Hyper-Link Teaching and Intelligent Slides: Complemntary Strategies to Foster Active Learning
Sandeep Purao
Active learning opportunities are an important element ofcourse design. Most current lecture and course formats do notprovide any overt means to encourage this activity-active learning. Thispaperproposes two complementary strategies that directly contribute to this objective. The first, hyper-link teaching, is an alternative mode ofin-class lecture delivery. Executing this mode ofteaching requires preparing class handouts as anchorsfor discussions and sharing control over class conduct with the students. The second, intelligent slides, resembles information bases that we enhance with electronic links, to facilitate exploration ofconcepts by students outside the classroom. Executing this approach requires leveraging existing slides to include electronic hyper-links across related materials and delivering the materials to students over the world-wide-web. This paper outlines the author'sprogressionfrom early use ofhyper-link teaching through its current version, which integrates intelligent slides. Each technique is motivated, demonstrated, andprimary indications are providedabout its usefulness. Over aperiodoftwo years, these techniques have been successfully integrated in undergraduate and graduate IS courses. Lessons learned during this time are shared with the readers. Educators may benefit from initiating either technique, and then integrating the other ifand when they need.
Sandeep Purao is an assistant professor of computer information systems at Georgia State University. He received his Ph.D. from University of WisconsinMilwaukee. His primary research interests are in various aspects of design of object-oriented systems such as reuse, measurement, and distribution. He also oversees the Designing Informing Systems section of the electronic journal Informing Science. His research has appeared or is slated to appear injournals such as Communications ofthe ACM, Information & Management and Decision Support Systems, as well as several international conferences
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