Papers in PDF format

Some lectures have pre-lecture assignments on the Web to help students build an experiential base for the
lecture material. Access to pre-lecture activities is closed at the time lecture begins as an incentive for students
to prepare before class. Post-lecture Web activities lead the student to apply concepts from lecture to new
situations or connect to future lecture topics. Students are required to summarize papers from the peerreviewed
literature and to write essays on how global change relates to their particular disciplines. These
reports, by being generally available over the Internet, become part of the database for the course for access by
future students. Having students summarize current research articles is a very efficient way for an instructor to
keep current in a rapidly changing field that spans many disciplines.
Ethical issues relating to global change are posed by the instructor, and students are asked to respond to the
stated issue or to responses by other students. This has been one of the popular elements of the course and the
major source of electronic interaction among students. We also established an in-class audio/video remote
dialog over the Internet with an internationally known author who discussed his recent book (excerpts of which
had been read by students in advance) with students for about half an hour.
4. Student Reactions
Student response to the course, as determined from extensive surveys, was generally favorable, especially to the
electronic dialog on ethical issues and audio/video dialog with an international expert. Several impediments
were cited, most notably the data transfer time over the Internet. Students also disliked reading more than
about 1-2 pages of text off the computer screen, and preparing for exams was more difficult. On the other
hand, 84% of students likely would connect to the homepage at least occasionally after graduation from the
University. This offers continuing education opportunities such as retaining connectivity with graduates who
become K-12 teachers.
5. Advantages and Disadvantages of Web-Based Courses
There are both technical and pedagogical advantages to having a Web platform for a course. Technical
advantages include: global accessibility, 24-hour availability, low cost, high scalability, asynchronous delivery,
and ease of updating materials. Pedagogical advantages include the following: students can learn at their own
pace, students can engage in remedial opportunities (relaxes course prerequisites), students have access to
enriching opportunities, laboratory/group discussion can be included in any course, students are offered
practice in rapid retrieval/synthesis of information, public writing and international perspectives are promoted,
cooperative learning is easily incorporated, interactive exercises can be implemented with current data,
student-to-student dialog on course and ethical issues is encouraged, and electronic publishing is available.
Potential disadvantages of this technology include the following: students don't like to read large volumes of
text off computer screens, technical interruptions, time delays in bringing up images, and the possibility of
sabotage or disruptive writing. These have not been problems for our course to this point.
6. References
Takle, E. S., and Taber, M. R. (1996). Use of the Internet as a platform for a university course on global
change. Preprints, Fifth Symposium on Education, Atlanta. American Meteorological Society, J33-J34.
Acknowledgments
Doug Fils of the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics has provided invaluable assistance in
establishing the advanced functions of the homepage, particularly the electronic dialog. Funds for expansion of this course
were supplied by the Office of the Provost, Iowa State University.