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Physics Web Modules: Background

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Welcome to the physics web module collection at Virginia Commonwealth University. This extensive site contains several thousand files organized in hundreds of folders. It includes a (nearly) complete two-semester on-line physics textbook (with interactive quiz questions) and is being used to teach our general education introductory physics course. Home pages for both past and present courses may be found here with course syllabi linked directly to the web modules.

You will find chunks of physics material called "modules". Each module is a collection of text and image files which present a particular idea. The organization of each module is exactly the same: A statement of the idea, a linked list of implications of the idea, and, for each implication, links to examples and links to interactive quiz questions. The material is designed primarily for presentation in class using a computer projector. Thus, the text is mostly in "War is Declared!" type and is organized into distinct screens with links from one screen to the next.

This design lends itself quite well to on-line study outside of class. Small chunks of text in large boldface type are very readable on a computer monitor and the hyperlinks convey the connections between concepts quite well. However it is essentially impossible to print it out in a coherent way without investing a great deal of effort. A printed workbook to accompany the modules is being written and should be available before too long.

The modules are designed so that several different faculty members can use the same modules but organize them in very different ways. Thus each faculty member can construct a customized on-line physics textbook.

In the Fall semester of 1997, a new set of general education requirements went into effect at VCU. All students in the College of Humanities & Sciences are now required to take at least one semester of a physical science course. Our mandate from the College is to provide active and interactive learning to all of these students. A variety of courses are being developed, including a multi-disciplinary course based on the facilities of the Virginia Science Museum and a laboratory-based "studio style" course which focuses on the applications of physics to technology. However the expected order-of-magnitude increase in the number of students taking our introductory courses could not possibly be handled by museum and laboratory-based courses alone. We were left with the task of creating a one-semester large lecture course with the capability of providing active and interactive learning to general education students.

Starting in July, 1995 it was decided to use the World Wide Web to provide the interactive component of the course. The first step was to develop web-materials for use in our standard two-semester introductory course. The materials were developed and tested during two full-year sessions, one beginning in fall 1995 and one beginning in spring 1996. The new one-semester course was taught for the first time in fall 1996.

In addition to general information (this file for example) you will find course syllabi for both current and past courses at this site. Each syllabus includes a course outline with links to a subset of the available web modules, links to the specific quiz questions which have been asked in class, and an announcement file which includes answers to previous quizzes and other information shown at the start of each class. The actual web modules are separated from the syllabi and may be accessed directly from a pull-down list on the navigation page (Click on the button wherever it appears.)

Each web module has one entry and exit point - the statement file. Because these modules are used by several courses, which can be organized very differently, their return links go to intermediate control files within each syllabus. For example, module 023 might return to the file p101pdcur/ctrl/m023.htm within the current daytime course syllabus. If several modules are grouped together in the course outline, then their control files could be identical copies. This structure makes it possible to reorganize the course syllabus without changing any links in the modules.

The actual directory structure of this site is quite complex. Each module has its own folder such as mod/023 which contains all of the files peculiar to the module. Image files shared by many modules are stored separately. The current daytime and evening course sections are always in the folders p101dcur and p101ecur. When a course is completed, it is moved to a different folder such as p101df97.

If you download files from here, you should be aware that the files within each module have the same names as the corresponding files in every other module. For example, the statment file of a module is always s.htm. This structure makes it easy to construct modules using a standard template with all of the internal links in place. However it also makes it very easy to overwrite the file from one module with the file from another.

• You can go to one of the current courses and learn some physics. You will find interactive test questions linked to each main point with explanations for each correct or incorrect answer. If you are frustrated by the selection of topics in a course, you can go to the pull-down menu on the navigation page and choose from over a hundred modules.

• You can review what was covered in class and preview what might be covered next. The quiz questions which are asked in class are all here, so there is no excuse for getting any of them wrong! Scroll down the announcement file and see all past announcements, test results, etc.

• If you are registered in one of these courses, you can join one of the help forums and ask about whatever puzzles you, read what is puzzling others, and maybe even answer someone else's questions.

• You can link your own web-page to various things that you find here. Please be aware that some links will be more stable than others. Links to module statement files such as mod/077/s.htm should remain unchanged for many years while links to files within a course syllabus are likely to change at the end of each new semester.

• You can download graphics such as the animated files shown on the welcome page and incorporate them into your own web page. Please see the information about copyright first, of course.