The Instructional Web: A Forum for Business School Educators

Table of Contents

1. Purpose: Why this site was created
2. Recommending Additional Sites: Suggesting additional reference sites.
3. A Model of the Web for Instructional Purposes: To view the The Web from an instructional perspective, it has been loosely partitioned into three areas: phenomenon, respository, and tool. Each area is supported by an annotated listing of respresentative sites.
4. The Instructional Web Forum: Discussion area for comments, issues, and recommendations.

Purpose

This site was created as a result of the hands-on sessions held at the AACSB/efmd New Learning Technologies in Management Education Workshop at Boston Univeristy, May 30, 1997. The goal was to discuss "examplar Web sites." As a follow up to the workshops, this site was created so that educators can access "examplar" web sites and discuss the Web from an instructional perspective. At this point in time, examplar, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. One objective of the forum section is to strive toward a definition of a "good" or "bad" site.

The current operational definition of "examplar" is that the site is illustrative of the category into which it was placed. Some of the sites use a format which is easy to follow while others are more linear. In most cases, the attempt was to identify sites which offered something different from the other sites within its category. The objective is to be illustrative, not definitive.

Recommending Additional Sites

This site will only be valuable if others contribute to it. As you explore the Web, if you find a site which you feel is "examplar" and others would benefit from it being posted here, please send the following information via email to jason.frand@anderson.ucla.edu.

1. the URL with annotation (following format of sites already listed)
2. the specific category in the model into which the site should be placed (if it does not fit an existing category, define a new category with a short justification)
3. the reason you think the recommended site should be included
4. site(s) currently listed which could be replaced by the new site being recommended

Also, if you feel any of the current sites are obsolete and should be removed, please let us know.

The Model

The explosive growth of communications enabled by the Internet and the marvelously people-oriented access tool known as the brower has created opportunities for educators to better serve students and meet instructional objectives. But how does one look at the totally disorganized and overwhelmng amount of information on the Internet?

As educators we can think about this globally connecting network of networks from three perspectives:

• The Web as Phenomenon: Studying the Web as an entity unto itself: what it is, how it works, what it does and can (might) do into the future.
• The Web as Information Repository: Using the Web as the world's largest library (but with all the books scattered on the floor!).
• The Web as an Educational Tool: A means or vehicle for achieving other goals including communicating, organizing, and teaching.

The Forum

Discussion topics include:

• What are appropriate criteria to use to evaluate a web site? What do "good" and "bad" mean in this context?
• What are different ways the web can be used in instruction? What are the barriers and how can we overcome them?
• How do we help students learn to evaluate the quality of the material located on the web?
• Additional issues include student publishing, copyright, keeping content current, getting faculty involved, etc.

You can specify additional topics for discussion within the forum.

Model     Phenomenon     Repository    Tool    Forum    Recommend-a-Site

jason.frand@anderson.ucla.edu
Updated June 15, 1997