Table of Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Study Guide Design

Study Guide Features

Student Response

Conclusions

Future Work

References

Acknowledgements

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CHEMCONF '98

Dynamic and Interactive Web Site

 In order to achieve the goal of self-paced learning, the study guide is presented to the students in its entirety. To promote user-initiated learning, a flexible, dynamic and interactive Web site is needed.

The Web Site Structure

A structure that poses the fewest restrictions on the pattern of information retrieval is a Web-like organizational structure. This organizational structure organizes the study guide's five main components,
  1. Course Content
  2. Problem Session
  3. Hypertext Glossary
  4. Student Center
  5. Assignment Pages

and a set of "Chemist's Tools",

  1. Periodic Table
  2. Activity Series
  3. Redox Rules
  4. Solubility Rules
such that retrieval of the components and tools can be accessed anywhere from within the site.

A Dynamic and Interactive Site

An interactive Web site is generated with the use of a combination of techniques: This organizes the five components of the study guide and the Chemist's Tools into a Web site that is practical, interactive and easy to use. Navigational buttons are built in to the study guide for students to retrieve information in the sequence that is user initiated.

A dynamic Web site is a site that has the ability to publish timely and useful information "on the fly". In other words, the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) documents in the site are no long static documents. Rather, the pages on the site are dynamically generated on the web to precisely meet the specific needs of the users. The technique to achieve dynamically generated HTML pages is

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Author: Rosamaria Fong
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Chemistry Department
Burnaby, BC V5G 3H2
rfong@bcit.bc.ca