AN EVALUATION OF THE USE OF INTERNET SOURCES AS A BASIS FOR GEOGRAPHYCOURSEWORK

Use of the Internet is proliferating rapidly, with mounting speculatio n as to the practical applications for teaching in higher (and other s ectors of) education, yet few published or evaluated case studies are available. This paper explores the use of Internet sources on geograph y courses. For various academic, logistic and philosophical reasons th at are discussed, students were not given full access to the Internet, but were exposed to a variety of current Internet-sourced material do wnloaded onto a network fileserver, and encouraged to communicate inte rnally and externally using electronic mail. This procedure maintained some of the vitality and stimulation of open access to the Internet, whilst providing some control over potential dangers inherent in this untested teaching medium. Evaluations of the student coursework perfor mance on, and perception of, courses involving the Internet indicate n o significant impairment in either during the first staging of the cou rse, but substantial improvement in both, relative to similar modules running concurrently, during the second year of operation. We suggest that controlled use of the Internet provides both lecturer and student with practical exposure to this medium with low academic risk and min imal costs, which may lead to enhanced learning.