by:
  Carolyn Sterling-Deer

  Introduction

The use of Web-based learning has increased in colleges during the past decade. Students in colleges across the country are Web-savvy and employ Web technology for communication and entertainment. One of the goals of U. S. colleges, and the college in which this project took place specifically, is to educate students in ways to use Web-based materials for learning. Our collective goal is to teach students ways to use this medium creatively to enhance research.

The setting for the Web-based assignment described in this writing is an urban two-year community college. LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York is located in the cultural hub of New York City and enrolls approximately 11,000 students per year. Of that total, 65 percent of the student population does not share English as a first language. Students who are second language (L2) writers take a series of preliminary courses in English as a second language before entering mainstream English courses for credit. Therefore, the students participating in this special assignment were enrolled at the highest of three levels of academic ESL - ESL IV. At this high-intermediate level of language learning, academic writing is the major focus, though reading and discussion have secondary relevance to all activities in the course. The Fall Semester extends over thirteen weeks including the final exam period.

The course in which the project took place is a grammar course (Grammar and Syntax). The course, ESL 110 requires discrete point teaching of grammar rules and syntactic patterns. It is commonly paired with ESL IV or basic writing for ESL writers with the goal of enhancing students' use of grammar to refine written compositions and essays. An important component of the course is the use of technology to enhance learning. The Blackboard eLearning software program (Version 6) serves as a center for interactive activities and links to information sources. For this course, a total of ten (10) links to grammar websites was provided for two sections. The grammar links are traditionally offered each semester at the Blackboard website. However, we decided to assign students a closer examination of the grammar websites and ask them to report their findings and evaluation in written form.

• Introduction
• The Research Assignment
• Student Research Papers
• Group A's Analysis
• Group B's Research
• Group C's Research
• Group D's Research
• Research Skills and Documentation
• The Voice of the Expert
• Pedagogical Benefits
• print version
• Appendix 1: Group A
• Appendix 2: Group B
• Appendix 3: Group C
• Appendix 4: Group D