During the Induction Programme for New Teaching Staff (25 February 1999), an IT showcase was held in the CDTL Computer Workstation where the participants could log on and access the web sites that were being described by the three presenters. A/P Ang Kok Keng (Dept. of Civil Engineering), A/P Edmund Lee (Dept. of Pharmacology) and Mr Aaron Tan Tuck Choy (Dept. of Computer Science) each gave a thirty-minute account of their experience developing their respective web sites. They also discussed issues relating to the use of IT for teaching and learning.

A/P Ang gave a very comprehensive overview of the development process in the design and production of a web site for an educational purpose. He highlighted the need for a multidisciplinary team approach where in real life one individual may need to take on various roles and responsibilities to ensure that all development tasks are addressed. He also touched on the advantages and disadvantages of using IT for teaching and learning before showing his own course web site located at http://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/civil/Class/EG1101/index.html.

A/P Lee brought up the issue of designing web sites that could motivate students not only to access a site on a regular basis, but also to promote further inquiry in related topics. While taking the showcase participants on a tour of his web sites, issues such as the use of copyright material and linking to other sites were discussed. To view A/P Lee’s web sites, check out his “Cardiovascular Pharmacology” at http://www.med.nus.edu.sg/phar/medlect/CVPharmacology.htm and “Pharmacology In The News” at http://www.med.nus.edu.sg/phar/medlect/PINintro.htm.

Aaron Tan talked about moving away from the traditional mode of static, one-go, centralized and localized learning environment towards a dynamic, reusable, distributed and portable model. He exuded the passion and pride of creating his all-inclusive and very detailed course web site (CS1101C – Programming Methodology in C). Participants were shown examples of Java and animated algorithms, on-line quizzes and Lecture-On-Demand (a School of Computing initiative). Mr. Tan’s course web site can be found at http://ivle.nus.edu.sg/ivle/search/template.asp?courseid=CS1101C and the School of Computing – Lecture-On-Demand at http://www-lod.comp.nus.edu.sg.