Chien Chou is currently a professor at Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta Hsueh Rd., Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan; email: cchou@cc.nctu.edu.tw. Her research interests include network learning and Internet psychology. Her work has been published in Computers and Education, International Journal of Educational Development, IEEE Transactions on Education, Journal of Interactive Learning Research, International Journal of Educational Telecommunications and Educational Technology Research and Development.

Chin-Chung Tsai is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. His research interests deal largely with science education, constructivism, Internet-based instruction, and human behavior in Internet-based environments. His work has been published in Science Education, International Journal of Science Education, Educational Research, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Computers and Education, International Journal of Educational Development, and Innovations in Education and Training International.

JCS invites comments on this paper for publication on the journal's web site. Address comments to Ian Westbury, General editor of JCS, All such comments on this paper, and on other papers in JCS, can be accessed at http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/jcs/.

Copyright © 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd. ISSN 0022-0272. Copies may be made under the normal terms of copyright law.

The emergence and rapid growth of computer network technologies are changing the way we live and learn. Computer networks provide new alternatives for the design, development, storage, and distribution of, as well as access to, learning materials. Therefore, they present new and formidable challenges for curriculum designers and teachers. Cornell (1999) states that faculty members may feel concern and anxiety about engaging in online teaching due to its unique status as the most-talked-about but often least-experienced pedagogical practice. Faculty members and curriculum designers may have experiences using the Internet for social and even limited professional activities, but many of them still need to reconsider the use of the Internet and Web for curriculum and individual courses. Indeed, as Harrison and Bergen (2000) note, a substantial amount of planning and preparation must go into the design of an online curriculum, and, at the same time, the development of courses is an ongoing process as we become more knowledgeable and technologies continue to improve.

 This paper discusses those challenges, by first reviewing traditional curriculum development stages, and then by examining the issues, challenges, and possible solutions presented by these stages when designers develop Web-based curricula. The issues discussed in this paper are based on a review of relevant literature and the authors' experiences in Web-based curricula development.

Traditional curriculum development

There are numerous frameworks for curriculum development. Tyler's (1949) model, however, may be the most widely recognized. Tyler suggests four basic principles for curriculum development, including: purpose(s) of the school, educational experiences related to purposes, organization of experiences, and evaluation of purposes. Later, Taba (1962) proposed a more complex model that builds on Tyler's view of effective curriculum development.¹ Taba's model includes the following stages:²

• Define target students and their needs. Teachers and curriculum designers need to define those students for whom the curriculum is being developed. By first identifying particular students and their needs, curricula will be both more efficient and more effective.

• Identify instructional objectives. After teachers and designers have defined the target students and their needs, they should state specific instructional objectives, including those in cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains.

• Select the scope of subject content. After objectives have been stated, teachers and designers must determine the subject matter, or the content of the curriculum.

• Organize sequence and structure. Teachers and designers cannot merely select subject content; they must also arrange content in a sequence or structure that will best accommodate targeted students' academic levels and interests.

• Select presentation methods and media. Following the arrangement of content, teachers and designers should select suitable media to present the planned sequence or structure of course content. Effective presentation methods are more likely to engage students in the learning processes, and thus to accomplish instructional objectives.

• Design assessment activities. Assessment is a crucial component of curriculum development; assessment of student learning, based on stated objectives, produces data with which one may determine the overall success of curriculum design and implementation.

• Implement formative evaluation. Before implementing a new curriculum, a series of formative evaluations should be conducted in order to identify and assess any weaknesses in the proposed curriculum. This allows teachers and designers to improve design before implementation, and thus improve overall performance.²

The seven stages of curriculum design, as outlined by Tyler (1949) and Taba (1962), become somewhat problematic when viewed in the context of designing Web-based curricula. What follows is a discussion of the traditional curriculum development framework that accounts for the particularities of Web-based distance learning.

1. Define target students and their needs

Defining target students and their needs is much more difficult for Web-based distance learning than for formal classroom settings. Kearsley (2000) argues that the design of an online curriculum should start with a careful analysis of the students, not only to identify what they have already learned, i.e. their cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skill levels, as traditional curriculum designers do, but also to understand the nature of their computing capabilities and learning environment. If the assumptions that are made about students' computer skills or accessibility are invalid, the success of an online curriculum will be limited. In addition to the students' learning environment, Willis and Dickinson (1997) state that the challenge for Web-based instructors includes the development of an understanding and appreciation for distant students' lifestyles, because often students' realms of experience, living conditions, and cultures are foreign to the instructor and other class participants. Therefore, teachers and curriculum designers must determine how to define remote target-students and their needs, how to design Web instruments to assess target students' prior knowledge and skills and computing capabilities, and how to gain a more thorough and effective understanding and appreciation of students' relevant living conditions and cultures.

Moreover, since the Web is basically an openly-distributed system, any ' surfer' can potentially become a learner of a given curriculum. Teachers and curriculum designers must determine how to design a screen mechanism to block non-target users. For example, requirements for registration, online surveys and/or pre-tests can be used to screen out non-target users. Providing e-mail addresses to curriculum co-ordinators may help communications between target students and instructors. Providing some lesson examples will also help students to determine whether it is the right curriculum for them to explore. Further development of Web-based curricula may try to provide different types of curricula to students with different levels of background knowledge, experiences and learning preferences, and then create a student-centred approach to instruction.

2. Identify instructional objectives

Traditionally, curriculum development is teacher-centred and teachers themselves identify instructional goals and objectives. However, as Jones (1997) notes, since the nature of the Internet promotes equal participation of all users, it nourishes a ' participatory democracy'. If we agree that this result of Internet use is a positive one, we need to reconsider the authorship of the curriculum: shifting authority from teacher to student may further advance such democratic ideals and practices.

French et al. (1999) contend that the figure of ' teacher' has traditionally been regarded as the ' sage on the stage', the individual who primarily determines the instructional objectives and provides most of the learning materials. However, in an Internet-based learning environment, the teacher is depicted more often as a ' guide on the side'. But both the teacher and learner are simultaneously ' guides' and ' sages' because they become continual learners and peer teachers who adapt rapidly to set learning objectives in light of changing information.

Relan and Gillani (1997) explore the differences between traditional instruction and Web-based instruction. They found that in the student-centred Web-based curriculum the relative amount of time that students talk is equal to or greater than the amount of time that teachers talk. Students also help to choose the content to be organized and learned. French et al. (1999) also consider that Web-based learning is suitable for self-directed learning in which students have more choice of, or control over, not only their learning time and pace but also the objectives or learning outcomes.

As a result, Web-based curriculum designers and instructors must determine how to include students, especially adult students of non-traditional age and students undergoing on-the-job-training, in the process of identifying instructional objectives and in balancing both teachers' and students' authorship in developing Web-based curricula. For example, a forum for both instructors and students to discuss course direction and progress may shape instructional objectives as the course progresses. A distinct, identifiable area in the Web curriculum can be allocated in which students contribute their learning materials (such as links to related Web sites and news groups); teachers can then screen students' contributions to determine which materials are suitable for the curriculum and course.

3. Select the scope of subject content

The Web is basically a hypertext system; Landow (1997) argues that hypertext is a fundamentally intertextual system, open, non-fixed, and boundless rather than closed, fixed, and bounded. The intertextual nature of hypertext makes it very different from page-bound text. Furthermore, Landow (1997) suggests that when we produce and process hypertext, we abandon the concepts of centre, margin, hierarchy, and linearity upon which traditional text is based to replace them with concepts of multilinearity, nodes, links, and networks, all of which are hallmarks of hypertext. Relan and Gillani (1997) support this in their claim that the predominant source of content in Web-based learning shifts from the textbook and the teacher to more varied sources of information, and the nature of content becomes dynamic rather than the static, limited to texts published on a certain date. In other words, teachers and designers must determine how to develop Web curricula that are open, non-fixed, and boundless and how to link Web resources in such a way that curriculum content is enriched, and students' attention is both captured and maintained.

When teachers and designers try to enrich their curricula by tapping the unlimited hypertextual information on the Internet, they ought to review and screen a large amount of information from many Web sites and make links in appropriate places during the ' course'. At the same time, Draves (2000) points to the necessity of providing some kind of guidance for students regarding these links. The simplest way is to divide those links into three teacher-assigned categories: ' Critical' (must read), 'Important' (should read), and 'Nice' (could read). By doing so, individual students can determine when to read which linked materials, and when, depending on their schedules and learning paces.

In Chou and Lin's (1998) study such guidance became a form of 'knowledge map', which was empirically evaluated. The study found that the map-type had a significant effect on students' processes in searching for particular pieces of information in a Web-based courseware, as well as their success in retrieving that information. Further, the map-type was a significant factor in their development of cognitive maps within the course structure. This study demonstrated that providing students with a global map, in which the entire hierarchical knowledge structure for the course is provided by means of a list of the concept names of all hypertext nodes, enabled them to more efficiently and effectively search for, locate, and learn from curriculum content.

4. Organize sequence and structure

Unlike traditional linear text, hypertext organizes information in sets of informational units connected by means of associative links (Conklin 1987). For Landow (1997) hypertext also denotes text composed of blocks of text and the electronic links that join them. The concept of hypermedia simply extends the notion of the text in hypertext by including visual information, sound, animation, and other forms of information.

Hypertext grants learners maximum freedom to navigate through hyperspace in a non-linear fashion -- they can select, search, and browse in an infinite number of sequential, and often recursive patterns. Teachers and designers therefore must determine how to organize Web-curriculum sequences that best fit students' prior knowledge and skills, but at the same time allow some degree of structural flexibility for individual navigation. Curriculum designers must also determine how to provide guidance so that students will not get lost in the Web curriculum.

When authoring learning materials in hypertext format, Woodhead (1991) suggests three basic rhetorical techniques: gradual disclosure, i.e. a smooth progression into finer, richer, more specific levels of detail; foreshadowing, i.e. giving repeated references to forthcoming items to guide audience needs; and recapitulation, i.e. prior topics are repeated for emphasis or to allow the audience to draw themes together. Beer (2000) also offers some guidelines for organizing Web learning content, including providing a site overview, using consistent vocabulary across the whole learning site, explaining the content architecture, and using hyperlinks sparingly and carefully. Chou and Sun (1996) have suggested providing 'next' buttons at the end of each instructional node to indicate the designer's recommendation for the next node to visit. The 'prerequisites' for moves can also be set in a Web-curriculum, that is, students have to read one node before they jump to other, related nodes.

Chou (1999) suggested adopting elaboration theory to organize hypertext-based curricula. The approach suggests, first, analyzing content and selecting a few most fundamental concepts for presenting in the epitome node, and then linking each concept to its subordinate concept(s). In each subordinate-concept node, another epitome is provided describing the lower-level subordinate concepts. Information is thus fragmented in the nested nodes of a hypertext curriculum. This approach was empirically and formatively evaluated to establish its effectiveness.

 Draves (2000) also offers some operational guidelines for Web curriculum designers. First, the curriculum can be divided up into 5 to 10 modules. Modules should lead somewhere -- horizontally to the next module and/or vertically to a more intensive, advanced or detailed set of modules. Modules should also be able to stand-alone. In this way, the combination of individual modules can be systematically organized and interrelated.

5. Select presentation methods and media

The Web is a multimedia system that incorporates text, graphics, audio, animation, and video and the Web provides teachers with more choices of presentation methods than are usual in traditional curricula. Indeed, the growing use of Internet technologies opens new possibilities that move well beyond the provision of more sophisticated delivery tools. In a study by Chou et al. (2001) a combined presentation in Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) was designed to demonstrate the human digestive system for university students who were not majoring in health or science. Three-dimensional graphics written in VRML allowed students to not only view the digestive system from any direction, but to enter the digestive organs themselves using navigation tools provided by VRML browsers. In addition, text and/or 2-D graphics were organized in HTML in order to offer detailed health science information.

Kearsley (2000) argues that most online curricular materials would benefit from graphics in the form of illustrations, diagrams, icons, and backgrounds. Teachers or designers, however, may not have the graphic skills and knowledge of graphics software to incorporate these elements into their curriculum and courses. Moreover, some degree of background knowledge, understanding of, and skill in multimedia production are necessary to produce audio and/or video elements in Web-based learning sites.

Similarly, the creation of animations or simulations requires special programming skills and experiences which teachers and designers may not have. Teachers and designers therefore need to be adept at preparing and organizing content-appropriate presentations in a digital multimedia form. If they do not have the necessary knowledge or skills themselves, they need technical support, as Kearsley (2000) suggests, either from others within the institution or from an outside vendor, and should work closely with technical support personnel. But how much should curriculum designers and instructors know about the technology, and what skills ought they to possess to enable them to produce multimedia curricular components? In our opinion and experience, curricula designers must be familiar with the technology (the terms, capability, feasibility, etc.) to the degree that they know what the technology can and cannot do, and to the point that they can communicate their ideas clearly with technical support staff.

6. Design assessment activities

As Bugbee (1996) contends, if learning is via a computer, then it is more appropriate to assess it by computer. This assertion is becoming a widely-accepted fact, as Web-based testing becomes more and more popular and available. Beer (2000) considers that the Internet in general and the Web in particular have unique contributions to make to a broader conception of assessment. He provides several new assessment ideas, such as inviting experts to evaluate online individual and collaborative work as well as the content of Web discussions, and argues for connecting assessments to learning resources and the use the Web for individual self-assessment.

 In response to such ideas, teachers and designers must be able to grasp the unique requirements and features of Web technology for implementing and maintaining Web-based assessments, and to design effective Web-based tests and assignments that accurately assess students' learning and provide useful data for further curriculum development. Chou (2000) contends that when analyzing the use of a Web-based test, the dimensions of time and location of testing can help developers conceptualize the use of any testing system. Noting whether time and location are specific or fixed, i.e. specific time/fixed location, flexible time/fixed location, specific time/non-fixed location, and flexible time/non-fixed location, testing types and situations can be characterized.³

When designing online assignments in particular, Harrison and Bergen (2000) suggest preparing a detailed list of weekly assignments. The list should include the pages to read, questions to be answered and problems to be solved. It should also cover the material for online discussions. This will help to ensure progress in student discussions, and allow students to follow that progress easily.

7. Implement formative evaluation

Formative evaluation, a critical step in curriculum development, is the process of gathering information to advise design, production, and implementation decisions (see Flagg 1990). Kearsley (2000) suggests that the biggest problem in developing online curricula may not be their initial creation, but rather subsequent revisions and updating: even if the content of a course does not require much change, many small details, such as links to other sites, need to be continually updated.⁴

Conducting a formative evaluation of Web-based curriculum requires experts in course content, curricula, media, and administration to work together to develop evaluative methodologies that take into account students' and experts' presence at remote sites. Therefore, teachers and designers need to develop methods for conducting formative evaluations within complex, technology-dependent learning environments and curricula, to set up a reasonable work schedule for continual updating and revision, and to work closely with formative evaluation team members.

In Chou (1998), a formative evaluation system was developed especially for Web-based distance learning. The Computer Logging of User Entries (CLUE) system combined computer-logging techniques to collect commentary during users' interactions with the learning materials, and was designed to be used to collect input from large numbers of users working in different remote locations. The inputs are automatically stored, calculated, and then presented in a format that can be easily interpreted by curriculum designers and instructors. Innovative formative evaluation methods and systems such as CLUE system are becoming increasingly necessary in order to ensure that more Web-based learning materials can be effectively evaluated.

8. Other concerns on Web-based curriculum and courses development

 In addition to the above-mentioned seven major curriculum development stages, other factors relevant to developing Web-based curriculum and courses are also vitally important. The first factor is the degree of completion of a curriculum before the actual deliverery of that curriculum (or course). Many instructional designers do not always have the entire curriculum organized and developed before the school semester begins; rather, they prepare the course material as the semester progresses. However, Harrison and Bergen (2000) suggest that it is far better to have the entire course organized into weekly modules before the students actually come online. They emphasize that, at a minimum, the underlying structure of the modules as well as the first three weeks should be prepared prior to student participation. As mentioned before, a substantial amount of planning and preparation must go into the design of an online curriculum and course (Bergen 2000).⁵

The second major concern is the team approach. Kearsley (2000) claims that the major difference between developing online curricula and traditional curricula (as delivered by textbooks and lecture notes) is the need for a team approach. It is difficult for a single individual to have the range of skills and time required to develop an entire online curriculum or course. Faculty members are usually subject-matter experts and familiar with how the content should be taught, but they typically have little experience developing curricular materials for online learning. An instructional designer, multimedia producer, systems analyst, network programmer, etc. should be invited to work with faculty members to develop various course components in the appropriate formats. Thus Byun et al. (2000) call for the establishment of a 'Web-course developer group'. They suggest that this group meet periodically, either in person or online, to share resources and experiences. A joint effort such as this encourages and offers material resources for those who are involved in online curriculum development, and those who are still curious or anxious about online teaching.

 Summary

 Since the advent of the Web, demands for online curriculum development have continued to increase. Teachers and curriculum developers are encountering both unprecedented opportunities and challenges in developing effective curricula. The purpose of this paper is to address these challenges and provide some possible solutions, as summarized in table 1. Although Kearsley (2000) notes that some issues in creating high-quality online curricula are really no different from those found in the development of traditional instructional materials, i.e. creativity, ambition, self-discipline, and teamwork, there are distinct and important differences. These differences lie in the opportunities inherent in a technological world that seems to change exponentially, along with network technology itself, hypertext structure, and digital multimedia techniques. Each of these advances allows us to design more flexible, motivational, and effective curricula. But developing Web-based curricula and courses is a complicated and time-consuming process, and requires a team approach. And the greatest challenge facing curriculum designers is often re-thinking and adapting traditional curriculum development models.

Table 1: Contrasts between traditional and Web-based curriculum development.

It also should be noted that the features of Web-based curricula are consistent with recent ideas about constructivist practice in education. Constructivist theories assert that knowledge is actively constructed by individuals, and that social interactions with others also play an important role in this process (von Glasersfeld 1993, Tsai 1998). Constructivist theory emphasizes that instruction needs to carefully consider learners' prior knowledge and encourage student-to-student as well as student-to-teacher interactions (Fosnot 1996 Tsai 2000).⁶ Constructivist-oriented instruction also provides student--teacher shared control or student-centred learning environments (Taylor and Fraser 1991, Taylor et al. 1995). For example, as we have already suggested, Web-courses can ask students to complete online surveys or take online pre-tests to assess their prior knowledge, and can then offer the appropriate curriculum for each student. As they do this Web-based courses not only emphasize students' prior knowledge but also create student-centred instruction for students. The hypertextual nature of Web courses offers higher flexibility for course structure, which may also better fit individual student's personal preferences. E-mail or Web-based communications may also facilitate more student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions. The concept of 'participatory democracy' proposed earlier is also consistent with the idea of student-teacher shared control. Indeed, Relan and Gillani (1997) have defined Web-based instruction as 'the application of a repertoire of cognitively oriented instructional strategies implemented within a constructivist and collaborative learning environment, utilizing the attributes and resources of the World Wide Web' (p. 43; emphasis added).

Finally, we argue that the time for researchers to ask whether or not Web-based curricula should be created or used has passed. We must now work toward developing effective Web-based curricula that will benefit all our students. The issues raised in this paper are perhaps a first step toward addressing these opportunities and challenges.

Acknowledgements

A version of this paper was presented at Computers and Learning 2001 Conference (CAL 2001) at the University of Warwick, UK, April 2--4, 2001. This study was supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., under Projects NSC89--2520--S--009--005 and NSC89--2511--S--009--005.

1. Other models of curriculum development are, for the purposes of this paper, less significant; the vast majority of educators who approach curriculum development from a technical perspective follow the models of Tyler and Taba.

2. The final three stages are somewhat different from those originally proposed by Taba (1962). The original stages are 'selection of learning experiences', 'organization of learning activities', and 'evaluation'.

3. It is worth noting that in order to eliminate the possibility of students passing test information to others because of different testing times, different test sheets for individual students must be prepared by composing sheets of items selected at random from a test bank, which can be easily implemented on the Web. If test locations are not fixed, open-book-type tests or attendant supervisors at the test sites should be employed.

4. Similarly, Schifter (1999) considers that computer-mediated instruction allows materials to be continuously updated, thus making the curriculum always a work in progress. Therefore, Web-based learning can bring the most up-to-date information into the curricula, and also into student discussion.

5. In the experience of Schweber et al. (1998), the development of online courses takes 2.5-3 times longer to complete than traditional courses, and faculty had to spend 2-5 hours more a week for class-related work. Therefore, designers or teachers should start planning and developing their curricula and courses earlier, so they give themselves more time to update and revise courses, and to deal with other technical and/or administrative problems.

 6. Although constructivism is still a controversial topic in education (Phillips 1995), the position of this paper, following Perkins (1999) and Staver (1998), is that constructivism can help educators understand how students learn as well as to explicate the practice of education.

 

Beer, V. (2000) The Web Learning Fieldbook: Using the World Wide Web to Build Workplace Learning Environments (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass).

Byun, H. P., Hallett, K., and Essex, C. (2000) Supporting instructors in the creation of online distance education courses: lessons learned. Educational Technology, 40 (5), 57--60.

Bugbee, A. C. (1996) The equivalence of paper-and-pencil and computer-based testing. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 28 (3), 282--299.

Chou, C., and Sun, C. T. (1996) Constructing a cooperative distance learning system: the CORAL experience. Educational Technology Research and Development, 44 (4), 71-84.

Chou, C., and Lin, H. (1998) The effect of navigation map types and cognitive styles on learners' performance in a computer-networked hypertext learning system. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 7 (2/3), 151--176.

Chou, C. (1998) Developing CLUE: a formative evaluation system for computer network learning courseware. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 10 (2), 179-193.

Chou, C. (1999) Developing hypertext-based learning courseware for computer networks: the macro and micro stages. IEEE Transactions on Education, 42 (1), 39--44.

Chou, C. (2000) Constructing a computer-assisted testing and evaluation system on the world wide web -- the CATES experience. IEEE Transactions on Education, 43 (3), 266-272.

Chou, C., Tsai, C. C., and Tsai, H, F. (2001) Developing a networked VRML learning system for health science education in Taiwan. International Journal of Educational Development, 21 (4), 293--303.

Conklin, J. (1987) Hypertext: an introduction and survey. IEEE Computer, 20 (9), 17--41.

Cornell, R. (1999) Web-based courseware tools: where is the pedagogy? Educational Technology, 39 (3), 60--64.

Draves, W. A. (2000) Teaching Online (River Falls, WI: LERN Books).

Flagg, B. N. (1990) Formative Evaluation of Educational Technologies (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

Fosnot, C. T. (1996) Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives and Practice (New York: Teachers College Press).

French, D., Hale, C., Johnson, C., and Farr, G. (eds) (1999) Internet Based Learning: An Introduction and Framework for Higher Education and Business (Sterling, VA: Stylus).

Harrison, N., and Bergen, C. (2000) Some design strategies for developing an online course. Educational Technology, 40 (1), 57--60.

Jones, S. G. (1997) The Internet and its social landscape. In S. G. Jones (ed.), Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety (London: Sage), 7--35.

Kearsley, G. (2000) Online Education: Learning and Teaching in Cyberspace (Toronto, ON: Wadsworth).

Landow, G. P. (1997) Hypertext 2.0 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press).

Perkins, D. (1999) The many faces of consrtuctivism. Educational Leadership, 57 (3), 6--11.

Phillips, D. C. (1995) The good, the bad, and the ugly: the many faces of constructivism. Educational Researcher, 24 (7), 5--12.

Relan, A., and Gillani, B. B. (1997) Web-based instruction and the traditional classroom: Similarities and differences. In B. H. Khan (ed.), Web-based Instruction (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications), 41--46.

Schifter, C. C. (1999) Teaching in the 21st century. The Internet and Higher Education, 1 (4), 281--290.

Staver, J. R. (1998) Constructivism: sound theory of explicating the practice of science and science teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35 (5), 501-520.

Schweber, C., Kelley, B., and Orr. G. J. (1998) Training, and retraining, faculty for online courses: Challenges and strategies. Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, Madison, WI, August 5--7 1998. ERIC ED 422 874.

Taba, H. (1962) Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice (New York: Harcourt Brace).

Taylor, P. C., Dawson, V., and Fraser, B. J. (1995) Classroom learning environments under transformation: a constructivist perspective. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.

Taylor, P. C., and Fraser, B. J. (1991) CLES: An instrument for assessing constructivist learning environments. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Lake Geneva, WI.

Tsai, C.-C. (1998) Science learning and constructivism. Curriculum and Teaching, 13 (1), 31-52.

Tsai, C.-C. (2000) Relationships between student scientific epistemological beliefs and perceptions of constructivist learning environments. Educational Research, 42 (2), 193--205.

Tsai, C.-C. (2001) The interpretation construction design model for teaching science and its applications to internet-based instruction in Taiwan. International Journal of Educational Development, 21 (5), 401--415.

Tyler, R. W. (1949) Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

von Glasersfeld, E. (1993) Questions and answers about radical constructivism. In K. Tobin (ed.), The Practice of Constructivism in Science Education (Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science), 23--38.

Willis, B., and Dickinson, J. (1997) Distance education and the world wide web. In B. H. Khan (ed.), Web-based Instruction (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publication), 81--84.

Woodhead, N. (1991) Hypertext and Hypermedia: Theory and Applications (Wilmslow, England: Sigma Press).

 

 

---

Publisher's information |  | Other Op-eds and Commentary