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USING THE INTRANET IN ChE INSTRUCTION
D AVID w. M. M ARR, J. D OUGLAS W AY Colorado School of Mines • Golden, CO 80401-1887
eflecting an overall information revolution, commu for browsing through the Internet are not only capable of nication across the Internet has evolved rapidly in surfing the net but also of distributing information within a R the past few years, from primarily text-based (e corporation, a university, or even within the classroom in a mail) information to graphically oriented material. This has similarly convenient fashion. In the same manner that these been due to the amazing growth of the World Wide Web browsers and the Internet have made accessing information (WWW) and the development of web browsers, beginning across the world nearly instantaneous and interesting, the with NCSA Mosaic but now including Microsoft's Internet intranet can be used to assist instruction and information Explorer (based on Mosaic) and the current market-dominat distribution within the classroom. 111 ing Netscape. The academic community has, for a number Wouldn' t it be nice to of years, been fervent in its use of the Internet (how long could we survive without e-mail?) and has expanded its use • Improve your undergraduate courses with your exist as the Internet has grown. The desire to remain at the fore ing campus network? front of information technology has led to significant aca • Improve communication with your students and col demic discussion concerning the use of the WWW and the leagues? Internet in undergraduate and graduate education _l2-4J • Save resources (such as paper) by publishing assign Much of the discussion about using the Internet has con ments, solutions, course syllabi, exams, and quizzes on cerned incorporation of the vast amount of information avail the WWW? able across the Web into the curriculum. Given a Universal • Publish grades and scores on the intranet while pro Resource Locator (URL-basically a web address), one can tecting students' security? immediately travel throughout the world and obtain infor mation (text, images, files, programs, etc.) that have been • Provide assistance to students outside of the classroom posted on the Internet. The tools that have been developed or office hours? • Provide student access to course materials twenty-four David W.M. Marr is Assistant Professor of chemi cal engineering and petroleum refining at the hours a day ( and thereby eliminate a host of common Colorado School of Mines. He received his BS excuses)? from the University of California, Berkeley (1988) and his PhD from Stanford (1993). His research • Obtain truly anonymous feedback from students? interests include interfacial phenomena, complex fluids, semicrystalline polymer blends and com • Advertise your course to a broader audience both on posites, and scattering techniques. campus and outside your school?
The goal of this article is to describe our efforts to incorpo J. Douglas Way is Associate Professor of chemi rate the intranet into the instruction of an undergraduate cal engineering and petroleum refining at the Colo chemical engineering course and to relay those aspects of rado School of Mines. He received his BS, MS, and PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder. the incorporation that appeared to be most useful. We will His research interests include novel separation also give some tips for developing Web-based materials, processes, membranes, catalytic membrane re actors, and biopolymer adsorbents for heavy metal including a discussion of the current status of Web standard ...._...._.-L..--...... 1 remediation of ground and surface water. development and the various tools available to aid in Web
© Copyright ChE Division of ASEE 1997 110 Chemical Engineering Education page construction. In our own experience, some of the things ability to incorporate supplemental course materials such as we have attempted have worked quite well, while others pictures, diagrams, videos, and even links to other informa have been less successful. We hope that those who attempt tion sources across the Internet. Having the course home to duplicate our efforts in their own department at some time page also provides a ready means of communicating with in the future can benefit from this discussion. the class outside of the lecture, thereby giving the instructor some flexibility in the course outline. In COMPUTER INTEGRATION AT general, though, and especially in this COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES The tools that have been initial incorporation of the Web into our At the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), developed for browsing course, we hoped that making class ma terials readily accessible to students out we are well poised for incorporating the through the Internet are Web into undergraduate chemical engineer side of the classroom would aid in their ing instruction. This is due to a large dona not only capable of surfing assimilation of the subject matter. tion and the construction of the Bernard th e net but also of Coady computer laboratory incorporating 22 distributing information WHAT IS HTML? IBM RS/6000 workstations in a classroom within a . . . classroom in In order to use standard Web brows environment. These workstations are used a similarly convenient ers in displaying classroom materials, throughout the undergraduate chemical en fashion. In the same the documents and graphics must be for gineering curriculum,151 primarily as a tool matted in the language of the Internet. for using the ASPEN and Provision simula manner that these This requires converting documents pre torsc6·71 in courses ranging from the initial browsers and the Internet pared by other means (LaTeX, Word, mass/energy balances course all the way have made accessing Excel, etc.) into Hypertext Markup Lan through the senior design course. This work information across the guage (HTML). Once they have been station classroom is also used in teaching world nearly converted to HTML, any browser soft organic chemistry with Spartan molecular instantaneous and ware can be used to preview the docu modeling and visualization software.181 ments before they are added to the course interesting, the intranet Web site. Because of the required and heavy use of can be used to assist networked workstations in their other Hypertext Markup Language is a rela coursework, students have ready access to instruction and ti vely simple means of preparing docu the Internet. In addition, many students also information distribution ments in a manner that various browsers have access to the Web from their home or within the classroom. can use to display information in a for dorm via dial-up access to the CSM net matted manner. Preparing documents in work or other external networks (such as HTML, particularly simple text-based Compuserve and America On-Line) and are able to readily materials, can be quite easy. The HTML "language" is text obtain classroom information. In fact, a recent survey of heat based and can therefore be created and read with a large transfer undergraduates showed that every single student in number of applications and word processors. Various tools the class knew how to access the WWW and that fully two for converting files such as those produced by Word, thirds of them could access the Web from their home/dorm. Excel, and LaTeX to HTML are available on the Internet. For those who are interested in preparing their own docu WHY USE THE INTRANET? ments directly, or in optimizing files created using con Academicians are not noted for having a lot of free time, verters, a number of excellent tutorials are available on so the first question one of them usually asks is, "What do I the Internet. They include: get in return for the time investment required to incorporate • A Beginner's guide to HTML the Web into classroom instruction?" It is a difficult ques http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/lntemet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html tion to answer because the Web is always evolving-prob • A Bare Bones Guide to HTML ably at a rate proportional to the rise in the use of the http://werbach.com/barebones/barebone_html.html Internet itself. As the number of uses for the Internet increases, so do the conceivable applications of having • The Web Designer such a resource available. http://web.canlink.com/webdesign (This site has a great list of the converters currently available on the Internet for the various Our approach in this initial use of Web-based materials computer programs and platforms.) has been foc used on the ability to rapidly disseminate infor mation in a convenient manner. There are, however, a num In addition to the above, Java is the latest development in ber of other possible advantages in using the Web to aid in incorporating new capabilities into Internet browsing soft the instruction of an undergraduate course. They include the ware. Developed at Sun Microsystems, Java is a true pro-
Spring /997 JI I gramming language for the Internet that, in its simplest page prevented many students from showing up at the form, allows incorporation of animation into Web pages.191If door and finding us unavailable. your browser is Java-capable (most current browsers are Course Syllabus • A description of our policies on Netscape has such versions available for UNIX worksta grading, homework, and exams so that students would tions, PCs, and Macs), a great site for exploring its capabili always have access to the information. ties is Course Outline • A description of where we expected http://www.javasoft.com/applets to be throughout the course. Course Obiectives • Outlines of what we intend for Also, for a glimpse of the educational possibilities of Java, the students to learn throughout the course. see Office Hours • Office hours are given. http://www.gamelan .com/ Schedules • Our weekl y schedules are displayed so We did not attempt to include Java into the class home students will know when we are available. This also pages; in fact, Netscape browsers including Java were not makes it convenient for other professors or secretaries available until the middle of the spring semester in 1996. who are trying to put together meetings (such as com Certainly though, Java has potential for aiding in instruction mittee meetings). When we receive e-mail asking about and providing demos that would be more readily assimilated by the 'Nintendo' generation. 13 Netscape: CEPR 308 Qi EXAMPLES FROM ¢o Q• @ ~ Pl!l.i 8 ~ Reload •. Slop UNDERGRADUATE HEAT TRANSFER Bock IFo~rd l !. I lf'M9H Op•n Pril'lt I find I ~ II The authors have each taught a section of a L~tton: http : / / www.mines .edu :8080 / academic / chem,ng I c lassts / cr308 / .'tlh•t's Ntw? I 'tlh•I'• Cool? I ~boo!< Not S•oroh I Ntt Diroctorv I Softvart semester-long junior-level heat transfer class with a total enrollment of 75 students. In gen eral, most of the features we placed on the class home page were well received by the students in the course. To keep track of general usage, Urgent we used a counter similar to an automobile Messages odometer (see •11iAa' 9& Ti.at : MVF 10- 18:50 http://www.digits.com for a nice counter that runs externally and can Offic•: 443 A.Ll•rso._ I all Offiu ·••n: tiT 3':99-t:oe, tr 2 :00 .... :00, I 11 :00~12:DO 2 :00-3 :00 keep track of such things) . The number of times Yukl y Se._d•lA l:a.ail; ltray:@ai.au.•h the class home page was accessed during the ,-"{ ! ,ii Proftssor Da:rit V .M. Marr I , I semester was about fifty times (hits) per week, OUi«•: • 3 7 uu,.~·- Iall ~ -, lnstrudor lnformati.on, totaling around 850. Specific usage statistics, OUiu Ions: )f :1 :00-4 :00,. TTli. 12:00w2 :08 Ycckly ScMhlc ~ Office Hours, Links to however, were not compiled, so the number of J:aiioil: ~-.ia• s .• h , Home Pages and Email times students were accessing homework solu v, En. NeCarley Olfiu: a5S 6.Ucn:o». .S:iilll tions versus course grades, for example, were Otfi.4!• IH~ ~ TT1.. 11 :ft0 -12:80 not kept. (Some usage information was ob la.ail: kaee•rlc@a •rhai.tc.-.ia.cs .•I• j Class Assignmenu and tained directly from the students during class 1 Soluti.ons. <..-;,__J Feedback Fonns and evaluations, however, the results of which are '-..r--i Grades available • Scorts: Cl!301A Cl!308B shown graphically in Figure 4, which will be . only within mines.edu____, • Gn .itrs : R:o)ia. lelott., •uu :Ra.lkt __ di scussed in detail later.) I OUM• ••us : T 9 :15- 10:88 Alb:N•• Iall, f outk floor le•a.ac GENERAL INFORMATION ,., ...... L___j • ' Vanous Class Reference The class home page (see Figure 1) includes: Materials
Urgent Messages • These were placed at the ~ "l"Uib to \M CX.1.1: 3 08, .. oa11 ••t• si.u:c lr/196 beginning of the course page and blinked if . .Zut lTr,l.t~~ Ll.'"✓~6 they were particularly urgent. Example mes sages included reminders of upcoming ex ams or changes in scheduled class quizzes. This feature also proved extremely useful when sudden changes in office hours were Figure 1. CEPR 308 home page. necessary-placing an announcement on the http://www. mi nes.edu/ academic/ chemeng/c lasses/ cr308 .s96 11 2 Chemical Engineering Education availability, we give out our URLs. This also turns however, large strides are being made to address this prob out to be useful information for other researchers that lem. For example, Microsoft has made available tools that we collaborate with across the country-by having work directly with Microsoft Office-for example, "Internet such a guide available, they know the best times to try Assistant," available at to contact us directly. http://www.microsoft.com/word/work.htm Practical Issues • As discussed above, translators from software we typically use to prepare course materials are HOMEWORK, QUIZZES, AND EXAMS extremely useful. Examples include Text:ToHTML (freeware Weekly homework assignments were distributed both in for the Macintosh) that can convert Microsoft Word docu class and on the Web. When students would ask ifwe had an ments (or any word-processing software that can save files extra copy of the homework, we would tell them it could be in rich text, or RTF, format) to HTML. The major drawback downloaded from the Web at their leisure-about half-way of these translators is that embedded graphics are not dealt through the semester they stopped asking. Solutions to the with in a simple manner. One typically needs to deal with homework problems were also available on the Web, as an them separately (converting them from their original format aid in solving the assigned problems. Having the solutions to gif or jpeg) and then either embedding them or including available on the Web meant that students could access them links to them from the converted HTML file. Currently, when they were most needed-the night before the home- work was due and after the li
Netscape: EHam # I brary had closed. Quizzes were typically given fon,.,-ard Home II biweekly, and if a quiz were de loc•tton : Ih ttp ://magm, .Mints.EDU :8080/academic/chem,ng/cluns/cr308/u sign / ex I / 'w'hat~s Ntw? I 'w'hat"s Cool? I Hindbook j Net Surch I Ntt O\rt,etory I Software layed, an announcement to that effect would be placed on the En.au CR 3C•8. Sp~ iltmut,r 1996 class home page. Quiz solutions were also posted on the Web,just Opn1. i•llOk, (:,p.,IL lLOlU WtiU VOW JWSlt OJI. 1!.vtt'V p,.gt . Stalll ill 1.::nua.pt10i,s itlow ill '.·.'Olk o, J.J) cr"tb.t as the homework solutions were. If you. us, IAd.itWW piptr, put your lWl.t 011. u.cl i,,.gt u,l m .pll! ill JJ..?o:: ,; 1og1t~r P.t:-1 tht ell.tin tK&.m hfore ~bit~ As far as midterm exams were (30 po~,)
1.GiVtu ., cyliJ.diicU C•)k'to>l vt·l11ae of i~Jl.gtb. I. Ut•l concerned, the exam and its solu rdius h, Stt up ~M simphfy tb.t i4\Wioll:i tlw. :.1. \1.St he $Olvtof i1 ordtrto dttU'llW tht ltJllftrnlJJ'! profili. Tkt tions were posted on the Web after ~c-JJ.rl)l Nlll.ll-: i: b.u.td tl1tri..•lly oa tlr.~ si , ...... "- ~ ently no real standard for Internet D j i" '! L browsing software or the com I,- ~-11: puters that run them. CuJTently, Netscape controls about 85% of the market, so the pages we have written are designed for it.l 1l For 1't1 L. tl. \j text-based solutions there is no , · •" t "!" .h \ - 1"".,,. ~ .... ;J i t- 1 _ problem since text typically I comes across clear and easy to b .ill read on any browser capable of Figure 2. Clicking on the solution link displays scanned accessing the class home pages. image of problem solution. Many of the solutions for the un- Spring /997 11 3 dergraduate heat transfer course, however, are equations or At CSM, student scores at the end of the semester are posted mathematical derivations, and there is currently no HTML outside professor's doors via their student numbers. It doesn' t standard for marking up equations (although this should seem prudent to use these to post their grades to the Internet, so change when HTML 3.0 becomes available). Subscripts and grade numbers were randomly generated instead. Also, to superscripts are supported with the and com fu1ther make grades inaccessible to those who have no particu mands, respectively, but a comprehensive math environment lar need to peruse them, access to this part of the class home has yet to be incorporated. Current plans call for equation page was limited to our local domain, commands in a flavor simi lar to LaTeX to be incorporated rnines.edu into this environments (in fact, there is a converter available called math2htm1 that will convert equations typeset in LaTeX For httpd servers, the process can be a relatively simple one. One need only create a particular file within the UNIX to HTML 3.0). Until the full math environment is incorpo directory in which access for Internet users at large is to be rated into the most popular browsers, however, writing equa tions in HTML 3.0 will make little sense. Currently, there prevented (see Figure 3). Preventing access in this manner, however, has a disadvantage in that students accessing the fore, the process involves writing out the solutions and then class home page from home using an outside vendor scanning them into the computer as an image file for display (Compuserve, etc.) will be unable to see their grades. on the Web (gif and jpeg are the most common formats). These images can appear quite different on different com In regards to grade preparation, spreadsheets are a conve puters with different browsers and different monitors of nient way to keep track of scores, and there are tools avail differing resolutions. This makes displaying solutions for all able for translating such documents into Web-based files . users in a readable and printable fashion extremely difficult. Specifically, translators from Microsoft Excel to HTML are Our final solution was a compromise arrived at through an available-two examples include XTML (shareware) and iterative process involving feedback from students with CSV-to-HTML (freeware), both available on the net at widely differing setups. For those who prepare their docu http://www .shareware.com ments using LaTeX, another solution is available-the LaTeX2HTML converter found at FEEDBACK http://cbl.leeds.ac.uk/nikos/tex2htrnl/doc/latex2html/latex2html.html One of the interesting things that can be done with the This application will convert the entire document to HTML, latest browsers is the incorporation of forms into Web pages. including equations, not through the markup expected to be Properly designed, this capability can be used to solicit available in HTML 3.0, but by converting them into graphic anonymous feedback from the students (see Figure 4). The files that can be directly incorporated. Most of us, however, opportunity to deliver anonymous feedback to an instructor do not prepare our homework assignments and solutions in can be taken advantage of, however, particularly in an un LaTeX, so we eagerly await the full incorporation of the new dergraduate course. For the most part though, feedback was standard into Netscape and the other popular browsers. quite positive and was typically directed at getting us to do more demos in class. Having such feed A side note about the full implemen back during the course, as opposed to tation of HTML 3.0 is that the only the end of the course, allows incorpo browser that includes this is Arena, avail rating suggestions in a timely fashion. able at To limit access to a specific unix If an anonymous feedback form is used, http://www.w3.org directory within domain mines.edu we suggest that a response section also This browser, however, is not intended create a file named ".htaccess" be included to allow for replies to the as commercial software and is cur which contains: concerns submitted as feedback. rently used only for development of Practical Issues • Setting up a form future standards. AuthUserFile / dev / null for the course home page is a little more AuthGroupFile / dev / null difficult than standard HTML markup. GRADES AuthName Example AuthType Basic It requires not only preparing an HTML Grades, including homework, quiz, and document that can handle the entering exam scores, are posted on the Web. This 80% REFERENCES 1. 70% Levy, S., "The Browser War," Newsweek, 127(18), 47 (1 996) 2. Fogler, S., and J .C. Piana, "Development of an Undergradu 60% ate Course Web Site," Cache News, 42, 17 (1996) 3. Bungay, H., and W. Kuchinski, "The World Wide Web for 50% Teaching Chemical Engineering," Chem. Eng. Ed., 29(3), 40% 162 (1995) 4. Terry, T.M., "Teaching Microbiology with the World Wide 30% Web," ASM N ews, 61, 401 (1995) 20% 5. Dorgan, J.R., and J.T. McKinnon, "Mathematica in the ChE Curriculum," Chem. Eng. Ed., 30(2), 136 (1996) 10% 6. ASPEN Plus version 9.0, Aspen Tech, Cambridge, MA 02141 (http://www.aspentec.com) 0% 0.. 0 !) 7. Provision, Simulation Sciences Inc., Brea, CA 92621 (http:// -;; - .l!l ~ :r: -g www .simsci.com) ~ 1 () .,,·c g u 8. Spartan Version 4.0, Wavefunction Inc., Irvine, CA 92715 i5 w IE i8 9. See, for example, van Hoff, A., S. Shaio, and 0 . Starbuck, 8 "' Hooked on Java, Addison-Wesley (1996) 10. See, for example, Savola, T. , "Special Edition Using HTML," Figure 5. Student-use statistics. Que Corp. (1995) 0 Spring /997 115