Paper presented to
Society for Teaching and Learning
in Higher Education, 1998 Conference
Mount Allison University,
Sackville, New Brunswick
June 24-27, 1998

Introduction

The traditional term paper evolved as an authentic assessment of the apprentice scholar’s ability to conduct and publish research. Few university students today, however, intend to pursue a life of scholarship. We are, therefore, often hard pressed to demonstrate the immediate relevance of the term paper to our students’ chosen career. Although the term paper remains a useful method of examining both the students' grasp of course content and of their writing competency, many students view papers as highly artificial assignments with little real purpose other than to generate a grade.

With the emergence of new communication technologies such as the World Wide Web, however, we now have the opportunity to replace the traditional term paper with a more authentic assessment. For example, instead of writing a paper which is seen only by the instructor, students now have the opportunity of using the World Wide Web to actually publish their efforts. Writing for a real audience may increase students' sense of purpose and ownership: The existence of a real audience transforms term paper research from mere "hoop-jumping" into an authentic activity connected to life outside the classroom. Not only is the content made more authentic, but also the process: Whereas many students in senior courses have already mastered the skills required by a traditional term paper, a web page assignment allows for the acquisition of completely new skills.

What follows is a brief discussion of the potential advantages and disadvantages of adopting a web page composition assignment (in courses other than those explicitly teaching computer skills), and some practical considerations for setting up the assignment. A list of suggested scoring criteria is also provided.

web page assignments are more "real" to students.

In contrast with the traditional term paper which is generally written for an audience of one (the instructor), web pages are intended to be read and used by a real audience. The opportunity to speak to a real audience is likely to increase student motivation and commitment. Furthermore, having a specific target audience in mind when researching a topic or composing a presentation is likely to help focus student work.

web page assignments may provide students with a greater sense of ownership

Since students are writing for a real audience, they are necessarily taking a public stand. Consequently, they are more likely to put forward their best efforts, to take pride in their work, and to write from the heart, rather than merely restating what they believe the instructor wants to hear. (Ownership is further enhanced when students are given a broad choice of topics or can suggest their own.)

web page assignments increase public accountability for both students and instructors.

For example, students often complain when instructors deduct marks for poor spelling and grammar, the failure to follow correct (e.g., APA) format, and so on, arguing that they should be graded only on course content. This stance may appear reasonable when the audience-less term paper is simply a mere learning tool; but since the web page is intended as a finished, publishable product, students are much more likely to see the importance of attending to such matters.

Similarly, instructors are less likely to assign trivial, meaningless, or uninteresting topics if the results are to be publicly displayed.

Web page assignments may discourage plagiarism.

Although many observers are concerned that the WWW increases the opportunity for "cut and paste" research, web page assignments may actually discourage the appropriation of others' work, because the chances of discovery are greatly increased. Whereas with a term paper students need only fool the instructor, a web page assignment may be accessed by anyone interested in the topic. As their assignment is reviewed by classmates, peers on other campuses, and interested members of the public (indeed, by anyone entering the topic in any search engine), the odds of someone spotting the offending passage and e-mailing the instructor suddenly become too high to risk. A second factor which may discourage plagiarism is the ease with which students can legitimately incorporate other relevant pages simply by linking to them.

These skill sets include:

command of new communication technologies: browser software (e.g., Netscape Communicator, Internet Explorer, Mosaic); Hyper-Text Mark-up Language (HTML); web page construction; Java; etc.

command of new graphic design skills: page layout, use of visuals, etc.

command of new instructional design skills (and post-modern argumentation): concept mapping, non-linear presentation of ideas, etc.

Many employers now expect and give preference to graduates who possess advanced communication skills, including familiarity with hypertext and multi-media applications. As more businesses begin to market their goods and provide services via the world wide web, experience in web page development is likely to significantly expand our graduates' employment opportunities.

Many students find traditional paper formats restrictive. Web pages may allow much greater opportunity for individual expression and creativity. The flexibility of hypertext linkages, for example, allows students to include content (such as poetry, personal reflection, visuals, etc.) which is not easily accommodated within a traditional term paper.

The traditional term paper relies almost entirely on a student's writing ability. In contrast, web page assignments may allow visual and auditory learners to demonstrate their learning in entirely new ways, more appropriate to their learning styles. Similarly, lateral thinking may be both assessed and encouraged through the inclusion of hypertext linkages as a basic composition skill.

(6) web page assignments lend themselves to both group and individual projects

With a web page assignment, students can be given the option of working in groups, in pairs, or alone, as best suits their topic, personalities, and circumstances.

A web site assignment lends itself to group work because it is much easier to divide into pieces which can be delegated to different students than could a traditional, linear term paper. Given the workload and the variety of skills and knowledge required to complete a web page, many students will prefer to work collaboratively.

 
Others, however, are likely to object to group assignments. Students with jobs or young children, for example, often find arranging for group meetings outside of class time to be a near impossibility, and many strong students resent having to rely on others for their grade. Students will therefore greatly appreciate being given the choice of whether to work alone or with others, and with a web page assignment, there is no reason not to be flexible.

Obviously, the larger the group, the more ambitious and complete one would expect the web site content to be.

Given that a web site can be a major undertaking, it is possible to spread the workload over several courses, if colleagues in the other courses are open to it. For example, students learning about HTML and multi-media design in their computer classes could cooperate with students in another subject area to produce web pages, i.e., one group produces the content while another designs the web page to display it.

As generations of students contribute to a course-related web site, a considerable information base could be developed. For example, as each new class in my "Social Issues in Education" course takes on another half dozen topics,

By synthesizing information from a variety of sources, or by presenting new information, students provide the public with a current review of the literature or informed opinion on a variety of topics. (In contrast, the effort put into a traditional term paper is essentially wasted, since only the student has access to its conclusions.)

 
Course related web sites may help recruit potential future students, update alumni, provide practical in-service to practitioners, inform the public about current controversies, raise new issues, lobby for a particular course of action, or provide useful information to any interested party.

The advantages listed above, along with the assignment's novelty, may increase student motivation.

As with a traditional term paper, the students' understanding of course material, and their ability to communicate this material clearly to others, remain crucial grading criteria.

(1) the workload required to produce a web site generally exceeds what one would normally expect from a student in a half year course

This may be less of a problem in the future as (a) composition software becomes more user friendly, allowing students to produce web pages without the need to learn HTML or the other esoteric skills currently required; and/or (b) the next generation of students enters university already familiar with these techniques.

In the meantime, a partial solution may be to adopt a team approach and to break the task up into more manageable pieces. Be sure, however, that each piece is sufficient to evaluate the student's understanding of course material. (Remember, the primary objective here is to assess student understanding and application, not the creation of a slave labour force to produce course-related web pages!)

Although students may be prepared to take on the extra work to complete a web site the first time they encounter such an assignment, this willingness will likely diminish as the novelty wears off. [I have already encountered students who moan, "not another web page!" when they see my course outline.] Even if students remained motivated, however, it may not be possible for them to complete more than one web page per term. As more instructors adopt web-based assignments, the demand on students' time and energy will grow exponentially as they attempt to produce multiple sites for different courses in the same term. Consequently, favourable results from pilot studies may be very misleading. The positive feedback garnered when one is the first on the block to adopt this assignment is likely to turn sour as colleagues jump on the bandwagon.

Similarly, as more instructors send their students off to the computer labs or home to access dial-up services, the demand on these resources may exceed capacity. Students on many campuses are already complaining about long, time-consuming line-ups to access computer labs or phone-in lines. Such problems may be eased in the future as universities (or private suppliers) expand the necessary resources, but the instructor must ensure that students are not penalized simply because they were unable to, or could not afford to, access the necessary resources to complete the assignment.

Whereas most students are familiar with the mechanics of the term paper, the mechanics of web site development are likely to be unfamiliar and possibly overwhelming to students. Is it appropriate to evaluate students on skills which are not part of the official curriculum or learning objectives for this course?

Again, this problem may diminish over time as public schools respond to the demand for curriculum change and begin to teach these skills.

In the meantime, a crucial first step in setting a web page assignment is to explicitly set out detailed scoring criteria for students so that they will at least know which skills they will need to develop and how their project are to be assessed [See accompanying handout for suggested scoring criteria.]

Instructors used to grading term papers may discover that their traditional scoring criteria are inadequate for judging products in this new medium, yet may remain uncertain what modifications are called for.

A suggested scoring scheme is therefore provided.

The constant upgrading required to keep abreast of changes in web browsers, plug-ins, and helper programs necessary to take full advantage of the World Wide Web's expanding potential, is both expensive and time consuming.

Students preoccupied with remaining current may to that extent be distracted from focusing on course content.

The wonderful thing about term papers is that they come double spaced and have broad margins providing the marker with ample space for comments. Reviewing a web page is a bit more challenging. How does one circle a typographical or grammatical error? Note a non-functioning link? How does one make a marginal comment?

 
Usefully detailed feedback currently requires the instructor to write a separate memo, in which identifying the location of problematic material may be somewhat cumbersome.

In my experience, students either wrote excellent papers which – uploaded as straight linear text – failed as web pages; or they developed excellent web pages which, lacking any real substance, failed to demonstrate their command of course content. In other words, students either became preoccupied with the new medium, virtually ignoring content; or they produced a traditional term paper without really adapting it to, experimenting with, or utilizing the new medium.

This problem may be resolved as students become more familiar with the WWW, both in terms of its potential for non-linear presentation, and in terms of technical know how.

Web pages do not lend themselves to large blocks of type. Consequently, there may be a tendency (as in television news) to favour the "sound bite" over substantive argument. Further, students intent on presenting an attractive web page may put more effort into developing the graphic design, choosing pleasing images, and experimenting with HTML , than into learning and demonstrating their command of course content.

This problem may be inherent in the medium.

Students may enter the course with vastly different backgrounds in computer usage, and their access to computers and the Internet outside of class will also vary greatly. Consequently, students are not competing on a level playing field. Instructors need to ensure that they are not unfairly advantaging or disadvantaging students with this assignment.

A partial solution is to make the assignment optional, so that students who lack experience, access, or confidence can choose to demonstrate their mastery of course content through another means, such as a traditional term paper, class presentation, examination, etc.

The ease with which web browsers allow one to download text and images leads many students to believe that such copying is intended and encouraged. As web page composition is likely new to students, it becomes the instructor's responsibility to explain copyright rules and to help students differentiate between copyrighted text and images and material in the public domain. Instructors should also explain how to reference other web sites, including when it is appropriate to link to another site.

Even knowing the rules, however, some students may be tempted to pass off others' work as their own, believing that the World Wide Web is so vast and volatile that would be difficult for their instructor to track all the relevant sites from which they might draw useful text and images.

As mentioned earlier, this tendency may be offset somewhat by the knowledge that the assignment could be posted to the course web site, thereby greatly increasing the chances of exposure. ("Cut and paste" research is, therefore, actually more of a problem for the traditional term paper, since in that instance, the instructor is the only one to view the assignment.)

Copyright issues seem particularly problematic for visual material, which many non-artists appear to feel fully justified in using without permission. (See comments under "Student Feedback" below.)

"Going public" can be a drawback if student work includes typographical errors, grammatical errors, errors of fact, bias, substandard analysis, copyrighted material, or other problems which the public may not appreciate, even where these are a normal part of the process of learning.

One possible solution is to post student pages to the official course web site only if they meet some minimum standard (say a B+)

An "issues" course, for example, is ideal because

• it allows students to conduct an in depth review of a particular issue (i.e., produce the multimedia equivalent of a literature review)

• to come to a conclusion or to make recommendations based on their findings (i.e., produce a multimedia equivalent of a position paper)

• to share the results of what they have learned with the public (i.e., the public is more likely to be interested in a current issue than in highly technical or esoteric papers.)

Instructors may need to provide direct instruction in web page construction and design, either as a class activity, or in response to questions from individual students. At the very least, instructors need to construct and distribute (usually as part of the course outline) explicit expectations and scoring criteria for the assignment.

(3) instructors need to post or include in the course outline the criteria for which web sites are to be mounted under the course number and when they are to be removed

It may be advisable to restrict official publication of student web pages to those whose work reflects well on the course. The course outline should therefore include a statement to this effect, such as: "Successful assignments (B+ and above) may be mounted (with your permission) on the Faculty's web server under the [course name] course number." Alternatively, the instructor may wish to reserve the final selection to him or herself (or the appropriate committee) to ensure that they are comfortable with everything included in the course web site, regardless of the project's final grade. In either case, a standard disclaimer along the lines of "the opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of the instructor, discipline, or [institution name]" should always be included. A prohibition against typographical and grammatical mistakes is also highly recommended.

It should also be clear for how long the student pages are to be displayed. Until the next term and the next set of pages replaces this year's pages? Until the students have graduated and potential employers have had the opportunity to view their pages? Until the next development renders the events or information contained on their pages obsolete? Until the institution's or instructor's server is too full not to be culled? Students have a right to know how long their work will be on display to better gage the effort they should invest in the project.

[Another minor but important practical consideration is that the instructor must ensure that students complete their web pages in a manner compatible with the technical requirements of their local server.]

Student web pages are, naturally, copyright by the student. Tampering by the instructor is therefore inappropriate, yet links to external pages, references to current events and discoveries, and so on, may quickly date a student's web page. Who, then, is to be responsible for maintaining the student's web pages, to keep them up to date, once the course is over? The student? But are they likely to be sufficiently motivated once the course has ended and the labour involved cannot be further rewarded with grades? By the instructor? But who has the time and energy required? By next year's students? Certainly this approach has great potential for building a cumulative site, as each generation builds and expands on what has gone before, but what student alumni would want to see their (copyrighted) work altered by subsequent generations?

One possible solution is to give students the option: those who became sufficiently interested to continue to maintain the site after the course has concluded can mount it on their own personal home page, with the instructor linking to it from the course site for as long as the student pages meet the instructor's standards; those who wish to have the material "published" on the official course site can sign copyright over to the instructor in exchange for a publication entry on their résumé, leaving the instructor free to assign other students to build on what has gone before; those who wish to have their pages displayed but do not wish to allow subsequent changes can agree to a time limit; and so on. The options are wide open, so long as they are spelled out to students well in advance, and that grades are not dependent upon students signing over their copyright.

This is an important piece of paperwork. Students retain copyright on all assignments they turn in for grading, even if the assignment is to produce a publishable document. (The students are free to withhold publication, or publish their work elsewhere.)

Since the instructor and institution are likely to be held responsible for copyright violations, the instructor should review anything posted to the course web site for unaccredited borrowed content.

The site should also include a disclaimer along the lines of "every effort has been made to ensure that copyright has been respected; however, if you discover any materials used without permission, please inform instructor [@e-mail address] and they will be promptly removed."

(7) when students report on original research, instructors are responsible for ensuring that students follow Human Subjects Research Guidelines, and protect the confidentiality of respondents

Although forms allow web pages to survey readers and to disseminate research findings quickly, care must be taken to ensure students do not violate standard confidentiality rules.

© 1998 by Robert Runté

Comments and feedback to:
Robert Runté
Faculty of Education,
University of Lethbridge,
4401 University Drive,
Lethbridge, Alberta,
T1K 3M4