A case evaluation in internet assisted laboratory teaching

Crawford, G

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary findings from an evaluation conducted on the implementation of Internet assisted teaching of fluid mechanical engineering laboratory sessions on a university degree programme. This paper compares the particular merits of laboratory sessions in which students receive instruction from Internet based presentations compared with those who received instruction from ‘traditional’ tutor led sessions, through a process of questionnaire based surveys and direct observations. The paper concludes that Internet assisted sessions allow students to easily repeat experimental instructions and provide late or absent students the opportunity to easily catch up with missed work. However, students still appear more likely to ask staff for assistance than rely on the Internet resources for information, and the Internet based programme, as applied here, has encountered some practical difficulties that have greatly reduced its effectiveness as a teaching aid.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2001
• Deposit Date: Dec 23, 2009
• Journal: Academic Exchange Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 1096-1453
• Publisher: Rapid Intellect
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 4
• Publisher URL: http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/mo2020z01.htm