DATE: A Distribution Aid for a Teaching Environment
Thomas Derham · 2001
A Distribution Aid for a Teaching Environment (DATE) is an integrated teaching framework, including a set of educational tools, that allows the capabilities of the World Wide Web to be used independent of the actual content material. This means that the DATE is applicable in widely varying circumstances. Its use is envisaged to range from secondary education, university teaching and postgraduate development to industrial training. It may be an international resource for countries that cannot afford access to expensive teaching materials and research equipment. Students may be at remote locations or may wish to view information asynchronously rather than in face-to-face lectures, tutorials and laboratories. The DATE system can help attract incoming students who are technologically aware. A major concern for an education service provider is to provide an environment that will allow registered users to perform authorised tasks while maintaining security and protection from unauthorised use. A prototype of this environment has been created by the use of server-side Java programming to provide a secure, scaleable gateway interface to information and applications. Example resources that are made available are: Static and dynamic teaching material (generated from a database), specialised dictionaries, a self-assessment quiz, a bulletin board, lecturer-tutor-student interaction and automatic grading. Individual lecturers supply the appropriate material. Resources can be held on any participating third party server. Departmental administrators retain autonomy using the centralised DATE administration system to manage user accounts, to control availability or to alter location of resources. The system tracks users via a centralised access log and this allows inter-departmental billing for special resources. (5 pages)