Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime

6.20. Use the Internet as a source of material

The Internet is a vast library of resources for learning. Along with sleazy sex sites and the mail-order emporiums is a treasure of examples, case studies, and catalogued data on every subject imaginable. Much of it is free.

6.20.1. Product literature and documentation

Most high-tech companies provide detailed marketing literature, operating instructions, reference manuals, technical specifications, and other product documentation available. Use these materials in courses that involve selecting, evaluating, or operating such products.

6.20.2. Magazines and trade journals

Established paper-based magazines and trade journals are joining Web-only periodicals in making articles, abstracts, and back issues available over the Web. Some charge foraccess to complete articles or back issues, but most provide free access to summaries of current articles.

6.20.3. Scientific and engineering data

Increasingly, government agencies, university research laboratories, and professional associations are making their collections of scientific data available over the Internet. For example, NASA makes available 250 years of data about the sun [86].

Although raw data might not seem useful in its own right, it can be used to fuel activities on many subjects. When designers of the Yohkoh Public Outreach Project proposed a Web page showing the current location of the Yohkoh solar-observation satellite, teachers immediately found uses for it in teaching ...