1. Introduction and Statement of the Problem

2. Literature Review

2.1 Terminology

2.2 Literature on Educational Values

2.3 Selected Internet Site

3. Proposed Interventions

3.1 The Course

3.2 Interventions

3.3 Action Learning Cycle

4. Assessment

5. Results and Discussion

5.1 Overview

5.2 General Usage

5.3 Viewing and/or downloading material

5.4 On-line textbook

5.5 On-line problems

5.6 Communication

5.7 Preferences for the future

6. Conclusions

6.1 Internet Interventions

6.2 Action Learning

References

Appendix 1. Miscellaneous Data

Appendix 2. Responses to statements in the final questionnaire

Appendix 3. Questionnaires

Since the early 1990s, the World Wide Web (WWW) or Internet has undergone an explosive rate of growth to the extent that most people associated with University education access it in some manner on a daily basis. The proliferation of information together with the capabilities of communication (and, more recently, interaction) have left few to doubt that it will have an important impact on teaching and learning into the next century. However the expansion of the internet can be compared in some ways to a sprawling city &emdash; there is little planning or organisation, and finding one’s way requires a certain amount of skill, determination and sometimes luck. With such a design, there are no guarantees that the technology will be of educational benefit and careful consideration of the desired learning processes is important before any implementation of web-based instruction.

In parallel with the development of the internet, recent research in undergraduate Physics teaching (see for example Hake 1998) has indicated the need to move away from the standard "passive-student lectures, recipe labs, and algorithmic-problem exams" approach. It was found that courses based on these principles led to little conceptual understanding even when delivered by highly talented lecturing staff. Hake collated data from over 60 introductory physics courses that clearly indicated that courses involving interactive engagement provided a better learning experience than those with a more traditional format. In some cases, the interactive engagement involved internet-based material, with courses of this type becoming increasingly more prevalent.

The use of the internet also ties in heavily with the current push towards the related area of flexible delivery &emdash; using a range of teaching approaches to assist students in learning. Indeed, it could be argued that the development of the web has been a major driving force behind the desire to implement flexible delivery. The various facets of the internet provide alternative delivery methods for such areas as lectures, textbooks and photocopied notes. Furthermore, the internet offers innovative ways of learning not easily implemented by any other approach. It is clearly the policy of The University of Queensland to pursue the use of flexible delivery as seen by the report of the Universities’ Working Party on Flexible Delivery (1997). Two (out of 18) recommendations given were:

Recommendation 1:

"That while face-to-face teaching is likely to remain the primary mode of instruction at the University of Queensland, flexible delivery techniques be developed to enhance the range and effectiveness of learning experiences."

Recommendation 2:

"That staff adopting flexible delivery in teaching explore the full range of delivery options and select modes which enhance learning and accommodate student needs."

The value of flexible delivery is recognised within this university both for its capability of improving learning as well as in reaching students who are unable to attend the campus at a particular place or time.

Many teaching staff at this and other universities are making the first tentative steps in the use of the internet in undergraduate courses. The Universities’ flexible delivery report lists a range of interventions that include in most cases the delivery of material (lecture notes, tutorial questions etc) to students. A number of departments have investigated more advanced activities such as computer-assisted learning packages and bulletin boards. Few details have been released about the effectiveness or otherwise of these methods.

This study focuses of the use of the internet in Physics. The nature of teaching and learning in Physics would appear to be an ideal avenue for the use of the new technology currently on offer. As well as the learning of physics concepts, students are taught to develop problem solving skills and critical thinking abilities. In all these areas, the internet could be expected, through its flexibility, animation and interactivity, to offer significant advances over previous methods of learning.

In the Department of Physics at The University of Queensland, there is increased usage of the internet in areas such as information transmittal and communication. Lecture notes or overheads are now often provided via an internet site as also are tutorial problems and solutions. However developments in this area have been performed without any real study of the advantages or disadvantages of the method. Do they provide the students with a service that is of use? Are there educational benefits to be gained? Is the extra time required by staff members justified? The author of this report has made available lecture notes over the web for both first and second year courses for a number of years. Informal feedback indicates that the students do use these services and in many cases find them preferable to previous delivery methods. To better quantify the usage and benefits of web-based delivery, this study is designed to assess where the internet may be of benefit to the learning process. A range of interventions are to be trialed and their suitability investigated through questionnaires, usage statistics and focus groups.

There are two things that this study is not. Firstly, the interventions to be considered here are necessarily of a small scale so that a staff member (or small group) with only moderate internet expertise can implement them. There are ranges of more advanced methods that can be used but these require substantial financing and expertise currently beyond the capabilities of most departments. Secondly, this is not a study of flexible delivery in that the interventions proposed are supplementary to the current teaching process. This is not a proposal to eliminate face-face teaching, rather a study of how internet techniques can aid the current learning process.

2.1 Terminology

The web began as an electronic communication tool between universities and has rapidly developed into worldwide use. Originally capable of just transmitting electronic files and text, there is now a range of uses beyond the straight transmission of data. Figure 2.1 shows an overview of current capabilities and these are discussed below.

Text Transmission (HTML)

By far the most common use of the internet for those seeking information is the viewing of "web pages" using common browsers such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer. Anybody with access to the internet can develop their own "home page" which is the encoding of text using the "HyperText Markup Language (HTML)". The complexity of the language has developed from simple text to include tables, frames and other more sophisticated formatting.

Images (GIF, JPEG)

Images in a number of formats (GIF &emdash; Graphics Interchange Format, JPEG &emdash; Joint Photographic Experts Group) can be incorporated into a web page. This is achieved by using the HTML language to load and place the graphic. One of the limitations of the use of images is the size that they occupy. Detailed pictures on a web page can make downloading of the page time consuming especially using a modem over a telephone line.

Electronic Mail

Another heavily used aspect of the web is electronic mail. Information can be sent to other users anywhere in the world with almost no delay time. Computer files can also be attached to mail messages.

File Transfer (FTP)

Prior to the existence of web pages, a common use of the internet was the transfer of information using the file transfer protocol (FTP). A remote computer could be accessed and files downloaded. This can now be achieved more seamlessly using web browsers.

Newsgroups/Bulletin Boards

A method for providing up to date communications to a group of people is through the use of Newsgroups or Bulletin Boards. New material from any user can be immediately made available for others to view.

Animation

Multiple images can be combined to generate animation through the graphical GIF89A format. The developer has control over the number of images and the rate at which they are displayed.

Interaction

The major recent development in the use of the web has been in the area of interaction. There are a number of different approaches to this. The simplest is the use of JavaScript which is a relatively simple programming language that can be incorporated into an HTML web page and is executed based in the environment in which it is loaded. For example it can control the display depending on the web browser type and version. By the use of "buttons" and text inputs, it is possible to dynamically update the page subject to the user's input. Another form of interaction is by the combination of HTML forms and CGI (Common Gateway Interface). Forms on a web page consist of a range of user inputs that are then sent to the server for processing. The resulting information can be sent back to the client for viewing. A recent alternative is Java. This is a programming language similar to JavaScript except that it is more powerful. It is loaded to the client with the HTML text and is executed on the client’s computer. This approach provides the most exciting avenue for interactive demonstrations. Its main drawback is that not all browsers are currently Java compatible.

2.2 Literature on Educational Values

The literature contains large numbers of articles on the use of computers in teaching physics. With the relative newness of web technologies, the literature on advanced use of the internet in universities is less complete. However, articles on the evaluation of such practices are starting to emerge. These papers can generally be divided into (i) discussion of pedagogical concepts behind using the web and (ii) case studies. This section examines a number of papers that consider the learning issues associated with the use of the internet. The next section contains a number of examples of web sites developed for undergraduate teaching in physics.

When examining the use of the internet in teaching and learning, the first question one must ask is why should it be used? One strong argument is the need to depart from the standard lecture-lab-algorithmic exam formula mentioned in the introduction and still widely practised today. The availability of the internet allows teachers the possibility of completely revising the curriculum and style of the course. Novak and Patterson (1997) suggest this could include resources such as links to a range of information, interactive tutorials with individualised feedback, virtual laboratories complementing hands-on experience, and web-based projects. These are all likely to add to the scope and interest of the course.

Jackson and Bazley (1997) state that there are three areas where the internet can be of educational benefit. The first lies in the area of access to information. Almost any type of information can now be located using the internet and, in many cases, be directly accessed. Library catalogues, journals and new publications can be examined over the net with the added benefit that they are continuously updated. This information can be incorporated in undergraduate courses as, for example, part of projects that require background research to be performed. The second category is the capability to communicate. Although e-mail is the main form of communication, recent advances have seen the development of the ability to transmit sound and images. Communication is possible between people in different countries, from different cultures and from different age groups. There is almost no waiting time as information is transmitted anywhere in the world without delay. This can streamline the transfer of information between student and lecturer although the loss of face-to-face contact is clearly a concern. The third area of benefit is in the area of collaboration. The internet acts as a central location through which groups of people can communicate and interact. Shared workspaces or bulletin boards can be used to combine input from various members leading to a stimulating group learning environment. Scanlon (1997) discusses collaboration in science on-line learning for both schools and universities. It is argued that since real scientists collaborate throughout their working lives, science students should also learn to collaborate. This process could be aided by the use of communication technologies through, for example, providing student access to experts in the field who could provide answers to a series of questions posed by a class.

There is now a fourth area which should also be considered of educational benefit. This lies in the area of interactivity. More advanced web programming offered by animated images and the Java programming language allow the user to influence the information that they are observing. One obvious application of this approach is through simulations of real experiments. Consider a standard first year physics laboratory experiment such as the double slit which studies interference and diffraction. A light source (often a laser) illuminates two or more closely spaced slits generating a pattern on a screen. Measurement of the pattern allows deductions to be made about the number of slits, their spacing, their size, and the wavelength (colour) of light used to illuminate them, all aiding learning about the wave nature of light. A computer simulation of this experiment is possible with the added features that there would be more control over the parameters and a capability to better visualise the processes involved. Such simulations have the capability of assisting in a deeper learning of the physics involved and have indeed been used in undergraduate teaching. However, with the use of the web, simulations can be better utilised as they can be attempted whenever and wherever the learner desires.

Novak et al (1998) see the internet as an aid to structuring student's out-of-classroom hours. They consider that the best teaching strategy is to combine collaborative learning with web technology that brings added communication channels to the course. Web material is designed to stimulate the student into regularly thinking about physics by providing on-line problems that must be submitted electronically to the lecturer shortly before each session. This form of "Just-In-Time Teaching" allows the lecturer to prepare the material for the class based on the level of understanding shown in the submitted replies. Surprisingly it was also found that this method of communication initiated better contact between student and lecturer as students were more willing to expand on their answers via electronic mail. This contact served to "break the ice" leading to improved class discussion sessions.

There are words of caution. Jackson and Bazley (1997) state that while considering the internet to be a facility to provide vast amounts of information, they caution that learning will not occur simply by providing this information. Rather, learners require other support including teaching and guidance. McDermott (1991) notes that even highly interactive simulations might not engage students sufficiently to allow deep learning. They found that some students treated the simulation more like a game with solutions found by trial and error rather than consideration of the underlying principles. There was also a risk that computer simulations did not provide sufficient "reality" to allow students to explore all their misconceptions.

The second question to ask when considering the use of the internet is how web-based learning should be implemented. Alexander (1997) examines why previous attempts at using technological advances such as computer based instruction have failed to make an impact in education and considers ramifications for the use of the internet. It is argued that educators of the past have had as their primary focus the capabilities of the new technology rather than considering how students learn. Instead, an approach should be taken that must consider possible learning strategies using the internet only after spending time deciding what students need to learn. Internet-based strategies for deeper learning are discussed. The use of hypertext is purported to allow learners to follow the information in a manner that is non-linear and tailored to their own approach to learning. However, hypertext links do not imply interactivity as claimed by some educators, but rather this approach is equivalent to ‘re-packaging’ an existing book with the drawback that accessing the material on-line can be significantly slower than turning the pages of a real book. Alexander does discuss two positive internet interventions. The first of these is the generation of collaborative web pages where students are encouraged to contribute to the group learning process by adding their own ideas to those of the teacher. This develops qualities such as the ability to gather and analyse evidence and to draw conclusions from the results. The second approach is the use of the internet to perform "virtual field trips". Information and feedback were obtained via the web from an expedition involving scientists in the field. While this is a learning experience that is not possible by any other means, the application of this technique is clearly limited by available resources.

It should be noted that since the paper by Alexander (1997) was written there has been the development of interactive approaches using more advanced web authoring tools such as JavaScript and Java. These are truly interactive in that learners have direct control of input parameters which has great relevance to deeper learning in physics similar to that possible in experimental laboratories.

To summarise, these papers suggest a classification of internet interventions into areas of (i) access to information, (ii) interactive learning, (iii) communication, and (iv) collaborative learning. The concept of using the internet to regulate students out-of-class study is a particularly appealing part of these areas. The literature raises a number of important points that need considering. Firstly, implementation of web based learning should be performed while carefully considering learning goals - not just blind application of the technology. Secondly, levels of learning need to be considered when assessing the interventions. While gains in the areas of rote recall and scientific reasoning are of value, impact on deeper learning should be evaluated. Thirdly, are the impacts on learning sufficient to justify the necessary input of time and effort on the part of the teacher?

2.3 Selected Internet Sites

Several internet sites are here discussed to provide some background on interventions that have been trialed in university physics teaching. These range from relatively small-scale versions up to a heavily funded highly interactive site.

Landau et al (1998) developed a course in computational physics with the specific goals of (i) providing improved media for teaching, (ii) using computers as tools for amplifying students cognitive and reasoning power, and (iii) using the web to provide what is otherwise too difficult to provide. As part of the development, a printed textbook was written together with a collection of interactive web enhancements that focused on visualising some of the concepts such as, for example, the motion of a chaotic pendulum. Several outcomes of the study were discussed. Significantly, it was found that students wanted to have lectures, as web based teaching with minimal intervention from the lecturing staff was thought to be insufficient. This supports the above-mentioned proposition that web browsing does not provide the level of involvement necessary to stimulate learning at a deep level. It was also concluded that the textbook was necessary to provide structure to the course and to place the subject matter within the wider context of the area. The addition of the web enhancements was seen as a valuable aid to the learning process stimulating discussion and interest in the material. Student evaluation of the course was highly positive and feedback showed that students had shown a greater desire to understand the underlying physics of the course.

An approach that covers the areas of information access, interactive learning and group learning was presented by Bothun et al (1998). This courseware involved preparing lecture notes on overheads that were projected and spoken to for large classes, or given to students on terminals in smaller classes. In the latter case, students could also use the web to search for other information or use analysis packages such as Mathematica in their work. The study identified a number of drawbacks including time for preparation of the web material and that a small percentage of students were alienated by the use of the technology. However it was found that the lectures and courses were better organised mainly due to the ability to include images and animation in the material. The students were found to be more attentive and were also better engaged by the material. Collaboration was encouraged through the use of projects, the results of which were presented on the web and were sometimes included in the course structure. The author's conclusion was that the advantages only marginally outweighed the disadvantages.

Novak and Patterson (1997) discuss two implementations in undergraduate physics courses. "Cockpit Physics" is an undergraduate course at the Air Force Academy where material is presented as a set of HTML-based interactive multimedia lessons in a high-tech classroom. Students work in groups, submitting material over the net to a supervisor. The material is presented in an applied, problem-based way. There are also "pre-flight" web activities designed to encourage the student to study the material before attending the session. The advantages in using the web were seen in several areas. Connection to the "real world" was achieved by incorporating links to relevant applications of the material being studied. Interactivity was introduced via Javascript sections in the web pages and by submission to and responses from a tutor-run web server. Multimedia could also be incorporated in the forms of text, video, audio and graphics, appealing to all senses. Evaluation of the course indicated that many students gained from the experience but a significant number perceived a decrease in student-instructor contact. This was despite the fact that monitoring of the course indicated a higher number of one-to-one contact hours than in traditional courses. The solution of this problem remains to be found.

A related study discussed by Novak and Patterson (1997) considers a more traditional physics course with a strong web component. The aims were to allow the students to control their learning experience, to motivate the students, to make connections with the "real world", and to guide them in developing critical thinking, evaluation and problem-solving skills. The structural design focussed on the use of the active learner concept incorporated into the lecture-tutorial-lab format. The active learning was implemented by the use of a web component with the purpose of encouraging students to frequently study physics. Regular assessable assignments were set over the web as well as activities for students to attempt before attending class. A number of stated goals of the web component were to connect textbook physics to real world physics, to shift the learning experience away from the classroom to outside group work, and to develop cooperative work habits. Preliminary results indicate that the course was succeeding with higher retention rates and high use of the internet material.

The last site to be mentioned is called "Physics 2000". This is a much larger scale intervention focusing on interactive learning which is here presented to show what can be achieved with sufficient resources. This site is designed to be an on-line instruction program based at explaining physics to all levels of students using images and interactivity. The physics is explained in conversational form between a teacher and a learner and is filled with interactive demonstrations (programmed in Java) allowing the user to explore the concepts involved. The pedagogical principles were stated to be (i) tailor the learning process to the hypertext medium of the web, (ii) make the experience interactive, (iii) organise the material from familiar to abstract, and (iv) make the learning experience friendly. This type of intervention appeals particularly because of the interactive nature of the visualisations which can stimulate a greater interest in the learning process. Unfortunately the expertise and expense involved in producing such material is likely to be currently beyond the means of most university departments.

The web pages discussed above indicate that there is clearly a market for web-based instruction and that there is a variety of levels at which interventions can be aimed. It is also clear that animation and interaction rate high on the advantages that can be gained from the use of the internet in teaching and learning in physics.

3.1 The Subject

The implementations to be proposed below are to be associated with the teaching of optics to first year undergraduate students. Optics is taught to two groups of first year students - mainstream physics (PH143) consisting of a class of 105 students with the topics covered in eight lectures, and physics for engineers (PH107) with 485 students over eight lectures. Optics covers the areas of light, geometric optics, polarisation, interference and diffraction. The focus of the study was in the area of geometric optics although components for the other areas were also included, the extent of which was determined by the time required for preparation.

Students usually have previous exposure to geometric optics through learning about lenses and mirrors in high school. The approach used is based around ray optics and yields the familiar lens equation quoted in most physics undergraduate textbooks. Teaching of geometric optics in our courses is based around what we call the "Vergence" approach that considers the motion of the wavefront as opposed to a ray of light. This method is implemented as we believe it is more general and powerful. Due to this alternative approach, a number of problems have surfaced in previous years when the subject was given. They include preconception, difficulty in conceptualising the new approach, and problem solving. Students, having had some previous exposure to the area, are resistant to adopting the new techniques, believing that their previous methods are sufficient for all problems that will be encountered. This is partly because they fail to develop an understanding of the revised method and partly because, in some cases, problems suitable for first year courses can indeed be solved using the previous approach. This was evident in the examinations where a large proportion of the candidates failed to use the methods taught in the lectures despite being specifically requested to do so.

3.2 Interventions

In the light of these problems, interventions associated with the internet have been considered. Table 3.1 provides a list of possible interventions together with advantages and disadvantages, and the area in which they are expected to influence learning.

The solution proposed here has four main interventions. The web pages can be viewed at:

http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/mcintyre/PH143/optics/optics.shtml.

The first intervention is to use the internet as a means for delivering course material to students. This includes copies of all overhead transparencies used during the lectures, copies of tutorial problems and solutions (after tutorial sessions), and copies of past exams with solutions. This eliminates the need for vast amounts of photocopying and offers the potential to save students money in that they no longer need to purchase the material. A number of different formats were used (HTML, MS Word, PDF) in an effort to gauge which was the preferred delivery method. To encourage group learning, the tutorials were more structured and the internet was to be used to deliver student prepared solutions. Problems were to be attempted by small groups of students with several groups assigned the same problem. The groups can compare solutions and the best was to be placed on the internet site for all to view.

Secondly, as no suitable textbook is available for geometric optics, material more detailed than that provided in lectures is desirable. Although written material could be provided, a "hypertextbook" approach was used by developing web pages that were a combination of text and animation. The advantages of this approach lie specifically in the area of presentation. A set of well laid-out web pages including colour are thought to be more appealing than black and white handouts. Animation was used to better illustrate concepts and provide a more interesting experience. This material was used to complement the lectures with the goal of stimulating deeper learning in the area.

The third intervention lay in the area of problem solving. Undoubtedly, the best way of becoming familiar with this material is to attempt a range of problems. The intervention proposed here was to develop an on-line databank of problems with randomised numbers so that students could make repeated attempts at similar sorts of problems. The advantage over the standard delivery method of tutorial problems is that each student receives a unique problem due to the random nature of the numerical values. Students may also attempt the problems several times. Part of the assessment for PH143 was a multiple choice quiz. An on-line practice quiz for this section of the course was developed involving multiple choice questions to evaluate the understanding and problem solving nature of the student. A formative on-line trial gives the students the opportunity to test their knowledge prior to the real quiz. The use of random numerical values allows the students to trial the quiz a number of times. As well, immediate feedback due to automatic on-line marking was of benefit.

Lastly, an e-mail site was set up to allow students to e-mail any problems directly to the lecturing staff. The aim was to provide a rapid turn-around time although this is obviously dependent on the popularity of the service. Questions and answers will be placed on the web for others to access.

Where possible, all pages available on the web site were made available in paper format. Students needed to visit the lecturer and request this information but it was provided to enable those without internet access or who do not wish to use the internet to be able to access similar material.

One method that is not currently under consideration is the use of interactive demonstrations through the use of Java applets. Although this would clearly aid in the deeper understanding of the topic, the implementation is currently beyond the capabilities of the department. A longer-term study on this type of intervention may be possible after sufficient experience to the programming language is obtained.

3.3 Action Learning Cycle

The teaching of optics to both physics and engineering students in first year allowed for the implementation of an action learning cycle. The lectures were firstly given as part of the mainstream physics course PH143 by the author of this report. Soon after, Associate Professor Rubinsztein-Dunlop gave a similar set of lectures to the engineering class PH107. The cycle is shown in figure 3.1 and proceeded as follows:

Stage 1. Development of relevant web pages including testing.

Stage 2. Trial by staff and tutors. Teaching staff associated with the courses were asked to evaluate its implementation.

Stage 3. Implementation in PH143 (105 students).

Stage 4. Implementation in PH107 (485 students).

Stage 5. Final analysis.

After each of the first four stages, the intervention was assessed with the aim or removing errors and including any suggested improvements.

Assessment of the intervention concentrated on two areas &emdash; student feedback and usage. Scores in the mid-semester quiz and the final exam were also intended to be monitored.

Student feedback was obtained by questionnaires, a focus group and electronic mail. An introductory questionnaire was designed to determine if students had sufficient access to use the web, whether they had previous experience, and whether they thought they would use the material if provided. A final questionnaire was designed to obtain more in-depth comments and perceptions of the available interventions. Students were also asked to note the best and worst features of the use of the internet. This was distributed at the end of the semester but before the final exams. A group of about ten students from the physics mainstream subject was selected as a focus group. The students provided comments on a range topics.

A much clearer measurement of the suitability of the interventions came through the use of comprehensive access statistics. It is relatively simple to record the usernames, dates and times of access of all people using a web site. The design of the pages was such that separate counts were made of the usages of the various interventions discussed above.

The influence of the interventions on the quiz and exam scores was also intended to be examined. However a number of considerations during the semester meant that this did not occur. Firstly, to determine those students who accessed the internet material and those that did not, it was necessary to record student numbers on submitted questionnaires. This removed the capability of anonymous replies which was not a desirable approach. Secondly, the evaluation of performance could only be achieved on the mid-semester quiz in PH143 as the final exam was very late in the semester. The small number of questions and level of difficulty were such that any results were unlikely to have statistical significance. It was therefore decided not to proceed with this method of evaluation.

5.1 Overview

The collection of data consisted of two surveys - one prior to the lecture series and one after the lecture series, web page access statistics, and comments from the focus group. The following sections provide results and discussion based on the area of implementation. This begins with a section on general usage such as internet access capabilities and overall usage. Sections then follow on provision of material for downloading, on-line textbook, on-line problems and formative on-line quiz, and e-mail access.

The material was provided for two subjects -

• PH143 Fundamentals of Physics (for mainstream physics students),
• PH107 Engineering Physics.

PH143 was lectured by the author of this report while PH107 was given by Associate Professor Rubinsztein-Dunlop. Not all sections of the internet implementations were provided for both courses. The final questionnaire was therefore structured slightly differently in each case.

All students attending the first PH143 lecture for the semester were surveyed yielding 71 responses. Similarly all students at the final lecture were surveyed yielding 68 responses. PH107 students were surveyed at the start of the Optics lectures. This subject was given with duplicate lectures to accommodate the large numbers of students. Only one class was surveyed giving 120 responses to the initial questionnaire and 71 responses to the final questionnaire.

Graphs indicating questionnaire responses and access are provided through these sections as are tables including sections of the final questionnaire. Some graphs relating to time of access, types of computer operating systems and types of web browsers are given in Appendix 1. A complete table of answers to the statements in the final questionnaire can be found in Appendix 2. Copies of the questionnaires are given in Appendix 3.

5.2 General Usage

One of the goals of the project was to provide firm data on the number of students with access to computer facilities in general, and internet capabilities in particular. Questions were asked in the initial survey relating to access to a computer, e-mail capabilities, and internet capabilities. Students were also surveyed in the final survey according to capability to access the internet. The results of the latter were in close accordance with that from the former.

Figure 5.1 Student access capabilities

Figure 5.1 illustrates responses to access capability questions. The surveys showed a surprisingly high level of computer ownership. Over 85% of mainstream physics students had access to a computer at home, while this went up to more than 90% for engineering students. (The figures include a small percentage of students who indicated they had access at their college of residence). Only a small number of students replied saying that they had no access although the university libraries provide a large number of computers for student use. The results would indicate that it is reasonable to assume that almost all students have computer access although the provision by the department of a small number of computers for use by students without access might be advisable.

Figure 5.1 also provides data for access to the web for electronic mail ("E-mail Access") and wider internet use such as web page browsing ("Internet Access") - that is students that have modems and dial in access from their computers or another direct internet link. Given that the university provides this service for all students, it is not surprising that most students also have these capabilities. There are a significant number of students in PH143 without e-mail access although this could presumably be changed if e-mail became an important part of the internet interventions.

Figure 5.2 Previous educational use of internet material by enrolled students.

A second component of interest was the exposure students had previously experienced to internet-based teaching in their studies. Students were surveyed in the initial questionnaire on this topic, the results of which are shown in figure 5.2. More than half of the students had used the internet to access material relevant to their course such as overhead transparencies and tutorial problems. Far less students had used the internet for more advanced material delivery such as interactive demonstrations. There was also little use of e-mail facilities for communication with lecturing staff. A significant number of respondees said they had used the internet for researching assignments (shown as part of "other"). There was a higher proportion of users in the engineering students with less than 5% having had no experience with using the internet. This was somewhat higher for mainstream physics students with around 20% having not previously used the internet for educational purposes.

After establishing that a high proportion of the students had access to the internet and experience in using this type of delivery method, lectures were commenced in PH143 on Tuesday September 1, 1998. Students were immediately informed that material was available on the web &emdash; this was initially in the form of copies of the lecture overhead transparencies that could be viewed or downloaded. The lectures in this course spanned a three-week period being completed on Thursday September 17. During this period material was regularly added to the web site and students reminded of its presence. Students were also informed on a number of occasions that anybody not being able to access the internet could obtain paper copies of the material from the lecturer. Only four students used this service.

Figure 5.3 Access rates for the main internet page for each course.

The design of the web site was such that students initially visited a main page from which all other sections could be visited. Access statistics were maintained on this page (as with all other pages) to provide an indication of its usage. The rate of use of the main page from these recordings is shown in figure 5.3. The number of hits on the page per day was recorded for each day from the commencement of lectures up until the final exam. The rate was normalised by the number of students enrolled in the subject to give a value that is the number of hits per day per 100 students. It should be noted that this doesn’t completely reflect the number of students that visited the site, rather it is the number of times this particular page was visited. A student may view this page a number of times in a session in the process of navigating to different sections of the site, each of which is counted as a hit. Nevertheless it provides an excellent indication of usage throughout the period of the course.

The usage graph shows a cycling in the course and a number of major events. During the period that lectures were given, there is an approximate seven-day cycle with minimal access on Saturdays (day 5, 12 etc). An initial peak after day 1 is observed where students began downloading material. During the lecture period, material was regularly added to the site and students immediately informed of its presence. Major peaks are observed (not surprisingly) immediately before exams set as part of the subject - the mid-semester quiz and the final exam. The statistics on these are discussed below.

Lectures in PH107 started immediately after the semester break on Monday October 5 1998. These continued over a four-week period being completed on the last day of semester (Friday October 28). There followed a roughly two-week long period of study before the exam. The access rate for PH107 is also shown in figure 5.3. Interestingly, access rates are very similar to that for PH143 with a similar cycling evident as well as the major peak at the final exam (Saturdays fall on day 6,12, etc). Evident about a week before the exam was a lull that can be attributed to a major engineering exam that most of the students in the current subject are likely to have sat. The other features are further discussed in the following sections.

5.3 Viewing and/or dowloading course material

Copies of course material were provided on the internet for student access. The material included overhead transparencies used during lectures, tutorial problems and solutions, and past exams with solutions.

Three formats for this material were trialed. The original material was mostly prepared using Microsoft Word on either a PC or Macintosh computer. These files could be placed on the web site and directly downloaded for student use. While this method had a minimum of preparation, a number of difficulties surfaced during its use. Firstly, a number of different versions of Word are currently in use so that material prepared with the latest version (Word 97/98) could not be read by earlier versions. This necessitated saving the material in a format accessible by earlier versions that sometimes presented formatting problems. A second difficulty lay in the preparation of equations using an equation editor (Mathtype) that isn't part of the MS Word package. Again users without this package were unable to view the equations in the downloaded files. (There may be a method of avoiding this problem but I am yet to find it). The last area of concern lay in the area of intellectual property. Material is Word documents can easily be extracted and used by others which may be of consideration in future use.

The second format trialed was the HTML (web page) format. MS Word files can be easily converted to HTML document using the latest version of MS Word. Equations and images are converted to the graphical GIF format and included with the text. The material is then uploaded to the web site for viewing or usage. The main drawback in this approach is the quality of the final product. The layout of the page is often different from the original document and the quality of the images poorer. A difficulty was also encountered in that images generated in Word were not correctly formatted and needed extra editing before appearing correctly on the page.

The last format trialed was the Adobe portable document file (PDF) format. Documents were prepared using the Adobe PDF Writer which is initiated in the same way as one prints a document. The final appearance of the document matches the original formatting with equations and images maintained with good quality. The PDF document can then be uploaded to the web site from which it can be viewed online or downloaded and printed. The only requirement is that users must obtain a copy of the free Adobe PDF Reader that is available over the internet. This approach provided the highest quality format with the least difficulties although a number of students noted printing problems. A further consideration is that the material in PDF format can be locked so that components of the document cannot be used by others.

The students were surveyed at the end of the lectures to find their preferred format. The results are presented in section 5.7.

Figure 5.4 Expected and actual usage of downloading lecture overheads.

To evaluate the usefulness of these implementations, students were surveyed prior to the lectures to obtain an indication of the likely use of the various components of the internet intervention. They were then subsequently surveyed at the end of the course to determine their actual usage. The results of these surveys for downloading lecture overheads are shown in figure 5.4. Similar levels of use were obtained for downloading tutorials questions and answers, and for copies of past exams with solutions (which are not shown in the figures). The results show a very high use by engineering students and fairly high use for physics students. This confirmed the expectation that delivery of material via the internet can be of use. A particular advantage from the view of the lecturing staff is that material can be regularly updated as needed. The alternative delivery method using paper requires that all material be compiled before commencing lectures so that students need only to purchase or copy the pages once. The internet also provides the benefit that students are able to access the material at their leisure and aren't reliant on others such as office staff to be present.

The rate at which the material was accessed is shown in figure 5.5. The main usage is during the lecture period where material was regularly added and the students informed. Peaks are also observed around the time of the PH143 quiz and during the exam time.

In the final survey, students were given a number of statements and asked to respond. The results for questions relating to downloading material are shown in table 5.1. There was general agreement in both subjects that material should be available on the internet and that it assisted studies. A number of statements were proposed about the ease of use and time required. In general students did not have difficulties with using the material.

Table 5.1 Responses to statements in the final survey. Values are the average response on the scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. A value of (3) is neutral.

The PH143 surveys were further analysed with responses averaged from students who preferred internet delivery and compared with responses from students who preferred material provided on paper. The results are shown in table 5.2. There was a clear polarisation in answers with internet users obviously more satisfied with the delivery methods than those preferring previous methods. Interestingly those students who preferred the paper delivery method found obtaining the material more problematic and more time consuming.

Table 5.2 Responses to statements in the final survey - categorised into preferred internet users (U) and preferred non-users (NU) from PH143. Values are the average response on the scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. A value of (3) is neutral.

Feedback was also obtained from a focus group, from hand written responses on the final questionnaire and from e-mailed responses. There was general agreement that internet delivery of the material was very desirable. Many students listed the availability of the overheads as the best feature of using the internet. Some students commented on the convenience of being able to access the material 24 hours a day. A number of students were unaware that material was also available on paper, stating that it was unfair to only have material available via the internet. After obtaining these responses, the class was again informed that material was still available on paper but students still failed to come forward to use this service. This does however highlight that a paper alternative must be made available for students without internet access to use.

5.4 On-line textbook

The use of on-line notes or a "hypertextbook" was one of the innovations of this study. The material available as lecture overheads was expanded by adding further text and animated images relevant to the course. Worked solutions were also provided.

The initial survey asked for students interest in interactive on-line demonstrations. The responses, shown in figure 5.6, indicate a much lower expectation of use than for downloading material. Students were unsure of the usefulness of such material having had little prior exposure. The actual use of the on-line notes is also shown in figure 5.6 while the access rate is shown in figure 5.7. The usage level indicates significant use while the access rate would indicate a much lower usage. The discrepancy between these two methods of data acquisition requires further investigation. In general it appeared that the students only used the pages shortly before the exam rather than during the lecture period as would be desirable.

Figure 5.6 Expected and actual usage of interactive lecture notes.

 

Figure 5.7 Access rates for the on-line notes for each course.

 

Table 5.3 Responses to statements in the final survey. Values are the average response on the scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. A value of (3) is neutral.

Students present at the focus group indicated that the material was useful but had drawbacks. This was also highlighted in the responses in the final survey given in table 5.3. Students had a strong dislike to reading material on a computer screen preferring to be able to print the material for later use.

"Studying directly from a computer is tiring and painful to eyes. It is inflexible. Books are more versatile and suit my study habits." PH143 Student

One suggestion was that animated images could be provided on-line while accompanying material could be downloaded and printed. A further difficulty was that students had limited dial-in access time that would be used up while reading this material.

The results from this feedback would indicate that this type of delivery method is not effective in its current form. Although used by a small number of interested students, the extensive preparation time (especially in preparing the images) meant that the large input time far out-weighed the benefits that students obtained. Clearly, some extra motivation would be required to encourage more of the students to use the material regularly.

5.5 On-line problems

To aid in student's problem solving capabilities, a series of on-line problems were generated incorporating random number generation so that each access to the problems received separate numerical values. For PH143, problem sets were generated for the lectures on geometric optics and for the lectures on polarisation. These consisted of short numerical answer questions at two levels of difficulty. Students calculated their answers, typed them in and then were informed either that they were correct or were given the correct answer. As the mid-semester quiz was in multiple choice format, a formative sample quiz was developed on-line with the students being informed that a number of the questions in the sample quiz would be used in the actual quiz. The sample quiz was also in multiple choice format. For PH107, only the geometric optics problem set was made available as no mid-semester quiz was held in this subject.

Figure 5.8 Actual usage of on-line problems.

The actual usage statistics are shown in figure 5.8 while the usage rate is shown in figure 5.9. The level of use is again comparatively low with the exception of the on-line quiz immediately before and after the PH143 quiz. The rate of access showed three peaks - on the Sunday prior to the quiz, on the Thursday night before the Friday quiz and during the week after the quiz when the results and solutions were posted on the internet. Table 5.4 shows responses on the final questionnaire indicating only moderate agreement that the quiz was of use and indicating, as the statistics show, that many students studied heavily only just prior to the quiz.

Table 5.4 Responses to statements in the final survey. Values are the average response on the scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. A value of (3) is neutral.

The results from above would seem to indicate that only a few students made use of the on-line problems. However there was a high access to the sample quiz mostly in the brief active period immediately prior to the quiz. Students in the focus group were of the opinion that the on-line problems were of use but would prefer to be able to print the questions out, calculate the solutions and then return to the internet to submit the answers.

A number of students also provided positive feedback about this section of the internet pages:

• "… and thanks for all the time you spend preparing stuff for the net. It's good to see such quick results with the quiz marks on the net. It's a shame more lecturers can't utilise the internet like you. The sample quiz was also an excellent idea which definitely improved my results. A number of other students have also commented on how helpful the online sample quiz was." PH143 Student (via the internet).
• "I'm a student in PH143 and thought it worthwhile to say well done on using the net so effectively as a learning tool to aid students. The sample quiz was undoubtedly the best feature of the PH143 page and it is a real pity we could not have one of these for Electromagnetism because at least then we'd have an idea of what to expect from it." PH143 Student (via the internet).
• "Internet should be used for all of physics components with a mini-quiz or quiz’s to help with study throughout semester not just before an exam". PH143 Student.
• "The quiz could be done like an exam &emdash; do it as fast as you can, check the answers after (not before)." PH143 Student.

The access statistics in this section highlight a concern about the study habits of the students. There is clear evidence that regular study has not been performed throughout the semester with students only forced to review work when assessment is performed. This would suggest that the subject needs to be redesigned to encourage students to study on a regular basis. One possible method is to use regular assignments. This has been performed in the past in this subject by using computer based assignments. Students visited the department to obtain an assignment every fortnight that was generated by computer. They were then required to return with answers within 24 hours. The major drawback of this approach was that only the answers were checked by the computer so there was no feedback on the method of solving the problems. An internet alternative may be a possibility here with feedback being provided on-line after all students have submitted their answers.

5.6 Communication

The PH143 students were encouraged to e-mail the lecturer with any problems encountered in the subject (PH107 students were also offered this alternative). The expected and actual usage levels of this service are shown in figure 5.10. There was generally little usage of the service. Only a small number of students e-mailed with subject matter-related problems and several others with technical problems.

Figure 5.10 Expected and actual usage of electronic mail communication with the lecturer

Table 5.5 Responses to statements in the final survey. Values are the average response on the scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. A value of (3) is neutral.

The responses to a number of statements, given in table 5.5, indicate that students had no strong feelings on this aspect of internet delivery. The lack of use of this service seems most likely to be a combination of the fact of the student's "last-minute" study habits combined with a shyness with communicating with the lecturer. Students in the focus group stated that it was good to have such a service available especially to help solve any technical problems associated with using the internet material. Given that there is little effort to organise and maintain the service (unless inundated by enquiries), it would seem advisable to continue this service for those small numbers of students who wish to use it.

Studies reported in the literature have used a Bulletin Board approach where students post in questions and solutions for general usage. The responses and comments of students in this class would indicate that extra motivation would be required for such a service to be successful in this class. That "motivation" could be of the form of making such submissions assessable but this would require further investigation.

5.7 Preferences for the future

As part of the final survey students were asked their preferences for future delivery of the material. The first area of interest was in the format for the material available for download. Three formats were trialed - HTML, Word and PDF. The results of the survey are shown in figure 5.11. In the engineering class there was clear preference for the PDF format with about two-thirds of respondents preferring this format. Preferences in the mainstream physics class were more mixed with a much higher proportion favouring the Word format. Further analysis of the users who preferred the internet delivery method indicated that a higher proportion favoured the PDF alternative.

Figure 5.11 Preferred format of material for downloading

Students were also surveyed to establish their preferred delivery method in future classes. The results of this survey are shown in figure 5.12. Students in PH143 were divided on the preferred delivery method. In all cases apart from the e-mail contact, preferences were divided approximately equally between internet and paper. In contrast, students in PH107 showed a strong preference for internet delivery. The reason for this difference is not immediately clear but may be attributable to the different types of students enrolled in engineering as compared to science, or may be related to the much larger class size in the engineering stream.

Figure 5.12 Preferred delivery method for the various course components.

(A response of "paper" to the e-mail contact indicated preference for face-to-face contact)

6.1 Internet Interventions

This study has focussed on small-scale internet interventions into undergraduate courses in Physics at the University of Queensland. From the feedback obtained, a number of conclusions can be drawn:

• A high proportion of students at first year university level have access to computers and the internet. This provides a viable alternative for the delivery of course related material. However consideration must be given to the delivery of material to students unable or unwilling to obtain the material from a web site. Possible alternatives are making paper copies available for borrowing from the office, selling paper copies from the office, or making available paper copies in the library or at a copy shop.
• Students are likely to make regular use of material for downloading from the internet. The format of this material needs to be established. The PDF format offers ease of creation, relatively small file sizes, ease of viewing and downloading, and security in terms of removing components from the document. PDF readers are available over the internet at no cost. A viable alternative is to provide the material in HTML format. This takes longer to prepare and has a lower quality but is accessible by all students with a web browser. The Word format has a number of drawbacks in that multiple versions of the program are currently in use. Students need to purchase a copy of this program to view files.
• More novel uses of the internet in the form of on-line notes or on-line problems were less used in these courses. A number of students expressed positive opinions about these approaches but one suspects that these were the more dedicated students who studied regularly throughout the semester. Extra motivation is required to increase the usage rate. This may be in the form of better promotion of the benefits of the material or by attaching assessable components of the course to these pages. An indication of the likely success of the latter approach was given by the increased use of the on-line practice quiz that was advertised as containing a number of questions used in the actual quiz.
• The use of the internet for communication from the student to the lecturer had little benefit. There was a disconcertingly low level of verbal communication with few students making special visits to the lecturer to resolve problems. This was despite the setting aside of special consultation times for such discussions. A bulletin board type approach (where students submit material to a common web site accessible to all) may be a viable alternative to initiating discussions. However, like the other on-line material, this is only likely to succeed with extra effort from the staff involved.
• The access rate to the web pages highlighted a major concern in the study habits of a large proportion of students. Without continuous assessment throughout the semester, students tended to leave studying until shortly before the exam. This is clearly not an ideal learning environment and needs to be addressed in the future teaching of these subjects.

The literature read during the course of the project and the measures attempted in the study lead to a number of possible options for future internet interventions.

Model 1

The results of this study would indicate that the minimal approach in all future subjects with large classes at this level is to make available all subject related material over the internet. There are clear benefits in terms of the flexibility of obtaining material for the students and for reducing the cost and time involved in preparing paper copies. HTML and PDF formats are the recommended approach. Paper copies should also be made available (probably at the student's expense).

Model 2

The "Just-In-Time Teaching" approach of Novak et al (1998) makes use of the internet to regulate students study habits. A model along the lines of this method could be implemented to ensure students study throughout the semester. Important aspects of this intervention would be guidelines for the sections of the course textbook to read before attending the lecture, some simple problems with solutions, and a number of short answer and/or problem solving questions to complete and submit either over the internet or on paper. Provided these responses are obtained prior to the lecture, an indication of the level of student understanding can be obtained allowing adjustment of the material given at the lecture.

Model 3

The third approach is a larger scale use of the internet incorporating interactive demonstrations to explain various concepts of physics. Although the development of such a site is likely to be beyond the capabilities of this department, it is likely that such sites will be developed by others and made available for purchase. The educational benefits of such approaches are yet to be firmly established but should be monitored in the future.

6.2 Action Learning

This project was planned with a number of action learning cycles. The first stage consisted of development of the web site and testing by the lecturing and tutoring staff. The second stage consisted of implementation in the mainstream physics class PH143. The third stage was implementation in the engineering stream PH107.

There was clear benefit in this approach with the results from each stage used to better implement the following sections. Stage 1 served to eliminate minor problems in the web page and to gauge the quality of the work prepared. Stage 2 saw the initial implementation of the project in a class situation. A full analysis of the results at this stage was however not possible before the third stage. This was partly due to the overlap of the two subjects (the final exam in PH143 was after the exam in PH107) and partly due to the lack of time of the teaching staff. Group discussion within the department would certainly be desirable but was restricted again due to the time constraints of all involved. Future studies of this type need to examine possible approaches to encourage group involvement and review of the teaching initiatives.

Alexander S (1997), "Teaching and Learning on the World Wide Web", AusWeb97, 5-9 July. http://elmo.scu.edu.au/Sponsored/ausweb/ausweb95/papers/education2/alexander

Bothun GD, Kevan SD (1998), "Networked Physics in Undergraduate Instruction", to be published in Computers in Physics, July/August. http://zebu.uoregon.edu.

Hake RH (1998), "Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses", American Journal of Physics 66(1), 64-74.

Jackson R, Bazley M (1997), "Science Education and the Internet: cutting through the hype", The Queensland Science Teacher, Vol. 24, No. 1, 4-7.

Landau RH, Kowallik H, Paez MJ (1998), "Web-enhanced Undergraduate Course and Book for Computational Physics", Computers in Education, Vol. 12, No. 3, May/Jun. http://www.aip.org/cip/pdf/landau.pdf.

McDermott LC (1991), "Millikan Lecture 1990: What we teach and what is learned &emdash; Closing the gap", American Journal of Physics 59(4), 301-314.

Novak GM, Patterson ET (1997), "World Wide Web Technology As a New Teaching And Learning Environment", International Journal of Modern Physics C, 8(1), 19-39. http://WebPhysics.iupui.edu.

Novak GM, Patterson ET, Gavrin A, Enger RC (1998), "Just-In-Time Teaching: Active Learner Pedagogy with WWW", Presented at IASTED International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education, May 27-30, Cancun, Mexico. http://WebPhysics.iupui.edu.

"Physics 2000". http://www.Colorado.EDU/physics/2000

Report of the Working Party on Flexible Delivery at the University of Queensland. (1997). http://uqadminserver.jdstory.uq.edu.au/AcadBoardOffice/Flexible.html.

Scanlon E (1997), "Learning Science On-Line", Studies in Science Education, 30, 57-92.

This appendix provides some extra data that was obtained in the course of the study. Figure A1.1 shows access hour for the two courses, normalised to the hour of most frequent access. There is little difference between the physics and engineering schemes. Figure A1.2 shows operating systems used on computers. Clearly most students use PC systems with the Microsoft Windows Operating System. Figure A1.3 shows the preferred web browsers with Netscape Navigator being used slightly more than Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Figure A1.1 Time of access

Figure A1.2 Operating systems on student's computers

Figure A1.3 Web browsers used by students

This appendix provides the full set of statements put to students in the final questionnaire.

Valid responses:

• 0 Not applicable
• 1 Strongly Disagree
• 2 Disagree
• 3 Neither agree or disagree
• 4 Agree
• 5 Strongly agree

The table shows average responses (excluding the not applicable option) for the two subjects.

Copies of the following questionnaires are given below:

• Initial questionnaire (common to both PH143 and PH107)
• Final questionnaire for PH143
• Final questionnaire for PH107

This survey is for a study of patterns of internet usage among undergraduate students. Through your responses, we hope to be able to better utilise the internet for teaching and learning in physics. The material will not be used in any relation to assessment.

Student No:______________________

Your most common access to a computer

• Home
• Work
• Friends
• Library/University
• Other - specify __________________
• Don’t use a computer

Do you have e-mail access?

• Yes
• No

The operating system is

• Windows 95/98/NT
• Windows 3.1
• DOS
• Macintosh
• Unix
• Don’t know
• Don’t use a computer

The web browser is

• Netscape - Version_________
• Internet Explorer - Version_________
• Other - specify___________________
• Don’t know
• Don’t use the internet

Indicate which of the following you have used the internet for in the past (tick as appropriate):

• Downloading lecture notes/overheads
• Viewing lecture notes/overheads
• Accessing tutorial problems/solutions
• Interactive demonstrations
• E-mail communication with lecturer/tutor
• Other internet based learning - specify___________________________
• Never used the internet for university courses

Indicate your expected usage of the following if made available:

	Certainly	Likely	Perhaps	Unlikely	Wouldn’t
Downloading lecture notes/overheads
Viewing lecture notes/overheads
Accessing tutorial problems/solutions
Interactive/animated demonstrations
E-mail communication with lecturer/tutor

Please indicate any other internet based teaching methods that you would like available:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Thankyou for your time,

Dr. Tim McIntyre

This survey is for a study of patterns of internet usage among undergraduate students. It is a follow-up from the previous survey aiming at gauging the usefulness and effectiveness of the internet pages generated for the Optics part of the course.

• Yes
• No

2. Some of the material available to download or view was provided in a number of formats. Indicate your preference for future material:

• HTML (ie as web page)
• Word document
• PDF document

3. Indicate your usage of the following material that was available on the internet for the Optics section:

	Didn't know it existed	Knew it existed but didn't use	Looked at the page but didn't use	Used occasionally	Used regularly
Downloading lecture overheads
Downloading tutorial solutions
On-line Geometric Optics notes
On -line problem sets
On-line sample Quiz
E-mail communication with lecturer

4. The material was provided on the internet as an alternative to paper versions (at cost). Please indicate your preference for future delivery of this type of material:

	Internet	No pref.	Paper
Lecture overheads
Tutorial solutions
Lecture Notes
Problem sets
Sample Quiz
Communication with lecturer (paper=verbal!)

5. Please comment on the following statements by circle using the scale:

(5) Strongly agree, (4) Agree, (3) Uncertain, (2) Disagree, (1) Strongly disagree, (0) Not applicable

	SA	A	U	D	SD	NA
Lecture overheads available on the internet assisted my studies	5	4	3	2	1	0
It was time consuming obtaining lecture overheads off the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
I would prefer to buy paper copies than using the internet	5	4	3	2	1	0
All physics courses should have lecture overheads on the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
It is unnecessary to have paper copies when material is on the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
I had difficulties accessing and using the material on the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
Student solutions to tutorial problems should be on the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
Interactive and/or animated on-line texts are preferable to books	5	4	3	2	1	0
The on-line textbook aided in my understanding of geometric optics	5	4	3	2	1	0
I preferred to print the on-line textbook rather than viewing it directly on a computer screen	5	4	3	2	1	0
An on-line databank of questions has no advantage over question sets in the textbook	5	4	3	2	1	0
The on-line quiz helped me prepare for the mid-semester quiz	5	4	3	2	1	0
I could see no benefit in e-mailing my questions to the lecturer	5	4	3	2	1	0
I did not feel comfortable e-mailing questions to the lecturer	5	4	3	2	1	0
Due to time constraints, my quiz preparation consisted of "cramming".	5	4	3	2	1	0
A bulletin board with student contributions would be heavily used	5	4	3	2	1	0
I support continued use of the internet for supplying material such as in this course	5	4	3	2	1	0
I intend to use the web material in preparation for the exam	5	4	3	2	1	0

6. What was the best feature of using the internet?

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

7. What was the worst feature of using the internet?

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

8. Please provide any additional comments, criticisms and/or suggestions. If you did not use the internet material then please state why.

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Thankyou for your time,

Dr. Tim McIntyre

This survey is for a study of patterns of internet usage among undergraduate students. It is a follow-up from the previous survey aiming at gauging the usefulness and effectiveness of the internet pages generated for the Optics part of the course.

1. Did you have access to the internet?

• Yes
• No

2. Some of the material available to download or view such as lecture overheads was provided in a number of formats. Indicate your preference for future material:

• HTML (ie as web page)
• Word document
• PDF (Adobe) document

3. Indicate your usage of the following material that was available on the internet for the Optics section:

	Didn't know it existed	Knew it existed but didn't use	Looked at the page but didn't use	Used occasionally	Used regularly
Downloading lecture overheads
Downloading tutorial solutions
On-line Geometric Optics notes
On -line problem sets
1997 Exam and solutions

4. The material was provided on the internet as an alternative to paper versions (at cost). Please indicate your preference for future delivery of this type of material:

	Internet	No pref.	Paper
Lecture overheads
Tutorial solutions
On-line text
Problem sets
Previous exams and solutions

5. Please comment on the following statements by circle using the scale:

	SA	A	U	D	SD	NA
Lecture overheads available on the internet assisted my studies	5	4	3	2	1	0
It was time consuming obtaining lecture overheads off the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
I would prefer to buy paper copies than using the internet	5	4	3	2	1	0
All physics courses should have lecture overheads on the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
It is unnecessary to have paper copies when material is on the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
I had difficulties accessing and using the material on the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
Student solutions to tutorial problems should be on the net	5	4	3	2	1	0
Interactive and/or animated on-line texts are preferable to books	5	4	3	2	1	0
The on-line textbook aided in my understanding of geometric optics	5	4	3	2	1	0
An on-line databank of questions has no advantage over question sets in the textbook	5	4	3	2	1	0
My computer software and/or hardware were not sufficiently up-to-date to use the material on the internet	5	4	3	2	1	0
A bulletin board with student contributions would be heavily used	5	4	3	2	1	0
I like to download and print all material rather than viewing it on the screen	5	4	3	2	1	0
The download time of some material was excessive	5	4	3	2	1	0
I support continued use of the internet for supplying material such as in this course	5	4	3	2	1	0
I intend to use the web material in preparation for the exam	5	4	3	2	1	0

6. What was the best feature of using the internet?

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

7. What was the worst feature of using the internet?

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

8. Please provide any additional comments, criticisms and/or suggestions. If you did not use the internet material then please state why.

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Thankyou for your time,

Dr. Tim McIntyre