An Internet Technology Course for IT Curriculum: Integration of Multimedia Interactive Web Tools, In-class Active Learning and Community Participation

摘要

In this paper we introduce our experience with an "Introduction to Internet Technology" course that we developed as part of the IT curriculum at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The course is aimed at engineering and computer science non-majors. We faced the challenge of presenting nontechnical students with technical material. In order to meet this challenge we decided to incorporate in the course a number of techniques such as 1) multimedia interactive web based material such as multiple choice quizzes and interactive applets and 2) in class active learning methods such as demonstrations, hands on experiments, and group work. Another important goal for our course is interaction with area high schools, i.e., involve area high school students in our course as well as provide an opportunity to our students to interact with the high school students. To achieve this goal we integrated in our course the requirement of teaching in an area high school some of the topics that we have introduced in our class. We conclude that both the students and instructors had a very positive experience from using this combination of methods.