Papers in PDF format

Introduction
“Silicon Soils”: QT Surfs the ’Net
Max A.Turner
Department of Soil Science, Massey University
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Email: M.Turner@massey.ac.nz
James H. Cairns
Ag/Hort Multimedia Studio, Massey University
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Increasing costs of education are a major current talking point, and concern, of students and staff at Massey University
in New Zealand. Added to this is the need to commercialize existing courses to meet demands for more flexibility in
time and place of study by existing and future students. To cater for the needs of those seeking off-campus tuition a
distance (extramural) teaching program exists within Massey University, to deliver print-based course materials. Last
year, nearly 300 tonnes of paper was consumed in reaching these students by mail.
Technological developments now exist to streamline this process and combine the advantages of the traditional face-toface
education, enjoyed by resident students, with the potential convenience and efficiency of off-Campus study. Massey
University is in the early stages of experimenting with teaching via the World Wide Web /Internet and this paper
outlines the approach adopted with an initial Soil Science course from within the Agricultural and Horticultural
Sciences Faculty; the first to be offered this way in New Zealand. A major objective of this course was to employ a
relatively low-cost approach to preparation and delivery, yet retain a professional appearance standard for the students
and staff involved.
Design
The course aims to take advantage of the unique features available with WWW browsers and the Internet. The approach
taken was to create a relatively simple, inexpensive, interface for the course, with a minimum of graphics and where
possible, making use of low-cost freeware or shareware packages. A maximum depth of three screens from the main
directory was imposed for each link in order to prevent students becoming lost in “cyberspace”.
Construction of Course
The majority of the server functions are script-based (Perl-scripted cgi’s). Each separate function has its own script and
cohesion is achieved by interprocess communication. A Perl script is also used as a “chat” facility. Chat communication
is effected using customizable screen refreshes optimized at around 4-10 seconds. Lecture content was prepared as
Microsoft Word documents and converted to .pdf files (using the Adobe Acrobat Exchange plug-in). These course
materials are then displayed to the reader using the freeware Acrobat Reader viewer, for which the Netscape browser
supplied has been already configured. Graphics were created using Corel Draw 5, Paint Shop Pro, and Gif Construction
Set. Reading materials were scanned using a Scanmaker E6 flat-bed scanner and ultimately converted into .pdf files. All
reading materials, help files, and installation routines are provided to students on a CD-ROM, mastered using a
Plasmon RF4100 CD-ROM recorder.