Teaching and Learning Using Internet On-Line Courses

Charles E. Ophardt, Professor of Chemistry,
Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois 60126, USA
email: charleso@elmhurst.edu

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Implemenatation of Electronic Web Discussion Boards:

An Internet web discussion board enables students/faculty to post messages/discussions directly onto the internet with no need for email. There are many commercial, shareware, and free software programs that are used as discussion boards. These discussion boards allow a versatile set up of topics, monitoring, use various formats, equations, graphics, and reference URL's. Good discussion board software facilitates "threaded" discussions where all similar messages on the same topic are grouped. All messages are visible or at least available for easy access under a particular topic. Follow up responses by faculty and students are easily facilitated. Unlike email, a discussion board, preserves and maintains all of the messages in a public forum. The instructor need answer a question only once and post it on the discussion board for all students to benefit. Some discussion boards provide for private groups within a class to have a space for private discussion and to work on collaborative projects.


Comprehensive Links to all available Conferencing/Web Discussion Software.

Web Discussion Boards Available at Elmhurst College
Stand alone discussion board - easiest to learn and use - Recommended for first users. WebBoard - a commercial program Overview of WebBoard Participation in WebBoard Conference Managing a WebBoard as a Course Moderator WebBoard - example at Elmhurst College	Stand alone discussion board - more versatile for multiple discussions and linking to other course material. Discus, a freeware program initially developed at Hope College, Michigan Discus Introduction Discus at Elmhurst College - examples - Look particularly at the Chemistry Department	Discussion board is part of a larger course management software. WebCT Discussion Board WebCT Overview

Ideas for Electronic Discussion Assignments:	Examples:
Choose an issue or question that is designed to be controversial or open for debate. Assign students to the YES and NO side of the debate.	Should the U.S. Senate ratify the Global Warming Agreement?  Should human cloning experiments be carried out? Should your senator support stricter gun control laws?
Present and Work on a Case Study	Assign various students to research and present various parts of the case study. A Civil Action
Role Play an issue by assigning students various roles which will invite them to examine a variety of view points and sides of an issue.	Should the U.S. build more nuclear power plants?
Assign some content areas that lend to short factual reports. Not looking for term papers, but maybe 3-6 paragraphs.	Report on: Sources, properties, and uses of an element. Alternate Energy Sources -what, how, environmental impacts.
Short reviews of books, art, music, films, movies.	Children's Literature - English 334
Group work and contributions to a complicated homework assignment.	Multi-part problems in sciences, business
Post a controversial "paper" and ask for comments	Professor or students could post the paper Ques. 4ab: Controversy on Ozone Depletion Ques 5: Respond to An Editorial
Invite comments or questions about current related topics. May be very current and relate to a recent "news" or media event.	Professor or students may ask or answer questions