September 2001 — Features
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Classroom Web Sites and Student Success
While studying for my undergraduate degree at Hamline University, I took courses in Basic, Pascal and Assembly languages. I was not prepared for, nor did I have the desire to learn another computer language. I decided that HTML was definitely not for me. To place information on the Web, I choseMicrosoft's FrontPage 2000 to generate my Web pages, and Blackboard.com, a free Web site service designed to get teachers online, to post all of the school-related information. FrontPage 2000 is very nice for generating pages, working as a synthesis of several of the Microsoft Office products, including Word and PowerPoint. I found that it is easier to drag-and-drop than use Front Page to learn HTML.Deciding what to in-clude on the Web site was an important step. My first concern was to identify my audience. My primary focus was on my students and their successes, so I considered their needs when setting up the site. I surveyed the students to see what they would find most useful. What I found was that they wanted the class schedule, assignments and due dates, study guides, a discussion board, handouts and grades posted on the site. So far, I have all but the grades posted. I am currently developing a way to post grades and missing assignments while maintaining student confidentiality.
The problem I faced using FrontPage was that I could only update the site from home, which is why I chose Blackboard.com for my school-related items. The site is easy to set up and seems to be secure, but the best part is its power. You can do almost anything on Blackboard.com, including posting assignment due dates, conducting online research, attaching printable handouts and viewing discussion boards. Students can even hand in homework electronically on the site.
My Research
Now that I have developed this Web site, my next task was to determine if the students using the site find it helpful. To accomplish this, I employed "action research." "Action research is systematic inquiry for the purpose of developing the quality of life and learning of a community" (Peckover 2000). I am discovering that there are many facets to conducting this kind of research. My focus is on whether the students are using the site and if it seems to be helping the students succeed.
My chemistry and physics students are very busy people. They have heavy-course loads, are involved in extracurricular activities, have jobs and social lives. They needed to have an additional source of information they could access to find out what is going on in class, what the assignments are and when they are due. Nearly all of my students (99 percent) have Internet access at home, so the natural thing to do was put the information out there for them. I anticipate the students will use this Web site and that it will positively affect their performance by ensuring they have their assignments in on time, and will be more prepared for projects and exams.
I have been collecting the grade-book results for each quarter this year and have been comparing these results to previous years. I am looking at the average number of missing and late assignments and also the class average grade for the quarter. In addition, I am planning to include a hit counter as evidence that the students are really using the site.
