Language(s)

French

Learner level

Intermediate

Institution

Department of French, University of Exeter

Name(s)

Contact details

Objectives

With increasing student numbers, there is inevitably pressure on the system, particularly around the time of assignments. Through my own art historical research, I have become aware just how much is available on the WWW in terms of image banks, information about museums and galleries, and individual artists. Moreover, the quality of images on the WWW is now extremely good. I wanted to make the students aware that the WWW is a valuable additional resource, and also enable them to undertake their own independent research (eg. for presentations).

Implementation

Construction of the Website

I planned the website around four major areas:
1. Details of the course (lectures, seminar schedules, bibliography)
2. Week by week seminar preparation, with images and texts
3. Links to other useful art history resources on the web
4. Details of a forthcoming study visit to Paris, open to everyone taking the module (to be updated regularly)

As a complete beginner to the design of websites, I had a number of meetings from a member of the IT support staff (PALLAS). With his help, I was able to design the various pages, learn and use HTML, and scan in images. I now feel that I have a basic competence in this area. From the start, I was working under pressure of time. Due to other commitments, I only began working on the project in mid-September although I hoped to have the site ready before I started teaching the module in early October. In fact, I had a ‘skeleton site’ up by the start of term, but I only managed to put in the images by the end of Week 3. I still have not put in the texts by Diderot to accompany these images (although students had their own printed versions of these). This was unfortunate in that I was unable to encourage the students into regular patterns of use from the start, though in future this should not be a problem.

Outcome

I distributed a questionnaire to the 34 students who took the module in order to gauge how much they had used the site and how satisfied they were with it. It had the additional purpose of finding out whether they felt they had the relevant IT skills to use the WWW with confidence. 11 questionnaires were returned. I also talked informally with the students about the site and about IT resources. Below is my analysis of their responses to each question:

1. 9 out of the 11 students found the site either ‘quite useful’ or ‘very useful’. Of the two students who admitted that they had barely used the site, one commented that he/she had discovered it rather late in the day, and ‘thought it was really good’. Overall then, I deduce that the site is a success.

2. Time spent using the site ranged from ‘a quick glance’ to 8 hours, with an average of about 2 hours. I feel that this is not bad for a first time run, but that there is scope for increasing student use (see Suggestions for Improvement, below).

3. Opinion varied on which parts of the site were the most useful, with the ‘Reproductions of Paintings’ and ‘Links to other WWW Resources’ proving the most popular. This was as I had anticipated.

4. Those who did not use the site much claimed that they would go back to it when revising for the exam (human nature, I suppose!) Only one student commented that he/she thought the course had been sufficiently covered through traditional teaching methods. Only one admitted to being something of a technophobe.

5. Regarding further improvements to the site, there was widespread support for adding lecture handouts and texts by Diderot to accompany the pictures (which I had originally planned to do). Unsurprisingly, there was little support for moving over to a ‘paperless’ course, whereby lecture/seminar schedules and bibliographies are no longer distributed in photocopied format. I am not sure whether this is an aim, at school, university or national level, but I feel that, if so, there will be some resentment amongst students at further ‘downloading’ of costs, should they be required to make their own printouts from the web. Access to printers appears to be a problem too.

6. (see Suggestions for Improvement, below)

7. 8 students claimed to be adequately prepared for using the WWW; however 2 students thought that they definitely needed assistance. One student commented that she was lucky enough to have a boyfriend who was a ‘computer genius’, which points to the fact that a number of students have no formal training in this area, and appear to ‘get by’ with the help of friends.

Evaluation

1. I believe that a major factor in the success of the site lies in ‘marketing’ it properly to students. Due to time pressures outlined above, I was unable to do this fully this time round. Next year I can begin the process much earlier, advertising the site in module booklets, from which students select their module choices. On the advice of several students, I would also like to run a brief session on the use of the site at the start of the course (perhaps in conjunction with IT staff?). By getting a glimpse of what is there, the students will be more encouraged to go back to it. Also, now that the images are in place, I can insist on regular preparation in advance of the seminars (ie. by implying “you won’t understand anything unless you look it up on the web”). In retrospect, my initial assumption that students would function automatically as independent learners in this area was over-ambitious: they clearly need pointing in the right direction at the outset, using ‘human’ teaching methods.

2. I am reluctant at present to respond to 2 students’ requests that I incorporate lecture notes onto the site for 2 reasons: firstly, the issue of intellectual property; secondly, the risk of discouraging them from attending. I would welcome guidance on these two points. Has any research been done on the latter?

3. There is evidence that some form of IT training would be useful to a minority of students.

4. The issue of IT facilities has croppped up repeatedly. Though students acknowledged that improvements have been made over the summer, there is scope for improvement in a number of areas. Firstly, I am surprised by the level of ignorance amongst students as to what facilities are open to them (eg. most were unaware of the beautiful new Foreign Language Centre, and some thought that PALLAS room 4 was only for postgraduates and staff).Surely this could be publicised in some way (Departmental Handbook? PALLAS?). There were also complaints about slow machines (particularly trying when downloading images) and limited printing facilities. One student suggested that computers could be freed up and queues avoided by introducing a ‘read only’ email facility.

Project url