http://www.sajim.co.za/vol1.nr2.01_09_99/peer14.asp?print=1


   
  Peer Reviewed Article Vol.1 No.(2/3) September 1999

Creating content for the WWW 
F.H.B. Serfontein 
Departement of Economics, University of South Africa 
Serfofhb@alpha.unisa.ac.za 

Contents 
Introduction 
What means 
Means available 
Barriers to Web-based teaching 
What are the benefits, if any? 
Using JavaScript 
Brigham Young project 
Conclusion 
Bibliography 

1. Introduction 
Although the WWW (World-Wide Web) has the potential to enrich and enhance the learning 
experience for residential and correspondence students, this potential has not been fully 
exploited. While many reasons exist for this underutilisation, an important factor is that 
lecturers are currently unable for various reasons to create content for the WWW. 

In the first part of the paper attention is paid to what the process of creating content (teaching 
material) for a WWW course, aimed at a large number of correspondence students, entails 
and what the requirements are that need to be met in order to empower lecturers to create this 
content. Current barriers to the successful creation of content for such a course are also 
identified. 

In the second part of the paper, I demonstrate how JavaScript, a tool available on the WWW, 
can be used to create moderately interactive content for both ‘on-line’ and ‘off-line’ students. 
I will also show and comment on the project jointly run by the Department of Economics of 
Unisa and the University of Brigham Young (Utah, USA) in using the WWW to teach a 
large number of first-year students. 

2. What means? 

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The World-Wide Web (WWW) provides lecturers with additional and alternative means to 
teach and evaluate students. The content that needs to be created and the way in which it is 
done will depend on the means that are going to be used. And this will largely depend on 
whether the WWW is viewed as complementary to the existing course or as an alternative 
way of teaching and evaluating students. 

If the WWW is viewed as complementary to an existing course, the lecturer is facing the 
challenge of finding available, appropriate means to enhance his or her course. The means 
provided by the WWW are then viewed as additional instruments that need to be integrated 
into the existing course. The current content of a course and the existing mode of teaching 
will have a decisive influence on what means are chosen. Due to differences in content, the 
means chosen by an Economics History lecturer, for example, will differ from those 
employed by an Economics 1 lecturer. 

To choose the most appropriate means lecturers must not only be subject specialists and 
experts in the current mode of teaching, but must also be familiar with the uses and abuses of 
the different instruments provided by the WWW. 

The feasibility of using these instruments, however, will depend on such factors as student 
numbers, access to the WWW, institutional support, the technical expertise of lecturers, time 
considerations and cost implications. The instruments that will eventually be used, might not 
necessarily be the best there are. 

Once a lecturer knows what means are going to be used the process of content creation can 
start in earnest. 

It must be kept in mind that means influence content. Current content is to a large extent a 
function of past practices and wisdom and it is to be expected that as the means change so 
will the content. For example content previously considered to be impossible to teach or 
evaluate through a correspondence course might turn out to be feasible through some of the 
means provided by the WWW. 

In developing a Web-based course for Economics 1 distance-education students, it was 
decided to use as many instruments as possible, as well as the present course as a point of 
departure. It is through this process that we hope to find answers concerning the suitability 
and feasibility of the different means, and to establish what is required of lecturers in terms 
of technical expertise and content creation to be successful. 

3. Means available 
The means provided by the WWW for which content must be created can be broadly 
summarised by looking at the following components of online teaching. To use the 
components in the grey area (light blue on the screen), access to the WWW is required while 
an ordinary computer will be sufficient for the rest of the components. 

Figure 1 

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Text material: One of the first things that is done when a correspondence course is 
converted to a Web-based course is the conversion of existing text material into a compatible 
format (preferably HTML) for the WWW. This includes things like information about 
administrative aspects and study material such as an electronic text book, study guides, 
articles and notes. This is also referred to as text dumping and does not necessarily imply 
online or Web-based teaching. However, there are certain benefits that make it a worthwhile 
project. 

The WWW does provide a fast, cost-effective and reliable way of delivering text material, 
and for many distance-teaching students receiving study material on time would be a major 
improvement over the current delivery system. The same material developed for the WWW 
can also be delivered via CD-ROM or disks, thereby increasing the delivery options. 

If the lecturer is part of the process of converting his or her study material, and is expected to 
maintain and improve on it, the next easy step to take is to start using features such as 
hyperlinks, other text enhancing features and interactivity. Text created for the Web can also 
be changed and updated very easily, thereby providing more flexibility than is the current 
case for correspondence courses. 

Electronic lectures: Electronic lectures are characterised by high levels of interactivity and 
the use of various multimedia features to various degrees in order to teach and enrich the 
study material for the student. 

The creation of this material is very time consuming and requires specialised skills. Various 
options exist for the creation of these electronic lectures, and the challenge is to get hold of a 
set of tools that enable a lecturer to create these interactive lectures by means of his/her 
desktop computer. 

The creation of a database consisting of interactive teaching material and software that can 
be customised by the lecturers will help to speed up this process. The creation of such a 
database is a major undertaking which is beyond the reach of many institutions, and 
consideration should be given to the creation of a shared database between institutions in 
subjects where there is a high degree of similarity in content. 

Evaluation: The WWW provides a variety of ways in which students can be evaluated, but 
careful planning will be the key to success. The evaluation process can be based on self-
evaluation by the student and/or graded evaluation both by computer and by the lecturer. It 
can take the form of true-or-false questions; multiple-choice questions; case studies; written 
assignments (both paragraph or essay-type questions); and contributions to discussion 



groups. 

The course content and the means used to teach the course will to a great extent determine 
how students are evaluated. The evaluation of students can take place at a particular time and 
place determined by the department and the University, or it can be at the discretion of the 
students, thereby providing more flexibility. 

The evaluation currently used in the Web-based course for Economics 1 is on par with that 
used in the correspondence course. When evaluating students taking the correspondence 
course certain constraints relating to time, space and institutional support had to be taken into 
account, and they largely determine how students are evaluated. The operative principle is 
self-evaluation by means of true-or-false questions, multiple-choice questions and short 
questions. Admission to the examination is automatic, and examination takes place at a 
particular time and place. 

By using the WWW many of these constraints disappear – in the future it will be possible to 
have a system of graded evaluation by the lecturer and/or server and for examinations to take 
place at times better suited for both the students and the lecturers. This, however, requires the 
development of Web-based courses that are independent of the existing correspondence 
course. 

E-mail and discussion groups: This is one of the more popular and successful features of 
online teaching, and many online courses consist of only these two features. It is easy to set 
up, and little specialised knowledge is required. It seems to work well if student numbers are 
small, contributions to the discussion group are part of the evaluation, and the lecturer is an 
active participant. For distance education students it adds the benefit that it decreases the 
feeling of isolation by providing student-to-student and student-to-lecturer communication. 

For a distance teaching lecturer with thousands of students this can be a potential catastrophe 
and there is a high level of resistance among these lecturers. To overcome some of the 
problems, e-mail inquiries can be divided into the following three categories: 

administrative inquiries which deal with things such as examination admissions, dates 
and venues, registration procedures, fees and delivery of study material;  
content-related inquiries which deal with the academic content of the course; and  
technical inquiries dealing with issues such as the software and hardware.  

Before a student sends an e-mail inquiry, he or she selects the appropriate category, reads 
through the frequently asked questions page and then, if still necessary, sends the message. 
For each category a unique e-mail address is created where the message is received, opened 
and answered by the department concerned (administrative, academic or technical support). 
There is no need to give the lecturer’s e-mail address, and a buffer can be created to shield 
the lecturer from being flooded with e-mail inquiries. 

To make learning possible through discussion groups when faced with a large number of 
students the following is envisaged. Two kinds of discussion groups, namely, informal and 
formal groups, are created. The informal discussion group is unmoderated and the students 
may choose the topics of discussion. The formal discussion group concentrates on the 
content of the course and the lecturer is an active participant. The group is only active for a 
specified time and deals with a specific topic that is regarded as suitable for this medium. 
Participation is voluntary but the number of participants is limited while the rest have 
'observer status'. Once the discussion group adjourns, the information is archived and made 
available to students to browse through. 



Related Web sites: The content of correspondence courses depends to a large extent on the 
prescribed textbook. The use of additional and recommended study material is limited due to 
problems of making this material available to thousands of students who are geographically 
dispersed. Not only is this limitation lifted, provided that copyright is respected by the use of 
related Web sites, but it is also possible, not necessarily preferable, to develop a course of 
which large parts are based on material from related Web sites. With the necessary 
permission and technical skills these related Web sites can be customised, changed and 
integrated in a course. This will significantly decrease the time spent on developing teaching 
material and may even give international credibility to a course. 

Active learning experiences that directly involve the students can be created with up-to-date 
information and news about specific events available on the WWW. Finding and 
contextualising these materials are time-consuming operations and much scope for 
collaboration between lecturers at various institutions exists to make this a reality. 

Download: By using the download function, relevant and updated information can be made 
available to students on a continuous basis while lecturers have the opportunity of constantly 
improving and developing their courses. It would also be possible for former students to stay 
in touch with new developments in the subject field, and a contribution will be made to life-
long learning. 

4. Barriers to Web-based teaching 
Lecturers at distance teaching institutions have acquired over many years through trial and 
error a set of skills that is appropriate for the development and delivery of correspondence-
based courses. They do it with a sense of competence and confidence and they know which 
pitfalls to avoid. While many similarities exist between the creation of paper-based and Web-
based courses the latter presents a new teaching medium with its own peculiar and unique 
challenges, challenges that can only be met with a new set of skills, new ways of thinking 
and a certain amount of risk taking. 

No blueprint or set of instructions exists that can guarantee success. The absence of tried and 
tested methods in a faculty or department increases the probability of failure. And failure, 
given the present conditions of financial constraints, increased competiton, declining student 
numbers, the threat of retrenchments, affirmative action, internal strife, etc., is one thing that 
lecturers and their distance teaching institutions try to avoid at all cost. 

This is the dilemma facing lecturers and traditional distance teaching institutions: Do you 
stick with what you are good at and wait for others to solve the problems of online teaching 
and then enter the market or do you commit yourself and your resources to something whose 
probability of success is very uncertain? The higher this level of uncertainty, the less likely 
lecturers and institutions will be to commit themselves to obtaining the skills and expertise 
necessary for Web-based teaching. While a variety of factors contribute to this uncertainty, 
in my opinion the following factors - from a lecturer’s perspective - are most important. 

5. What are the benefits, if any? 
While everyone agrees that Web-based teaching cannot be ignored, mainly because our 
competitors are using it, a frequently asked question is: What are the benefits of Web-based 

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teaching for students and lecturers? This is not an easy question to answer, given that many 
of the benefits as mentioned earlier are already incorporated in correspondence courses. 
Immediate feedback can be provided by way of self-assesment assignments, and the lecturer 
is just a phone call away. Through Web technology the learning experience of students can 
be enhanced and different teaching strategies can be followed, but ultimately the question 
that needs to be answered is whether it will increase the pass rate. Only, time and experience 
will tell. 

Lecturers will have to learn new skills and adapt to changing teaching practices while the 
underlying fear of failure, of being replaced by a computer, and of an increase in workload 
are a major drawbacks. Special motivational benefits will have to be implemented in an 
effort to change lecturers’ attitudes concerning these new teaching skills and opportunities. 

Promotion and mobility: Promotion at universities, as well as mobility between 
universities, depends mainly on two things: qualifications and research record (publish or 
perish). A lecturer interested in moving through the ranks will be well advised to concentrate 
on these two areas which will undoubtedly take up most of his or her time and effort. These 
are important requirements and should remain part of the culture of our academic 
institutions, but incentives must be created to convince lecturers to pursue with the same 
dedication and vigour the challenges of online teaching. Providing incentives is also a way of 
indicating the relative importance that is attached to online teaching. 

Access and cost considerations: A frequently used and strong argument against the use of 
Web-based teaching at traditional distance teaching institutions is that the majority of 
registered and potential students do not have access to the Internet. It is therefore, according 
to said argument, a waste of time to develop a product that will never be available to the 
majority of students, and is likely to remain available to only a small privileged minority. It 
would be helpful and a great motivational force if some national attempt can be made to 
ensure low cost access to the WWW for South Africans. 

Institutional support: The golden rule is not to attempt Web-based teaching without 
institutional support. Ample evidence exists on the WWW of failed attempts by lecturers 
trying to strike out on their own. 

Trying to implement online teaching while the institution is geared for a different mode of 
delivery means you have to rely on the goodwill of people to help and accommodate you. 
Overcoming managerial and administrative barriers can be very distractive, time consuming 
and demotivational. 

Institutional support implies more than just technical assistance and training and should also 
include appropriate management policies and practices. 

Workload: To use the WWW successfully and to create the required content are going to 
demand more time and effort from lecturers: time to spend on acquiring an understanding of 
the new medium, and effort to learn new skills and creating content. Given the decline in 
staff numbers and that the prevailing course will not be replaced by a Web-based course, the 
workload of lecturers will increase significantly. Unless ways and means can be found to 
provide time for Web-based teaching, it will be characterised by sporadic, interrupted 
attempts at using the medium without the satisfaction of a job well done. 

6. Using JavaScript 

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There are many powerful software packages available on the market for the creation of 
interactive multimedia lectures. These products are usually expensive and extensive, and 
their use requires specialised skills. JavaScript is not as powerful as some of these products 
but in my view offers some definite advantages for lecturers in creating content for the 
WWW and for computer-assisted teaching. 

Some of the benefits of JavaScript are: 

It is free of charge and numerous examples of how it can be used are available on the 
WWW. It is moderately easy to customise these examples once some basic principles 
are mastered and electronic lectures with different degrees of feedback, interactivity 
and multimedia features can be created by the lecturer.  
It requires relatively small processor power and bandwidth  
It is not too difficult to master and very little knowledge of programming is required.  
It can be delivered via the WWW, CD-ROM and disks and students do not have to be 
connected to the WWW to benefit from it.  
Content once created can easily be changed by the lecturer. This provides the lecturer 
with a powerful tool to make corrections, update information and add new features.  

The example of the usage of JavaScript that I will demonstrate was created with some basic 
JavaScript tools that I picked up from the WWW. Unlike the Brigham Young site, which I 
will demonstrate after this, I did not make use of any professional assistance which I believe 
will improve on this attempt. The idea was to create something with the means available to 
me. 

7. Brigham Young project 
After viewing our course materials and taking our student numbers into account, the 
University of Brigham Young situated in Provo, Utah has offered to use the Economics 1 
course for a pilot project to determine the feasibility of providing teaching via the WWW to 
a large number of students. 

The project started in April this year. Brigham Young provided the technical expertise and 
we the content, which includes some input regarding the design and features of the Web site. 
It was decided to use as many features as possible and all the components of online teaching 
listed in Ffiigure 1 are present on the Web site. Whether we will be able to use all these 
means successfully must still be determined. 

The first phase of the project consisted in converting the existing study material to a suitable 
format and structure. The second phase was to provide some form of evaluation and 
feedback to the student. This was achieved through true-or-false questions, multiple-choice 
and short questions with immediate feedback. The third phase involves the use of discussion 
groups and e-mail facilities. The fourth and most difficult phase, which must still be 
implemented, is to provide interactive electronic lectures for the students. 

8. Conclusion 
National, institutional and individual effort will be required if the full potential provided by 
the WWW to teach a large number of students is to be tapped. 

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At national level affordable accessibility to the WWW for South African students need to be 
provided. On an institutional level an environment conducive to the creation of teaching 
material and delivery thereof must be put in place by providing administrative and technical 
support and motivational incentives for lecturers. Lecturers will have to put in some effort as 
well by taking the time to understand how means available from the WWW can be used and 
how content for these means can be created. To this end they will have to learn new skills 
and an innovative way of thinking about their role as teachers. 

9. Bibliography 
McCain, R.S. 1999. Developing an on-line textbook: Question-led teaching and the World 
Wide Web. Journal of Economic Education, 30 (Summer): 248-260. 
McLendon, E. and Cronk, P. Rethinking academic management practices: A case of meeting 
new challenges in on-line delivery. Available online at. 
Sherry, L. 1996. Issues is distance learning. International Journal of Educational 
Telecommunications, 1 (4): 337-365. 
Simkins, P.S. 1999. Promoting active-student learning using the World Wide Web in 
Economics courses. Journal of Economic Education, 30 (Summer): 278-287. 

  

  

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