This web-site was initiated as a project for Susan Davis, Instructor of  GRAT:  701  Instructional Design in Multimedia Communications at Chestnut Hill College in Spring, 1999.   This course meets one of the requirements for the Certificate of Advanced Study in Restructured Environments.  Participation in this course was sponsored by the Wissahickon School District for School District Curriculum Integrators.

This web-site has been designed to use a Constructivist Learning approach to help Wissahickon High School itinerant support students improve their study skills.  Crucial to a student’s continued improvement in academics is the encouragement of a support team; therefore, this web-site was also designed to provide assistance to both teachers and parents.   Navigation controls give students the control  to choose which information to examine and the rate of the presentation.  Content is displayed with a visual approach.  Written text is minimized.  Pictures are used to illustrate alternative methods of study and organization.   Links to other sources are supplied to assist students to see other perspectives and alternatives, as well as, find additional information on topics of concern for the studenty.  Personalized communication between student and parent and teacher for additional support, encouragement, and feedback is facilitated by interfaces to dynamic web pages with personalized links to teacher’s e-mail.  In the future, students will create and display their own portfolio at this web-site.

The Itinerant Support Web-Site content has been divided into  the following sections:  Overview; Description of Itinerant Support Services at Wissahickon High School; Instruction in Study Skills and Organization Skills; Prototype Interface for obtaining student information and to facilitate communication between parents, students, and teachers over the internet; links for WWW sites for  students, parents, and teachers for: Study Skills and Organizational Instruction; Special Education Resources; Academic Resources in Mainstream Subject Areas.

To maximize the student’s learning experience, aspects of the computer-user-interface were analyzed and designed.  A variety of hyper-text navigational controls have been utilized.  Frames allow the major sections of this web-site to be accessed at any time.  The Overview of the web-site allows the student to see all topics at once and choose specific details to link to.  The browser allows the student to move forward and backward to review pages.   Previous and Next links provide the  student with a structured approach to see all of the web-site.  Background and font colors were chosen to enhance the screen design’s impact on legibility.  The size of the graphics were minimized to speed the transmission of the page. The screen was designed to provide a structured framework for the student to  incorporate new material with preaviously learned material.   The page length and the amount of text were minimized to facilitate the student’s acquisition of  knowledge.  Hyperlinked e-mail provides interactivity between students, parents, and teachers. This page was designed to run at low connection rates on different Browsers on a variety of internet connections.
 

Bibliography:

Barron, Ann E., Brendan Tompkins, and David Tai.  "Design Guidelines for the World Wide Web."  September 17, 1996.  On-line. Available http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/.

Burns, Holly M.  "Top Fifteen Mistakes of First Time Web Design."  January, 1997.  On-line.  Available http://www.doghause.com/top15.html.  December 13, 1998.

"Harnessing the Power of the Web." 1996-1999 Global SchoolNet Foundation . On-line.  Available http://www.gsn.org/web/. February 22, 1999.

Haslam, Elizabeth L., Ph.D.  "New designs for learning in technology-rich environments."  Drexel University Web Coonference, August 19, 1998.

HTML 4.0 Specification:   W3C Recommendation, revised on 24-Apr-1998."  On-line.  Available http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/.  February 15, 1999.

Nielsen, Jakob.  "Differenes Between Print Design and Web Design."  January 24, 1999.  On-line.  Available http://www.useit.com/alertbox/00-124.html.  January 26, 1999.