Web-based education: characteristics, problems, and some solutions

Since the web first began, it has provided numerous significant educational opportunities and the web-based education phenomenon is has spread throughout the world. The potential of the medium to enhance students' learning experiences is being increasingly recognised and utilised, and many educational organisations are emerging and providing full-fledged curricula. However, the web has brought concerns as well as opportunities. In this article we will address those concerns by considering the following questions: Can web-based education be effective? Can it provide the same or better quality as conventional face-to-face instruction? If not, what are the reasons and the alternatives? In the first part of this article, we examine the characteristics, advantages, and problems of web-based education. In part two, we propose solutions for designing environments that will help to achieve efficient and effective web-based education.