[Dissemination on Internet] [Acknowledgements] [Title page]
Implementation
We are disseminating our electronic curriculum with a Silicon Graphics Indigo [5] equipped with a 2 GB disk and connected to SUNY Binghamton's T3 Internet access line provided by NYSERNET. We are using the NCSA server version 1.4 [6] and cgi scripts written in PERL 5.0 [7]. We have written our html code to take advantage of many of the proposed features of HTML 3.0 [8], such as tables and figures. Currently all video and animation are in QuickTime format [9], although we expect the final format to be MPEG. Molecular structures are viewed with the external program RASMOL [10].
The site has been tested with Mosaic, Netscape, Lynx, and the browsers from America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe, with Internet connections ranging from 9600 baud modem to T3. The graphical interface we developed works well at the higher speed connections, but bogs down considerably at typical modem speeds. Since world-wide accessibility at modem speeds is a key feature of our product, we are developing a version of our site that has minimal graphics. The site will be used in introductory chemistry courses at the SUNY University Centers during the Fall semester, 1995.
Two types of navigation have been implemented. One is the usual hypertext navigation in which a user can jump from page to page in any order he or she wishes. The user relies on the browser's navigational aids such as back, forward and history to keep track of the path. We have also implemented an "instructor's path" in which a user can follow a page sequence designed by the instructor. For this kind of navigation, the site can be viewed as a traditional book, chapter and section hierarchy.
Other features of the site include a searchable index and glossary, table of contents, mail, explore and assessment. Mail can be used to send messages to instructors and teaching assistants. Explore is used to guide the user out of the introductory chemistry WWW site to other chemistry sites around the world.
Two types of assessment have been implemented. One type is a self-assessment in which the user obtains immediate feedback on his or her answers to questions posed by the site. Another type of assessment is one in which user's answers are stored in a database to be graded or commented on by an instructor.