Distributing Course Materials Through Online Assistance

Often times a professor encourages students to review lecture topics, book chapters, and papers prior to class.This preparation allows students to become familiar with the lecture subject and provides opportunity for in-class discussion.It is also ideal in a laboratory setting to distribute experimental data to the entire class with minimal effort.The author currently utilizes a webbased educational tool called Blackboard .This online resource allows instructors to distribute course information, lecture notes, handouts, papers, and laboratory data to students.Group pages are created to allow laboratory groups to communicate and transfer data to one another.The first author currently teaches a junior level civil engineering materials course at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center.This course has been taught with and without Blackboard assistance.The course CE 3141, Materials Testing Lab, is taught more effectively as a result of distributing course materials and data online.Laboratory groups process data and develop laboratory reports without meeting through online group communication and file download capabilities.This mode of delivering materials to students eliminates printing and copying by the instructor and distribution during class time.Grades can be posted by the instructor and viewed by students.The tools available using online assistance allow students to access course announcements, lecture notes, lab handouts and data at any hour of the day.In addition, a course can be taught completely online with digitally recorded lectures.Students comment on being better prepared due to having seen the lecture notes and handouts prior to class.Web-based educational tools can enhance the learning experience in the classroom.