80 likes | 92 Views
Explore the advantages of utilizing web-based seminars in an information management and systems development course at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Discover the success of employing Web CT for coursework, group collaboration, and evaluations for first-year majors in managing information resources, building information systems, and organizational applications. Gain insights on the effectiveness of web-based seminars for diverse student populations and educational outcomes assessment.
E N D
Benefit of WWW-based seminar as a part of information management and information systems development course Pekka Makkonen University of Jyväskylä FINLAND
Course • An undergraduate course for the first-year majors: Information management and information systems development • Themes • (1) managing information resources, • (2) building information systems, and • (3) organizational applications
Why web-based seminar? • increased amount of information systems education as well as students at universities-> impossibility to organize conventional seminars • Need for more flexibility because of heterogeneity of the students • Adult education • technical infrastructure has been improved (for example high-speed broadband connections to the student village)
How? • Web CT and its presentations feature • Working in small groups (3 to 5 students) with feasibility study which dealt with one typical information system (stock control, sales order processing, etc.) • Presentations were put in each group’s separate workspace on the web • Other groups commented on the outcomes • Control groups to compare the value (not in this paper)
Was web-based seminar successful? • First evaluations • Questionnaires (at the beginning and the end) • The process of the coursework and seminar • Course work generally • Motivation • Authoring • Reading outcomes of other groups and participating in seminar • How the students of the experimental group experienced the Web CT tool • Comparing main phases of web-based coursework • Evaluating effect of age, gender, size of group and faculty
What we got • Web-based seminar worked well • coursework generally • authoring • seminar (reading others’ work and commenting on them) • Web-based seminar is suitable for older students • The students who studied IT and IS as minor benefited more from web-based seminar
Personal thoughts • Prefer HTML format • Avoid use of subfolders • Think about differences of browsers • As a teacher do not use all the features of a learning environment: think about your pedagogical design first. For example, the Web CT includes a lot of features: only some of them may be suitable for one course. This means that as a teacher you should choose the features used from the perspective of your own pedagogical view. • Blended learning
Research continues • Comparing experimental group to control group • We ran another course on the same topic without a web-based seminar • These results will be published