Designing a website using word and image resources to promote active learning

Xie Ning, Zhang Xiao and Wu Ping
SW Jiaotong University
Chengdu, China

In the World Wide Web, objective question systems mainly use images and words in html files to show science and technology information for tests and exercises. The web-page uses databases to store word information and dynamically construct html files with image files. In relation to word resources, we have designed a website in which students can study identical words in associated questions through a word query function and can then study together questions with, for example, the same concepts or notions which are gathered in the same web. As regards images (the scanning of which may involve more direct learning than reading words), we took into account the importance of 'concepts', 'mathematics' and 'models' in studying science and technology. We therefore classified all image files into three groups -- symbols, equations and figures -- and used the symbol group to represent concepts and formulas, the equation group to represent mathematics and the figure group to represent models. Then, by showing the same group of images in the same web-pages, students can study the questions using a backward method by reviewing the concepts through symbols, mathematics through equations and models through figures. By selecting an image that corresponds to their existing knowledge, students can recall their answers and study the questions again. Using images to backtrack fresh knowledge is more consistent with effective learning procedures and the knowledge-gathering process in science and technology. The above methods promote learning better than when students just passively select correct answers from those listed by others or only browse websites. This paper outlines and explains the implementation of a physics exercise web system using MS Asp technology and an Access database.