KAREN CHAN
Three years ago, the University of Macau (UM) foresaw the wide usage of the Internet. By the end of 1998, UM established an on-line education program, Webcourse as a supplement for teaching.
"Students can freely access course materials or related information on Webcourse at any time," stated Steve Lai, the Head of Information Management Services in the Computer Service Bureau (CSB).
Webcourse provides functions such as e-mail, on-line chatting, course schedules, bulletins, a glossary, a scoring system, on-line quizzes and a discussion forum. Lecturers can give assignments through Webcourse.
Webcourse also provides a clear record of the number of times students access it so that their course progress can be checked from time to time. For students, they can have access to their lecturers any time and any where.
In the beginning, only 20 lecturers joined this program. Currently, there are about 30 lecturers participating with nearly 1,000 student users. UMAC BRIDGES interviewed 20 students and 10 lecturers about Webcourse.
"Although it takes me a lot of time to put the course on-line, it also helps save time in correcting quizzes by using the program's scoring system," claimed Cristina Sousa, a Faculty of Business Administration (FBA) lecturer who is using Webcourse to assist her in the courses Introduction to Business and The Principles of Marketing.
" I think it would be better if the
information of all of the courses could be provided on Webcourse so that I could
have a look at the outline of all courses," suggested Winnie, an FBA student.
"In my opinion, Webcourse is good since its purpose is to act as a supplementary tool for teaching and learning," expressed Angus Cheong, a lecturer in the Institute Chinese Studies (ICS). He continued, " but I'll not completely rely on it because machines can't replace human beings. Only humans can improve the quality of teaching."
"I think Webcourse helps us a lot in our learning, for instance, we can get the latest information any time without returning to UM," said Michelle, a Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSH) student.
Half of the interviewed students and lecturers responded that they knew nothing about Webcourse. Some of them had heard about it but they did not know much about its functions.
"This is the first time I heard about it," said Gong Zhi Guo, a Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) assistant professor. "I am keen to know more about this Webcourse."
"I don't know anything about Webcourse since I don't have any courses being taught this way," said Fiona, a Center for Pre-University Studies (CPU) student.
Steve Lai agreed that there was not enough promotion for Webcourse in UM, "seminars about the functions and advantages of Webcourse will be held in the future so that students and lecturers can have a full understanding of it."
He also pointed out that the main difficulty with Webcourse is that it needs the co-operation of both lecturers and students. He explained that Webcourse requires lecturers to be computer literate and to have an interest in using it.
"It is just a supplementary tool," he said, "and not a replacement for ordinary classes. Students still need to attend classes," stressed Lai.
