• Background
• CLASS Project
• CLASS Staff
• General Insights
• Questions & Considerations
• Content
• Development Teams
• Content Acquisition
• Assessment & Grading
• Design
• Introduction
• Modeling
• Presentation
• Interactivity
• Navigation
• Assessments
• National Standards
• Quality Assurance
• Courses
• Features
• Courses
• Copyrights
• Technology
• Building a Course
• See and Say
• There are Limits!
• Influence and Change
• CLASS Courses
• Content
• Extras Designed
• Extras Linked
• Class Assessments
• A Bit of Dreamweaver
• Proofing
• Graphics
• MOUs
• Detailing Treatment
• Course Credits
• CLASS Style
• Publications

Web Links

The addition of Web links adds an interactive component that allows students to delve further into the subject matter. The extent of their use and the format depends on the subject matter. Initially, CLASS™ inserted links outside of the Web sites, directly on the course pages, so students could immediately click to go to additional information. It didn’t take long, however, to realize that the upkeep problem here was overwhelming given the tendency for Web sites to change and/or disappear! To help solve this problem (not without a loss in convenience to the student!), a page of additional links was created for each course. We linked the student to this “page of links,” from which they clicked on the sites chosen to provide more information. This “page of links” was much easier to control and update!

Another problem with outside Web sites is the pages they themselves link to. It became very clear that sites selected didn’t link to sites that may be inappropriate or inaccurate. Since Web pages change all the time, this is a constant worry. CLASS™ also found that linking to pages that host advertising can be a problem. Even if the Web site itself is appropriate, the advertising banners are not always. A very careful choice of sites is necessary.

Self-checks

The CLASS™ courses contain computer-graded self-check quizzes, which allow the students to check their performance and receive instant feedback. A standard component of the self-check tests is feedback, which not only lets students know if their answer is right or wrong, but provides information that helps reinforce the content or helps explain why the correct answer is correct. Research has shown that feedback is a very important element in the computer-graded practices and exams.

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