1. 1 Is optional web-based seminar an effective way of learning as a part of information management and information systems development course? Pekka Makkonen University of Jyväskylä

2. 2 ► founded in 1934 ► one of the largest universities in Finland ► total income 176,9 million euros ► 7 faculties ► over 15 700 students ► staff about 2 500 London Paris Berlin Madrid Rome Athens UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ

3. 3 Course An undergraduate course for the first-year majors: Information management and information systems development Themes –(1) administrative view to information resources management, –(2) technological view to information resources management, –(3) building information systems, and –(4) organizational applications

4. 4 Why web-based seminar? Combining learning based both cognitive and social constructivism –In the first phase students gathered information and presented that stuff in well-organized way –In the second phase students familiarized themselves with presentations produced by other students

5. 5 How? Working in small groups (1 to 3 students) Composing coursework reports in which they reported –What they learnt by reading lecture handout –What they learnt by searching for information on the web about the course themes We utilized the Optima e-learning platform and its shared workspace feature Presentations were put in the Optima workspace on the web Other groups commented on the outcomes

6. 6 Screenshot

7. 7 Our research goals How students’ knowledge was improved How students experienced coursework in general Evaluating the effect of age, group size, gender and faculty on learning

8. 8 What we got The WWW-based coursework was equally useful in the learning in most cases. –The statistical analysis did not show any difference between the groups except for the learning of building information systems. The general attitude was positive (mean 4.02 in the scale 1 to 5) Younger students appear to benefit from the web- supported coursework The web-supported coursework is beneficial for males The students of IT benefit more from the web-based arrangements

9. 9 Next step Improving this teaching setting Problem-based coursework focusing on the problematic concepts of the learning area In this way students can teach each other better by providing more varied collection of web presentations from different perspectives