WWW-based seminar in the learning of Knowledge Work course

The Internet can be used to solve pedagogical problems. To give an example, seminars for crowded courses exceeding a hundred participants would not be possible without web-based arrangements. We organized a web-based coursework and seminar during the Knowledge Work and its Tools course for some students (experimental group). Simultaneously, we ran the same course including a conventional coursework and seminar for other students (control group). During the coursework and while in the seminar the students were expected to work in small groups. In the web-based seminar each group had their own workspace in the Web CT environment for publishing and presenting coursework. At the final phase the students were expected to familiarize themselves with the presentations of other groups. In this paper we analyze the benefits of the features of our WWW-based seminar based on pre- and post-questionnaires. These features include (1) the coursework generally, (2) authoring the coursework (3) familiarizing with the coursework of other groups, and (4) using a Web CT tool and its presentations feature. Additionally, we analyze how motivated the students were in the coursework. Generally, our study found that a web-based coursework and seminar is as beneficial as a conventional coursework and seminar However, while the older students were more motivated by the WWW-based coursework and seminar, the students of the faculty of information technology were more motivated by the conventional coursework and seminar.