Media Release | Jan. 29, 1998

Web courses fail the test, say researchers

Most on-line education courses get failing grades according to a survey by University of British Columbia researchers.

The Web has enormous potential for education, but most of what is now available is little short of a travesty, says Roger Boshier, a professor in the Dept. of Educational Studies.

"Some Web courses are an unmitigated bore and represent little more than lecture notes posted on the Web. At the other extreme are those laced with links, animation and more than enough glitter and glam to make Liberace wince," he says.

Boshier and graduate students in the Adult Education Research Centre surveyed 127 Web courses to see how they measured up.

Their study resulted in an academic paper, but also tongue-in-cheek presentations of a Madonna award for the best dressed site and a Drab and Nameless award for the worst dressed.

Ideally, Boshier says, "The Web can function less like a traditional classroom and more like a library where a person can browse, talk with people involved with the program and others not in the course but with similar interests."

Most of the courses they surveyed were based at universities and colleges, mainly in the United States, but also in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Topics ran the gamut of science, business, computers, social sciences and education.

The researchers found that disappointingly few courses used much of the Web's interactive capability. Many merely try to replicate a face-to-face course, filling their Web site with lecture notes and other text. Some were difficult to navigate or even read. Others had muddled concepts and lacked links to other sites or potential for students to provide feedback.

The best courses, on the other hand, were easy to navigate, involved high levels of interaction, rewarded creativity and made use of the enormous resources of the Web. Some of their features included graphics, animation, video, audio, threaded discussions, student chat rooms, e-mail, space to post student work and hotlinks to other relevant sites.

"More creative courses had learners leave the home site to do research on relevant sites, then post their findings for all learners to use," Boshier said.

For example, a University of Texas geology course has students use the Web to locate an earthquake that has occurred in the previous 24 hours. Working in groups, they answer a series of questions about it and then post the results for all to see.

Boshier and his colleagues gave the Madonna award to a history course at the University of Wisconsin. The worst site was judged to be a Illinois State University education course.

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Contact

Prof. Roger Boshier
Educational Studies Dept.
Tel: 604.822.5822

Gavin Wilson
UBC Public Affairs
Tel: 604.822.2130