The Web has become a popular resource for people searching for information for almost any topic. After all, it has become the world's premier database for virtually every subject matter known to humankind. It has also become a popular tool for teaching at almost every educational level. The purpose of this article to describe some of the ways that the Web is now being used effectively as a teaching tool in college and university classes. You may wish to consider using the web in one or more of the following ways, if you aren't already, to enhance your teaching. An outstanding source of further information on how to incorporate the web into your courses is Jeanne Slattery's interview of Mark Mitchell in a recent issue of Teaching of Psychology (Developing a Web-assisted Class: An interview with Mark Mitchell, V. 25, No. 2., 1998, pp. 152-155).

E-mail

E-mail is perhaps the simplest, quickest, and most convenient way that students may contact their teachers. It adds a personal dimension to the class that other forms of communication cannot. Students can write their professors whenever they need or wish to, and faculty can reply to student queries and comments similarly. It is particularly useful when students must leave town suddenly to deal with a family emergency or when students have specific questions regarding a key issue or logistical concern about the course.

Electronic Syllabus

Placing your course syllabus on the web not only saves paper (and trees), especially if you have a large class, but it means that your students will never be able to lose their course outlines! It saves distribution time at the beginning of each academic term and is only a few key strokes away from your students any time day or night. On the first day of class, bring to class a copy of the syllabus on an overhead and walk students through the course, letting them know that their copy of syllabus can be printed off the course web site.

Course Notes

Your class web page is an excellent place to post your course notes either before or after the corresponding lecture or discussion. Don't worry about students not coming to class if you post your notes before you give the corresponding lecture or discussion, Students will still come to class to hear what you have to say because (1) you are probably more interesting that a few scribbles on a computer screen (let's hope so!), (2) the notes are not verbatim copies of your lecture or discussion, so they will be at least partially incomplete, and (3) class is still the best place to ask questions, make comments, and hear what other students have to say about the topic. The real advantage of posting your notes on the web is two-fold. First, if you know that students have access to your notes, you can devote class time to elaborate on those notes and make extensions beyond them. Second, you can build in links to web sites or on-line exercises that might be relevant to different topics throughout the notes.

Links to Useful Web sites

You can provide students the opportunity to go beyond the material presented in class and in the text by suggesting relevant web sites they may visit that are directly relevant to topics being discussed in class. You can provide these links within your notes if they are posted on the web site, as suggested above, or you can have a separate section of your web site devoted to "hot links."

Course Assignments and Course Updates

You can post course assignments, such as library projects, web projects, essays, take-home tests and so on on the web and ask students to complete these assignments electronically (which, in the case of students turning in assignments late, removes all doubt as to when the assignment was completed!). You can also use the web to make last minute announcements, announce extra credit opportunities, and other information relevant to what's happening in your classes, on campus, or in the community.

Practice Quizzes and Exams

Many professors allow students to look through old quizzes and examinations. If you do, post them on the class web site and allow your students to take them on line. Be sure to post a key to these exercises, especially if they are objective exercises. Students can then correct their own exercises and remediate themselves regarding items that they miss.

Class Discussions

Finally, you might consider holding a weekly on-line discussion with your students on topics relevant to whatever subject matter you might be covering at a given time. You are likely to find that students will participate a bit more in on-line discussions than in in-class discussions because of the increased physical and psychological distances between them and you and between them and each other provided by electronic technology.

If used wisely and efficiently, an electronically-assisted class can be beneficial to both you and your students. The key is to discover what works best with your teaching style and the varied learning styles of your students. Experiment with it; have fun.