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After a punishing 30-mile trek, an 11-hour ordeal that was especially hard on those pulling handcarts, the Mormon pioneers made camp near Fort Laramie. Some of those who weren't entirely exhausted turned to their journals to record the events and emotions of the day. Margaret Clark, bursting with thoughts and feelings, opened her notebook computer, and poured her soul onto the screen.Once the journal entry was complete, Margaret hooked the notebook to a cellular phone and sent a copy to Heritage Gateways, the official Utah sesquicentennial educational Web site for the Mormon Trail Wagon Train Reenactment. That night and the next day, thousands of visitors to the Web site from Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and throughout the world relived the experience through Margaret's account. Some responded to the site's e-mail address, sending their encouragement to her and the other intrepid individuals on the reenactment trail.
Heritage Gateways (http://heritage.uen.org) is a remarkable example of how the World Wide Web on the Internet can engage a community of teachers and learners in an educational venture. The site is a collaborative effort that involves UtahLINK (an online resource for educators), the Utah State Office of Education, the BYU-Public School Partnership, Heritage Gateways Ltd., and the Mormon Trail Wagon Train 150 Years, Inc. Historical references are plentiful and carefully cited. Photographs are updated almost daily with digital cameras. A clickable map of the original Mormon Trail is dotted with campsites of the modern pioneers. Clicking on any portion of the trail brings up journals written at that point in the trip. Journals from 1997 are displayed side by side with journals from 1847. A curriculum for public schools includes lesson plans for children from kindergarten through high school. Plans for building a handcart can be general or minutely detailed, depending on how a viewer clicks the mouse. Drawings from school children representing their views of the pioneer voyage also grace the site.
"Our site appeals to people from 5-year-olds to a seasoned historian like Bill Hartley, who is with the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute at BYU," says Carol Lee Hawkins, who coordinates contributions to the site from the BYU-Public Schools Partnership and the School of Education. "It's the funniest thing I've ever done."
Establishing and maintaining a useful Web site are no easy tasks. Hawkins collaborates regularly with at least eight individuals. They include Judy Rice, a graduate student at BYU; Stacy Van de Graaf and Pat Horyna at the Utah State Office of Education; Maggie Hopffgarten at UtahLINK; Kathleen Webb, a teacher at Cedar City High School; David Whittaker, a historian with the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU; and historian Bill Hartley. She has also received help from BYU people in Religious Education; the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences; the College of Nursing; and the College of Humanities. Many others have helped to pull together the three essential elements of a successful Web site: editorial content, design, and technology.
A Brief History
BYU's Web offerings are astonishing in their diversity and numbers. The university has gone from no pages at all to more than 65,000 pages residing on more than 90 Web servers in less than four years. Like the Mormon pioneers who trekked across the plains 150 years ago, we at the university are following the rutted trails blazed by a few individuals.
Phillip J. Windley, associate professor of computer science, came to BYU in June 1993 from the University of Idaho.
"I had played with Gopher and a new thing called Mosaic," says Windley. "The first thing I did here was set up a Web server. I believe it was one of 100 in the world. By Winter Semester 1994, I had class notes on the Web. For a while, my server hosted the byu.edu home page. It was completely unsanctioned." The early Web offerings came from Windley or from Paul E. Black, a computer science graduate student in the Laboratory for Applied Logic (LAL). Black started and provided most of the advice to a campus WWW Users Group.
Both Gopher and Mosaic took advantage of hypertext (basically text with links). Gopher was text-based, while Mosaic incorporated multimedia (sound, pictures, and video). Both gave computer users extraordinary power to gain access to information by simply clicking on live links. Before that time, users had to be familiar with ftp (file transfer protocol) programs or telnet, and they had to know their way around Internet address protocols. Stan Peters, who is with University Computing Services (UCS), was trying to win university computer users over to Gopher in 1993 and 1994.
"We had to convince people to use Gopher," he says. "With Mosaic, they flooded us. It's funny how people have accepted writing HTML (hypertext markup language). We thought we'd get run out of town. When people saw a graphical format, that turned the tide. Mosaic produced a different metaphor. It looked like a magazine; it was un-computer like. It provided a non-linear way of following information."
The power of this new medium convinced Kelly McDonald, executive director of University Computing Services, that it was time to set up an electronic kiosk system on campus. In 1994, with financial backing from campus areas that wanted to provide information to students, UCS put up several kiosk work stations in heavily used areas. The system still functions with a modified browser that gives access to the underwriters' pages and to the BYU home page.
Meanwhile, Windley became overwhelmed with managing the BYU home page and turned it over to University Computing Services. BYU's first home page (www.byu.edu) included the BYU seal and several text links, which grew rapidly as more and more campus areas jumped onto the Web. This tremendous growth thrust a new role upon the computing staff, a communications role that made them uncomfortable. Concerned about misspellings and factual errors in late 1994, John Rogerson and Stan Peters met with me in Public Communications and with Charles Cranney in Publications and Graphics. I then made a proposal to the Computer Planning and Policy Committee (CPPC) and received an assignment to create a subcommittee of that group, reporting through Del Scott, assistant academic vice president for computing. Our charge was to make sure that pages put up on BYU Web servers represented the university well.
The committee, named the Internet Communications Advisory Commit-tee (ICAC), met for the first time in December 1994. It included members from the faculty (Phillip Windley in computer science, Mel Smith in Humanities, and Linda Sullivan in design); from the Lee Library (Brian Holman); from Admissions and Records (Rex Pugmire); and from the Alumni Association (Mike Cunningham). Stan Peters, Charles Cranney, and I chaired the committee and served as the university's Web Team. Brian Holman later left the university to join Novell, and Bruce Bowen replaced Rex Pugmire when he transferred to the Alumni Association. Except for those changes, the committee remains as it was originally constituted.
In early 1995, the committee put up the university's first official graphical home page at www.byu.edu. The second version, which is the one that appears now, was introduced in July 1996. A third version is in the works.
Committee members realized early that they would not be able to directly administer all the pages put up on BYU servers, nor did they want to. Instead, they concentrated on BYU's home page and the pages linked directly to it. They wrote general guidelines for using the Web in BYU space and relied on the existing university organizational structure to bring order and accountability to this new communications medium.
In late 1996, President Merrill J. Bateman issued a challenge to University Computing Services: make the Internet available to every student by providing free e-mail accounts and free access to campus servers. Brad Stone of UCS went to work full time to fill the president's request. He commissioned Dave Eliason of Publications & Graphics to design pages for the service. Route Y, which is to be introduced this fall, is the result.
Three Web-based services, then, have evolved at BYU: the kiosk, which provides campus users of kiosk terminals access to pages designed specifically for the kiosk system and to the BYU home page; Internet pages, which include the BYU home page and thousands of other pages put up by faculty, staff, and students and which are accessible by browsers around the world; and intranet pages (Route Y), which will be a secured system for students, alumni, faculty, staff, and others who will be issued user identification names and passwords.
Living in the temperate highlands of Ethiopia, Donald B. Holsinger was chief policy advisor with the USAID (BESO) project for primary education improvement for the Ministry of Education, Government of Ethiopia. When he learned earlier this year that he had been nominated to become director of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at BYU, he powered up his personal computer, which gets its energy from solar-generated electricity, and dialed into the capital city, Addis Ababa, where he accessed the World Wide Web. Holsinger had spoken at the Kennedy Center once, but he didn't know much about it. Entering the center's name into a search engine, he found BYU's Web page for the Kennedy Center (http://kennedy.byu.edu/). There he read pages of information about its mission, staff, undergraduate and graduate degree programs, study abroad, publications, research, international careers, and on and on.
The newly appointed director of the center, Holsinger says the local people in Ethiopia were fascinated by what he was doing. "There, even one book is precious," he says. "The idea that millions of books were available from around the world on a personal computer was astounding to them." Their reaction was, "Hey! Can I do that too?" Holsinger showed them that the Web carried a great deal of information about Ethiopia, about the country's school curriculum, its development, and so on. "The Web is a powerful tool for education," says Holsinger. "It will only grow."
Holsinger will be happy with one of the latest additions to the Kennedy Center Web site, the Rey L. Pratt Center for Latin American Studies' new page (http://kennedy.byu.edu/pratt/index.htm). (Holsinger earned a BA in Hispanic American Studies and an MA in Latin American Studies before earning an MS in Rural Sociology and a PhD in International and Comparative Education.) The Pratt Center's site provides information on BYU's faculty, course syllabi, majors and minors in Latin American Studies, and links to English- and Spanish-language newspapers in Latin American countries.
Like the Heritage Gateways pages, the Kennedy Center site appeals to a community of learners with good design, technical competence, and relevant content.
Another powerful example of serving a community of learners is FatherWork (http://fatherwork.byu.edu/), developed and edited by David C. Dollahite and Alan J. Hawkins of Family Sciences and some of their students. They see personal narratives as important tools for teaching principles of fathering, so they ask users of the site to share their stories. A selection of the stories is then published on the site, giving fathers a means to learn from each other. The Family Sciences Department also offers an online guide to parents as partners in educating young children (http://fhss.byu.edu/mfhd/preschool/).
These family pages lend support to BYU's greatest strength as identified in a 1995 survey of LDS Church members' perceptions of the university-- its connection to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The mission of the university, as published in the undergraduate catalog, is "to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life." That is done by providing "an environment enlightened by living prophets and sustained by those moral virtues which characterize the life and teachings of the Son of God." It is interesting to see a correlation between the popularity of some of BYU's Web pages and their connection to the mission. The more connected, the more popular they are.
As a side project related to its television series, Ancestors, KBYU created a Web site (http://www2.kbyu.byu.edu/ancestors/) that generated 250,000 user sessions during its first month. One of the frequently asked questions in e-mail that comes to BYU's Web Team deals with genealogy, and the site provides helpful information and hot links to many genealogical sites. BYU's weekly devotionals (http://advance.byu.edu/devo/recent.html) are also popular.
The university's first course offered entirely on the Web was a religion class (Religion C 324) on the Doctrine and Covenants taught by Keith Perkins and offered Winter Semester 1997 through Independent Study in the Division of Continuing Education (http://coned.byu.edu/is/index.html). The first student to sign up lives in Japan. Humanities 201, Arts in Western Culture, is also offered online, taught by Michael Call. Cheryl Brown, associate academic vice president, has distance learning as part of her assignment. She is high on these classes, particularly Humanities 201. "It uses video, movement, and beautiful slides Dr. Call took in various parts of the world," she says. She especially likes the hot links on the site to places such as the Sistine Chapel. Feedback from those taking online courses indicates a high level of satisfaction, says Brown, "and we've found that a majority of the people taking these courses would not have signed up had they not been offered on the Web." The university has approved seven to 10 more courses to be offered online, Brown says.
Whether classes are conducted at a distance or on campus, the Web can enhance the learning experience. Professional programs in engineering, management, and law are well established in applying the Web to class needs. Many classes have class pages, where much of the business of the class is conducted, including discussion groups, chat rooms, submission of assignments, and posting of grades. Some professors have students create Web pages as part of their learning experience. Leading examples of this are Newsnet (http://newsnet.byu.edu/), The Leading Edge science fiction magazine (http://tle.clubs.byu.edu/), and Ketav (http://lal.cs.byu.edu/ketav/standard/homepage.html), a magazine in the Computer Science Department. Newsline, which combines the talents of KBYU and Daily Universe staffers, is a remarkable electronic newspaper, better than many Web versions of commercial newspapers. Whether we can call them newspapers anymore is up for debate, since paper is involved only if the user decides to print out pages.
There are many more fine examples of what the university is doing with Web technology, but not all can be covered. But you can go to the home page (http://www.byu.edu) and click on Index. Surf the site and see what you think. There is much work left to do, however. Many of the university's offerings, including its home page, need improvement and updating. Students put up many academic and service departments' pages and then graduate, leaving the pages to go stale. While the Web offers the potential for savings in terms of paper and other production costs, it does demand human resources. A top-flight university will not be able to rely on temporary employees and volunteers to carry out its mission on the Web in the future.
Here's where the expertise of the experts breaks down. Who knows the future of BYU's involvement in the World Wide Web? Some of the experts keep their comments general. Charles Cranney, for example, says, "We're always surprised. We think we have a grasp of the future, and then it turns in unpredictable ways. I will say, though, that the Web will have far greater ramifications and be bigger than we think." He also predicts that the university's weekly devotionals will be available in audio and video formats in the future.
"Technology keeps slamming people together in uncomfortable ways," Cranney says. For example, campus communicators have been forced to work with computer technicians, or vice versa. The Web Team has brought together graphic artists, writers, editors, and computer wizards, and they have worked together well. "It could create some real power struggles, though," says Cranney. "People are going to have to be more Christian."
"WWW is here to stay," says Phil Windley, "but it will fade into the background more. People will be more excited about the content than about the thing itself." In the early days of television, people were fascinated with the immediate access to information that it offered. And not only could they hear about what was happening, they could see it happening. With the development of the medium, however, the immediacy became expected and the focus turned to the content of the message. Windley also foresees a blending of technologies such as the phone and computer. "I would like a browser on my phone," he says. "I would like to call a car company to schedule an appointment on their Web site."
Kelly McDonald sees many more classes offered on the Web in the future, and he opens the possibility that much of a student's general education requirements could be filled on the Web. Then students would come to campus to finish off their education.
Del Scott, assistant academic vice president for computing, says BYU is moving out of its exploration phase now and moving into the phase where essential parts of the university's mission will be accomplished on the Web. "In the College of Engineering this fall, the primary contact with 50 percent of the faculty and students will be through the Web," Scott says. "Every department on campus is committed to making it a strategic part of their programs."
He continues, "I can envision within the next few years a recommendation to stop selling packets in the bookstore. Instead, students could download or print all the materials they need for a class. Output becomes a student's choice."
Current core classes for majors in the School of Management are being organized through the Web. The calendaring, coordination of who teaches what and where, and the handling of grades are done on the Web. That practice will spread through the university, Scott predicts.
Also, because of the "glass house" effect (more people can see on the Web what the university and its people are doing), faculty members and students will be more strongly identified with the institution and will represent the university in a more visible way. "This is a paradigm shift," says Scott. "When faculty members did a professional presentation in the past, they didn't feel they were representing their department. What they do on the Web, however, takes on a flavor of officialdom."
A very powerful trend involves library functions, Scott says. "Years ago, we decentralized computing." The power of highly expensive six foot-by-four foot-by-two foot boxes has been transferred to fairly inexpensive two-by-two-by-a half desktop units. "Now the Web is decentralizing the library. The most up-to-date information you can get is on the Web.
"A university could exist as people who are interested in a body of knowledge," Scott continues. "A community of scholars will have a common bond that brings them together, but their togetherness will not have to be geographic. There will always be a need for social contact. Pen pals always want to meet." But the meeting could take place in conferences, workshops, or forums of shorter duration. A complete education could be gained while spending far less time on a physical campus.
Educators will become facilitators of learning rather than primary sources of information. There will be a shift to secondary education, where students will be prepared to take charge of their own education, according to Scott.
The university will need to increase its network capabilities and bandwidth (the capacity of physical communication lines to carry digital information). "We will have to find a way to deal with the cost of technology. BYU will be able to leverage its current faculty resources to educate more people," Scott says. "They have a sunk cost in me as a faculty member, but I can teach seven times more people over the Web than I do now."
The university will have to create a strategy to deal with all this, Scott adds. The tremendous growth of the Web has enormous implications for human resources. In less than four years, BYU has thrown up more than 65,000 pages. Some of those pages are going to become essential to the university's mission. Many of them are not linked to existing databases that are routinely maintained. They either have to be linked to databases or be maintained by someone. That's a duplication of effort that could break the system, Scott says.
"Unless we find the people or processes to maintain it," he says, "we're dealing with a house of cards. It's time to quit talking and start integrating things."
In other words, the future is bright if it's planned well.
