Overview
The World Wide Web (WWW) provides so many advantages from an educational point
of view that most people don't see the disadvantages. These are
- There is no feeling of progress. When you read a book ar attend a lecture
you know what you have done and what you are supposed to know. When you
you have been following a sequence of links there is no clear record of
what you have covered. You might have noticed that after searching the WWW for information
there is any empty feeling indicative that you haven't quite found what you
were looking for (though you may have found much of interest that you weren't
looking for).
- There is no clear direction. When a knowledgeable person encounters
many links then they will normally have a clear idea of what the links mean
and where they might lead. However a student will be unfamiliar with the
topic and would like guidence, instead of being expected to choose from many
equally mystifying links.
- There is no way to focus a student's attention. If a topic contains
difficult subject matter then it is too tempting to click away from it.
Interestingly these features that the WWW lacks are exactly those provided
by some adventure games. These come in text based form, as in the classic
'adventure' game from the mainframe world, and now in the very poplular
graphic form of games such as Doom and Quake.
These latter games are highly addictive and cause players to miss food and sleep.
They work by providing challanges to the player, when that is solved the
player can progress. Progress is visible and the direction is always clear
(though a player can always retreat and reflect if required.
Now it is going to be difficult for an educational program to provide
the same motivational force as a game, and I won't pretend to try.
But it is possible to use some of the ideas to cure the WWW's defects.
The big problem is to find appropriate challanges. Once you have challanges
then you can use an electronic book format to control progress through the
course.
Papers
- RoboProf and a first programming language
presented at
ITiCSE '99.
- New ideas for RoboProf
- A proposed structure for a computer based learning environment", Poster at ITiCSE '98
- "RoboProf: its effect on student performance", Future World Conference, CapeTown South Africa, Dec 1997
- "RoboProf: an automated learning environment", Proceedings 5th Conference on the teaching of computing,
Dublin City University, 1997.