A Web Application Supported Learning Environment for Enhancing Classroom Teaching and Learning Experiences

Thanks to the advancement of information and communication technology (ICT), several tools and systems have been proposed to provide a quality classroom experience to instructors and students. Nevertheless, the most of them are a brand-new and stand-alone program that could influence users' teaching and learning experiences since users have to spend additional time and efforts to practice and maintain the tools or systems. In fact, in the era of Web 2.0, instructors and students are heavily immersed in various web applications daily, such as Wikis, Flickr, WordPress, and Google web applications, and familiar with the manipulation of these applications. Therefore, the well-known web applications could be a potential new way to engage the instructors and students in meaningful teaching and learning activities. Bearing this in mind, this study aims to apply well-known web applications to propose a web application supported learning environment for supporting classroom teaching and learning activities that can seamlessly enable instructors and students to meld with their daily use of Web 2.0 tools. Through the investigation of a case study, the results revealed that the instructor and students can administer teaching and learning activities efficiently and effectively. In addition, the learning motivation of participated students and interaction between each participant can also be facilitated through engaging in the proposed environment. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of The Association Science Education and Technology