TRIA MAE NAGAL.

WHAT IS THE WEB BASED LEARNING RESOURCES?

It involves online course content, web-based learning is also known as online learning or e-
learning. The web allows for discussion forums via email, videoconferencing, and live lectures
(video streaming). Static pages, such as printed course materials, may be available in web-based
courses.

SESSION SEQUENCE

Students and teachers have a variety of resources available for instruction and research. With
advances in technology, online resources are now becoming one of the primary methods for
information gathering and research. In mathematics and science, an inherent component of
integrated problem-based instruction is the research process to locate information necessary to
resolve a problem or issue. The quality and accuracy of the source of the information is critical.
Therefore, developing skills to distinguish and recognize the quality of online resources is
essential. Working primarily in groups, participants will be challenged with engaging tasks that
focus on research and the subsequent utilization of Internet resources for problem-based
instruction. Through these tasks, participants will engage in Internet research, examine multiple
websites, and then discuss how to determine the quality of the resources. The challenge to
participants, and later to students, will be to engage in quality control regarding the Internet
resources used for instruction and research.

Purposes of Evaluating Online, Resource-based Learning

The challenge for teacher educators that invest in resource-based learning sites is to assess the
site’s potential and effectiveness as a learning environment (Barba & Clark, 2002; Swann &
Einstein, 2000). If the more traditional process and outcome measures that are used for formal
online course environments do not apply, then teacher educators who are designing or evaluating
resource-based Web sites must find alternative methods to evaluate such aspects as the quality of
design, user characteristics, preferences and behaviors (Trochim, 1996). For example, without an
authenticated login, attendance and rate of participation or other process indicators are not
collected; without a term limit or assignments and tests teacher educators cannot look to the
completion rate or quality of assignments or scores as indicators of the users’ learning. While the
literature on evaluating educational Web sites is extensive, the vast majority of this has been
summative in nature, delivering criteria that instructors and students can use to decide whether or
not to use or ignore a Web site as a source of information. Much of this literature provides a set
of criteria, including scope, presentation, reliability, and match to curriculum to help people
compare sites for appropriateness in a course (Branch, Dohun, & Koenecke, 1999; Wilkinson,
Bennett, & Oliver, 1997; Schrock, 1998). Much less has been written on formative approaches to
evaluating educational Web sites that provide information to designers in their planning and
development of a Web site. These approaches can be divided between situations where the
feedback from the intended users is readily available, such as where an instructor develops a
Web site for his or her own course, and situations where a teacher educator seeks to provide
instruction via an online, resource-based learning environment but will not receive substantial
direct feedback from users about it (Hughes, 2001; Rieger & Sturgill, 1999; Weston & Barker,
2001). The evaluation approach we describe here aims to inform the latter situation.

Types of Web Resources

There are many different types of online resources, some of them are appropriate for research
and some are not. It really depends on the type of content you are looking for. Here are a few that
you may find useful for research:

• Current information such as stock quotes, sports scores, weather, and news
Books and journal articles can take a long time to publish. For current information and
news, the web can't be beat. Examples: CNN, ESPN, NYSE

• Information on colleges, museums, government agencies or non-profit organizations

• Online job postings, shopping, auctions, or travel service while these sources may not be
used in research often, they're still the best at the type of content they offer.
Examples: Ebay, Etsy, Orbitz

• Library databases, scholarly journals, and e-Books These types of scholarly sources can
be found by starting at the RIT library website.

• Examples: Ebook Central via ProQuest, ARTstor, Journal of Applied Economics

TEACHING WITH WEB-BASED RESOURCES

Web-based teaching starts with identifying and vetting your resources, creating a lesson plan,
and developing online handouts that provide information and encourage student participation.

Textbooks are a great source of reliable information and ready-made activities, but the content
they provide can be generic and not particularly engaging for students. By leveraging the
instructional potential of web-based resources, you can increase student engagement, expose
them to authentic content, and engage them in collaborative activities that trigger critical
thinking and creativity. Following are six steps to get you started.

1. SELECT YOUR WEBSITE

Official sites are best.

Whenever possible, use "official" sites. Although independent sites might provide interesting
content, you can usually trust the vetted content on official sites.

Focus on curriculum integration.

Select websites closely connected to your curriculum. These sites should allow you to introduce
or review content directly related to your learning objectives on the topic that you're teaching
right now. If you find a great site for a future unit, bookmark it and move on!

Assemble a personal collection.

Use a social bookmarking system such as Delicious to create a collection of websites for future
use. Consider setting Google Alerts to notify you when the topics and keywords you selected are
mentioned on the web.

2. WEBSITE REVIEW

Anybody can create a website and start blogging about Walt Whitman and quantum physics.
Thoroughly review the content of the site you chose, asking:

• Is it accurate, up-to-date, and appropriate?

• What are the credentials of the author?

• If there is advertising, what do the images say about the site owner?

• Involve your students in the review process. Assessing the value of a web-based resource
is a critical 21st-century skill.
3. BUILD YOUR LESSON PLAN

Before building your lesson plan, review the website and list the concepts and vocabulary that
your students will need for understanding and completing the activity.

Design a web-based handout.

A web-based handout should provide your students with clear directions on what to do. It also
allows you to create links to specific web pages. This is useful when working with large sites.

Design a set of collaborative tasks.

These tasks should require student interaction, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Do not rely
on the website to do the teaching. Start with simple tasks that allow students to become familiar
with the structure and content of the site, and then move on to tasks that foster critical analysis
and evaluation of information.

Reserve space for notes.

The handout should include space for note taking. Require detailed, juicy notes to make the
students accountable for their learning.

Design a final product.

Your activity should culminate with a tangible final product: a role play, a short presentation, a
debate, etc. If the website you worked on allows readers to post comments, consider asking
students post their essays or reflections directly to the site.

Have an assessment plan.

The preferred form should be a rubric.

4. TEST YOUR LESSON PLAN

Check that the site you selected loads properly on the school computers, especially if it contains
a lot of videos and animations. Have a backup plan in case the internet goes down!

5. IMPLEMENT YOUR ACTIVITY

Use this checklist to keep the lesson running smoothly:

• Set clear rules -- no Facebook, no email, no funny YouTube videos.

• Brainstorm the etiquette for working in groups.

• If possible, have no more than three students per device.

• Keep students on track, monitor progress and time, and give frequent feedback.
• If students are taking notes on a Google Document, hop in to monitor their progress and
use the Insert Comment feature to give them pointers.

• Have students build a final project that they can be proud of!

6. REFLECT

After class, take a few moments to reflect on how the activity went. Could you have done it
without the web? Were the students engaged? Take notes on what you will do differently next
time.

REFERENCES

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-with-web-based-resources-edwige-simon

https://library.rit.edu/liv/5-7https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ876915.pdf