limitations. Instructors buy into a structure which works for many courses but may not work for all courses. More important is the fixed functionality that comes with WCB and other authoring systems. Instructors may be lulled into thinking that what WCB offers is all the Web can do and may not explore innovative options. WCB and other systems can be excellent tools, if viewed in the proper perspective, as a starting point rather than a complete solution for the use of technology in teaching. This is all the more true for language instruction in which creativity and interactivity are so essential.
AUTHOR’S BIODATA
Dr. Robert Godwin-Jones is Professor of Foreign Languages at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and Research Associate at the VCU Instructional Development Center. He is the author of several stud- ies of 19th-century European literature, most recently Romantic Vision:
The Novels of George Sand, as well as of publications in the field of com- puter-aided language learning. More information is available at http://
www.fln.vcu.edu/gj.html.
AUTHOR’S ADDRESS Dr. Robert Godwin-Jones
Department of Foreign Languages Virginia Commonwealth University 820 W. Franklin Avenue
Richmond, VA 23284-1021 Phone: 804/828-2200 Fax: 804/828-9510 E-mail: [email protected]
