Course websites

The first website I build was for the course ZCT 104 Modern Physics back in 2003. It was also the first course I taught in USM. Back then having websites for the courses were not a norm in USM main campus albeit the fact that many overseas universities already practiced course websites as early as mid 90s. I took the difficult first step to build my first course website in spite of the unfavourable conditions then. As late as 2007, USM finally pushed for the implementation of Moodle, an online web service where lecturers can drag-and-drop course-related material online fairly easily. I reckon they should have done that much earlier.

I insist on having a website for each course I teach because that is the way to go for effective and efficient course material management. By now I have accumulated many course websites, which are archived in my person webpage. These are documented teaching experience and activities I had practiced throughout many years in my teaching career, accessible by anyone anytime and from anywhere just a click away at http://www2.fizik.usm.my/tlyoon/teaching. The archive serves the purpose as a reference for my present students who wish to peek into the teaching activities in previous semesters. It offers the historical information of how the same courses were conducted in the past, thus preparing the present students psychologically what to expect in the present semester. In particular the students find it interesting to read about the discussions held by their seniors in the forum of the same courses in previous years. As these discussions were specifically revolved around a particular course they are currently studying, there is a sense of relevance when the present students read them. This contributes positively to the process of teaching in the class.  Reflecting my core belief in transparency and liberalism, all of the course webpages I put up are configured to be viewed freely by anyone in the world without the need to key in a password.

            Ideally, I try to make it such that students can access all possible information related to the course online for everyone’s convenience. Such practice saves me the trouble to reply students’ SMS request, e.g. where and when will a test happen, or what topics are to be tested. With the course websites fully loaded with essential information, students have no reason to complain of having insufficient material for their learning purpose.

Transparency is the core guiding principle when I put up the course websites. All information is supplied transparently. The essential contents include:

• Synopsis and course-related information. This includes the course synopsis, all relevant information such as the reference text books, exam format, important dates (tests, holidays, extra classes), lecture-by-lecture schedule, criteria for grading, advices and best practices for the course, etc.
• Electronic copies of lecture notes and the latest tutorial problem sets.
• Past year questions, usually completed with full solutions and marking schemes. The inspiration when designing the exam questions are usually derived from various reference sources (mostly the text books and test banks). In the solution schemes, the sources of the exam questions often will be quoted. My purpose is to provide transparency to the process of how I designed the exam questions. This offers the students a window to track their lecturer’s thinking path when designing the questions.  I reckon that such information is beneficial to the learning process for the students.
• Latest solutions to the quizzes. These are uploaded, usually immediately right after the quizzes. The immediate release of the electronic solutions is a spree to the eager students who can’t wait to know the solution to the quizzes they just sat.
• All-in-one course material. I take the trouble to electronically bind all the latest lecture notes, tutorial questions, past year solutions and other course-related material into an all-in-one pdf version, which are then uploaded to the course website. In addition, I would also send the softcopy to the photocopy shop so that the students can purchase the hardcopy there.
• Announcement. The course websites are the best place to make announcement. News spread in the cyberspace almost faster than the speed of light these days. Dear (many) teaching academics in USM, still sticking paper notices outside you offices in this Web.2 era?
• Records of past year performances of the courses. These include the records of the grade distribution and the formal reports of the overall exam performance. The formal reports contain information like weakness of the students and the comment made by the lecturer on the overall course performance. These are all “confidential” information not usually available but are very much sought after by students. When made publicly known, the historic statistics with an average 45% failure rate in the last two academic sessions sends the strong message: If you don’t want to be part of the statistics, you better start working now. It is a psychological trick I use to ‘motivate’ the students, albeit in a threatening manner.
• Forum. This is one of the most important components in the course websites. It is the main attraction for students to visit the course webpages. Here, students read their peers’ posting, chit-chat, ask stupid questions, or simply drop a line for fun. Some ask serious questions, debate over certain opinions, or seek quick answers to their assignments. I am usually the central participant in the forum, aided by the occasional appearance of a few active online students to heat up the ambience. A typically reserved student could turn out to be quite out spoken and daring when going online. Meeting and discussing physics with the students in the cyberspace paves an alternative channel to interact with them. The students get to know my character and personal style better if they bother to read my postings on the online forums. It is of my opinion that a student’s awareness of his / her lecturer’s personal trait and teaching style helps to boost the learning and teaching experience. To encourage participation I maintain a free speech policy in the forum. As long as their postings do not violate the obvious social constraints, I never interfere. All kinds of topic are sanctioned, such as advertisement, expression of fear for the courses, or even blatant objection to my teaching style. I try to talk like one of them, using the SMS-like or even broken language to make them feel comfortable to express online. Maintaining an active course-related forum has many obvious advantages to jack up the students’ interest about the course. However, involvement in a heated forum could take up around one to two hours per day of my precious time.