-3. What is virtual interaction with other people?

- Students can interact with the course instructor in a variety of ways over the Internet—allowing them to do such things as ask questions and get answers.

- Students can also interact with other students taking the course at the same time—allowing them to pose and answer questions and even do group projects.

Tell Me More

In a traditional classroom, students don't just listen to the instructor. They can ask the instructor questions and get answers. They can also talk to other students and work with other students on group projects.

You can do the same sort of people-to-people interaction over the Internet as part of an educational experience.

There are a variety of ways that an instructor and student can interact:

- They can send instant messages or e-mails back and forth.

- They can leave messages at a Web page (bulletin board). This technology is sometimes called threaded discussion groups or FAQ sites.

- They can talk—using the telephone or using the Internet to carry the voices.

- They can use "whiteboard" technology where the instructor draws on a Web page that acts as a whiteboard and then lets selected students "use the pen" so the students can write on the board as well.

- They can use technology that lets the instructor "look over the student's shoulder" while the student is doing a lab exercise.

The same sorts of approaches can be used to let students interact with each other:

- They can send instant messages or e-mails back and forth.

- They can leave messages at a Web page (bulletin board).

- They can talk—using the telephone or using the Internet to carry the voices.

The thing to keep in mind with student-student interaction is that it has the same effect as students talking with other students in a traditional live classroom. It can be very beneficial if controlled and focused. Or it can be a lot of noise when everyone talks in an unproductive manner.

At this point, I encourage you to turn to Chapter 2 and think about where interaction between student and instructors, and among the students themselves, would be appropriate for each case study. Why?

-4. What are Web books?

- You can provide electronic Web books over the Internet that serve the same purpose a textbook serves in a more traditional classroom course.

Tell Me More

The traditional classroom experience includes a textbook, or at least a binder of text, that the student is expected to read and understand. The textbook is useful for the education experience because reading is a fairly fast way to transmit information in bulk and because the student can read it at his convenience. In the same way, you can provide Web books as part of an e-learning experience.

A Web book might be:

- A series of Web pages that the student is expected to read.

- An e-mail attachment that the student is expected to read.

Regardless of the electronic format, a Web book is similar to a physical book in that the student is expected to start at page 1 and read page 2, page 3, etc. In fact, these Web books are sometimes called "page turners."

Let's say that you're taking an Introduction to Probability class. The first day's assignment is to listen to the first instructor lecture, then read chapters 1 and 2 in the Web book, then do the problems, which will be checked and corrected by the instructor before the next day's class. The Web book acts like the textbook in a traditional classroom course.

At this point, I encourage you to turn to Chapter 2 and think about where Web books would be appropriate for each case study. Why?