MAPPING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB-BASED TEACHING RESOURCE: DREAMS VS. REALITY

The Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF awarded a CCLI grant to develop an internet-based teaching resource using the famous Woburn, Massachusetts toxic trial detailed in the book and movie "A Civil Action" as a vehicle to teach science to non-science and science majors. This paper chronicles the development the website prior to its becoming live in 2007 and web-site user statistics recorded during the past two years and in so doing, differences are seen between how the development team intended the website to be used versus the implied use of the website based on the user statistics. 'Science in the Courtroom: The Woburn Toxic Trial' is at http://serc.carleton.edu/woburn. The website contains 237 peer-reviewed webpages organized into three layers of investigation (Overarching Questions, Key Issues in the Trial, Student Learning Modules) that are supported by an extensive Resource Collection of trial documents, newspaper articles, field data, photographs, and animations, and an internal search and link function.

The goal was to create a resource to contain background information in online formats that would enable students to investigate and understand social, medical science, hydrogeologic, toxicological and legal issues related to the court case. This would enable users to review actual case files and data, which could then be used with the Student Learning Modules. The website also contains corresponding Instructor Materials for each module to assist faculty in using the module or developing a similar one.

Web statistics collected through May 2009 show over 68,000 site visits have occurred; average site visit time is 4-minutes/visit with an average of 3.4 page views/visit. Most visits are from search engines (76.21% of visits) and 10% of those who visit arrive from having bookmarked site. The 58% bounce rate indicates almost half of the visits are intentional or sufficiently interested to remain after viewing one page. Hits have originated from locations on every continent, but hits from US locations are dominant. The most visited pages are those summarizing the court case issues and the primary resources collection (newspaper articles, transcripts, etc.). Visits to the student assignment pages and teaching resources are increasing. An update of statistics will be included in the presentation.