Using the Internet to improve university education: Problem-oriented web-based learning and the MUNICS environment

Up to this point, university education has largely remained
unaffected by the developments of novel approaches to web-based
learning. The paper presents a principled approach to the design of
problem-oriented, web-based learning at the university level. The
principles include providing authentic contexts with multimedia,
supporting collaborative knowledge construction, making thinking
visible with dynamic visualisation, quick access to content
resources via Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and
flexible support by tele-tutoring. These principles are used in the
Munich Net-based Learning In Computer Science (MUNICS) learning
environment, which is designed to support students of computer
science to apply their factual knowledge from the lectures to
complex real-world problems. For example, students can model the
knowledge management in an educational organisation with a
graphical simulation tool. Some more general findings from a
formative evaluation study with the MUNICS prototype are reported
and discussed. E.g., the students' ignorance of the additional
content resources is discussed in the light of the well-known
finding of insufficient use of help systems in software
applications