Research Insights from a Decade of Campus-Wide Implementation of Web-Supported Academic Instruction at Tel Aviv University

Abstract

This paper describes the scope and outcomes of Virtual TAU, a campus-wide project that aims to integrate information and communication technologies into the academic instruction at Tel Aviv University (TAU). It provides data, insights, and conclusions drawn from various research and evaluation studies that were conducted at the university during the last decade. The paper presents its material on three main levels: (a) the institutional level, in which we describe the scope and pace of the process of diffusing the Web as an innovation into the university’s instruction, and how this diffusion compares to classical diffusion models; (b) the pedagogical level, in which we present some of the innovative pedagogical practices developed and implemented as well as the current state of Web usage among both the university’s teachers and students; and (c) the costs and benefits of the integration of Web-supported academic instruction, where we apply a newly-developed cost-effectiveness model to Virtual TAU courses.

Keywords:

• Web-supported academic instruction,
• empirical research,
• diffusion of innovation,
• Web pedagogy,
• cost-effective model