Learning and teaching on the world wide web. Christopher R. Wolfe (ed). Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 2001. No. of pages 278. ISBN 0-12-761891-0. Price $64.95 (hardback).

✍ Scribed by Katherine Austin Stalcup; William S. Maki

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 33 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0888-4080
• DOI: 10.1002/acp.873

✦ Synopsis

Book Reviews

Learning about learning on the web LEARNING AND TEACHING ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB. Christopher R. Wolfe (ed). Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 2001. No. of pages 278. ISBN 0-12-761891-0. Price $64.95 (hardback).

This book opens by reminding us of two remarkable facts about the current state of affairs in academe. First, the Web is an increasingly visible part of college courses, both those taught on campus and those offered at a distance. Second, the pace of development of the Web and other learning technologies exceeds the growth in empirical research that might scientifically ground the use of such technology for educational purposes. The book is supposed to contribute significantly to the reconciliation of the aforementioned facts. At the outset, we are repeatedly told about the scientific aims of the book. In the preface, Wolfe tells us that a 'goal of this book is to place the development of Web-based learning resources on solid psychological foundations' (p. xxiii). In Chapter 1 (by Wolfe), 'teaching on the Web is an art that can-and should-be informed by empirical research and sound psychological principles' (p. 1). As such, the book 'will be indispensable to both psychologists and educational researchers interested in learning, as well as to practitioners of educational technology' (p. xxiii). In our review, we compare claims to content, asking how well the book measures up to the stated goals and promised outcomes.

The book includes twelve chapters that address learning issues (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5), teaching methods (Chapters 6 and 7), teaching applications (Chapters 4 and 8), social and psychological issues related to internet use and abuse (Chapters 9-11), as well as a closing essay on the differences between Web-based learning and classroom-based learning using traditional textbooks (Chapter 12). The last four chapters address broad issues that are in themselves important topics of study, but only the first eight chapters seem directly relevant to the title and stated goal for the book.

As we read the chapters on learning and teaching we were disturbed by the paucity of references to experimental or quasi-experimental studies of the effectiveness of Web-based learning or teaching. Britt and Gabrys (Chapter 4) briefly report on a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design evaluating the 'Sourcer's Apprentice', a Java-based tool for teaching literacy skills to high-school students. However, citations of other such reports are rare or non-existent. We searched for citations listed in each of the first eight chapters that appeared to be published in peer-reviewed journals and that appeared to report original empirical research on the effectiveness of computermeditated learning and teaching generally, and the effectiveness of the Web for learning and teaching specifically. Of the 445 citations, we counted only 30 (6.7%) that we judged to be generally related to the Web (e.g. learning from hypermedia) and only 7 (1.6%) that we judged to be concerned specifically with evaluating the effectiveness of the Web for learning and teaching. The remaining citations are mostly reports of test development and validation, reports of product development, announcements of use of technology for teaching, review articles and chapters, and opinion pieces. We suggest that these statistics reflect a general lack of experimental and quasi-experimental research evaluating Web-based learning applications (cf. Maki et al., 2000). We have the same concern, more generally, about the lack of rigorous research on educational applications of hypermedia (Dillon and Gabbard, 1998).

In summary, the chapters in Learning and Teaching on the World Wide Web explore many interesting theoretical avenues and practical issues concerning the Internet experience, but we were disappointed with the lack of experimental evaluation research. Thus, in this important sense the book falls short of accomplishing its stated goals.