Abstract
Websites are good examples of “pull” technology.
They are typically passive and students obtain
information from a course website only if they choose
to go to the website and navigate around it, pulling
from it whatever they desire. By way of contrast the
classic example of “push” technology is email. If we
assume that email users always have an active email
client on their local machine that is configured to flag
new messages as and when they arrive, perhaps by
means of a sound or a popup message, then in this
situation newly arrived messages are “pushed” at the
user by the intrusion on their attention.
Our HCI website at Portsmouth is used in a form of
hybrid learning. Students attend conventional lectures
and tutorials, but the website provides lots of
scaffolding designed to keep the students aware of
what they need to do, plus course information
including copies of materials used in lectures,
coursework exercises, a schedule of events, etc. As
such it is essentially pull technology. In previous
years the push element has comprised old-fashioned
telling the students in lectures and tutorials what,
when and where to look for things on our website.
This year we have supplemented the “verbal push”
with a more “automated push”; by including an RSS
stream in our website. Students are now able to
subscribe to the RSS feed and obtain relevant notices
about what’s new, and what is expected of them next.
This particular push technology is predicated on the
assumption that students will have running on their
local machine some news reader software, or a web
based reader such as Bloglines, or perhaps they
regularly check their FireFox bookmark of our
website. (The FireFox browser includes software to
include RSS information as part of the bookmarks.)
Our use of RSS is still in its infancy, but we expect it
to function as a further communication channel for our
local students. In a situation where remote students
study by distance learning, without the benefit of
regular face to face lectures, we would expect the
RSS feed to be of considerable value in reminding the
students about course news and what to do next.
This paper examines the behaviour of students on our
website in the past and compares this with recent
behaviour to try and identify if the RSS feed has
made any difference. We also speculate on the
merits of introducing a course website in stages, with
each stage preceded by an RSS fanfare. This is
compared with presenting the website as a whole,
fixed entity from the very start of the course.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 25 Apr 2005 |
| Event | 8th Educators Workshop: Effective Teaching and Training in HCI - BCS, Covent Garden, London. Duration: 25 Apr 2005 → … |
Conference
| Conference | 8th Educators Workshop: Effective Teaching and Training in HCI |
|---|---|
| City | BCS, Covent Garden, London. |
| Period | 25/04/05 → … |