The development of a Web-based teaching system for engineering education

Development of a web‐based mass transfer processes laboratory: System development and implementation

“…A comprehensive survey on the current practice in laboratory education by Sere et al [18] suggests that use of new technologies for model building during labwork stimulates students to think more about the conceptual background of a specific lab situation than most other contexts of labwork. Recent advances in the use of the Internet in educational settings suggest that laboratories conducted through use of the World Wide Web (hereinafter referred to as 'the web') may provide increased opportunities for laboratory experiences [4].…”

“…Example information that may be distributed through this venue includes course instructional material, example problems, figures, questions, and exams. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript often provide the foundation of such systems [24,25], and, on occasion, database technology is employed [4]. An online homework system developed by Nakavachara [26], which makes use of ColdFusion (Macromedia, San Francisco, California) for database connection, and MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc., Natick, Massachusetts) as a computational engine, provides a good example of web-based instruction.…”

“…Web-based education tools must be understandable for students to use on a recurring basis [4,20]. Specific challenges arise with web-based modeling in that students must be able to understand the complexities of the modeling system, while maintaining an ability to navigate through the system until the desired model output is obtained.…”

“…Tutorial modules are most beneficial in providing a general introduction to the model, as well as step-by-step instructions on its use [46]. Help modules are also employed in most software packages as a means to assist users with a particular problem area or to provide an opportunity to query available functions of the model [4]. This laboratory employs both tutorial and help modules as a means to orient students with the purpose and structure of the laboratory, and to provide opportunities for students to overcome problems while navigating through the system.…”

“…This fact is further demonstrated by an observed trend in reduced traditional laboratory experiences in undergraduate environmental engineering education [3]. The advent of the Internet and other advanced information technologies into the engineering curriculum, however, suggest that web-based laboratories may provide a potential partial solution to this problem [4]. This paper describes the development of a webbased laboratory as a means to introduce advanced mass transfer processes concepts in environmental engineering and science courses.…”