The World Wide Web has provided colleges and universities an effective medium to enhance or provide instruction. Unfortunately there is currently no single standard that describes how courses should be created and distributed over the Web. Several Web course development tools such as Blackboard and WebCT have been produced and marketed for creating course materials that can be accessed by students through the Internet.

Virtual universities such as the Western Governor's University, University of Phoenix, Walden University, and the University of Maryland University College provide comprehensive programs of online courses for students who may not be able to attend traditional colleges and universities. In most cases students enroll in distance learning institutions because of convenience while working toward a degree or enhancing professional skills that may result in career advancement or change. Many traditional universities now offer distance education (Web) courses either as stand-alone courses delivered entirely on the Internet without any class meetings or by using Web-based materials for supplementary instruction and to distribute course materials electronically.

Several different methods exist for developing Web courses. Although the basic framework for Web pages is based on HTML tags, it is not necessary to know HTML programming to develop course material for the Web using Web course management and development tools. These tools provide a consistent course interface and a simple way for faculty to publish and update course content on the Web. These Web course tools provide features that permit instructors to adapt or develop their courses to promote collaborative learning, enhance critical thinking skills, and provide every student an equal opportunity to participate in classroom discussions.

With these Web course development and management tools, materials are developed by using a familiar graphical Web interface and without any knowledge of HTML. Web course development tools allow the instructor to insert text, graphics, video, and audio files into the course materials. Furthermore, these tools support the management of Web courses by offering features such as bulletin boards, chats, e-mail, discussion groups, calendars, and online assessment. The administration features of these tools permit the instructor to create student accounts and to archive e-mail messages, student discussions, and graded assessments. The management features of these courses support interaction between the student and the course content, the student and the instructor, and the student and other students. Using Web-based instruction, instructors can create meaningful learning environments that engage students in the active application of knowledge and give them an opportunity to control pace and monitor learning, which will help them grow and evolve as the course progresses. With the popularity and acceptance by colleges and universities of Web-based or Web-enhanced instruction, electronic publishing of course materials could replace textbooks because of the advantage of having course material that can be updated easily.

The Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) by Nicenet is a Web-based classroom environment that provides teachers and students with a forum to collaborate and share ideas. The ICA is free for anyone to use. The ICA runs on Nicenet's server and uses any Web browser running on any platform and an Internet connection. The ICA was intentionally designed as a low graphics environment to decrease the load time of each page. All features of the ICA are fully integrated and include conferencing, scheduling, document sharing, personal messaging, and link sharing. You can find more information about the ICA and set up a class at http://www.nicenet.org/.

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