[Technopoly is] the deification of technology, which means that culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology. This requires the development of a new kind of social order, and of necessity leads to the rapid dissolution of much that is associated with traditional beliefs. (Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, (Vintage: New York, 1993), p. 71)
First year courses are notoriously difficult to convene - both for the size of the incoming class taking an often mandatory course and for the nature of the material covered. At Exeter, first year students in the School of English must take Culture and Criticism, a year-long introduction to critical and cultural theory. Moving from Matthew Arnold to Baudrillard, the course provides the students with the theoretical models and strategies that they will use for the rest of their degrees. To this end, the decision was made to construct a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) for Culture and Criticism in the summer of 2000. This would serve two purposes-it would house relevant information that could not be covered in the classroom as well as providing a meeting place for cross-seminar group discussion.
The School had had some experience in using VLEs before going ahead with such an ambitious project. The Learning and Teaching Development Officer at the time, Dr Ashley Tauchert, had overseen the webbing of an upper-level eighteenth-century option the previous year. This small-scale pilot, undertaken in collaboration with the Learning and Teaching Support Centre (http://latis.ex.ac.uk), was primarily concerned with the storing of digital information on a password-protected WebCT site (www.webct.com). Biographies of relevant individuals were placed on the site and links to vetted external websites were included. For example, as well as a biography and picture of Joseph Addison, that particular page contained links to an electronic version of The Spectator, a piece by George Landow on Addison and the sublime and a hypertextual edition of Addison's Latin prose and poetry. These links open up in a new browser window so that the students are always contained within the course's website. This online learning environment also provided several digital lectures. These built- textually, visually and hypertextually (by providing links both to outside sources and within the lecture)-on the course lectures. While there was some concern that providing these virtual lectures would replace the live lecture, it was our experience that pedagogic practices are enhanced by the deployment of this technology. Students wanted both to come to the live lecture and have interaction with the tutor and to peruse the lecture at their leisure.
Bearing all this in mind, funding was obtained from the Learning and Teaching Support Centre to build a much larger website for Culture and Criticism. We understood that this project would have to focus as much on communication-bringing together students, lecturers and teaching assistants-as information. Unlike the eighteenth-century pilot, the website for Culture and Criticism was not be an optional addendum to the course, in the sense that many course-supporting websites are perceived to be "bolted on" to the course content and objectives. Rather, the website was constructed to play an essential role in the successful completion of the module.
The Culture and Criticism website should be understood as a hypertextual coursebook. The linked chapter headings allow the students to take control of their learning processes, moving through the material in a number of possible directions, rather than in traditional linearity. This works extremely well in Culture and Criticism because it gives the students a sense of security that they often need when initially confronted with the likes of Baudrillard et alia. For example, an audio recording of Professor Colin MacCabe's lecture on structuralism was placed on the website. Broken up into ten-minute segments with clear headings, the lecture is easily navigated by the students looking for a specific point in the lecture. Each audio clip is illustrated-by pictures of Barthes and Jakobson, for example-and links are provided to external sites, taking advantage of the wealth of critical material that is available on the World Wide Web but which is difficult for the inexperienced researcher to navigate.
Another successful tool is the online discussion forum which enables students and tutors to continue debates outside of the seminar and lecture hall. Students form online support groups and exchange information with one another across campus and across town during essay writing binges. In the week before the last essay deadline, over fifty messages were being posted (and answered) by students-with tutors dipping in and keeping an eye on things-on topics as diverse as how to reference a film and useful journal articles on orientalism and Wuthering Heights. The discussion form works particularly well in the Renaissance Studies WebCT site. The site combines three courses- Shakespeare and Renaissance Comedy, Desire and Power and Blood, Bodies and Revolution-and the discussion forum means that students can have cross-class debates. These hypertextual coursebooks should be understood as 24-hour learning environments which open up, rather than close down, the avenues of debate and communication between staff and students.
In short, the WebCT sites at Exeter serve as "homes" for module materials-including week-by-week syllabus, seminar questions, annotated reading lists, contextual information that cannot be covered in "live" teaching time, guidance on writing essays, clear assessment profiles, supporting information on learning and teaching methods (e.g. study groups, log books, seminar contribution), guidance on research practice, lecture archives, discussion forum and chatrooms. As the websites grow from year to year, they become archives of the School's learning and teaching expertise.
The past two years have been a steep learning curve for all those involved in the project. Student demand among the first year students has led to a website being constructed for their other first year module. As these students move through their degree, they are increasingly likely to demand more web-based learning. And although some staff were initially resistant to a virtual classroom, the success of Culture and Criticism has meant that the School has put substantial resources into the further development of the VLEs. Currently ten courses-both undergraduate and postgraduate-have sites integrated into their pedagogical strategies. As teachers, we cannot ignore these new technologies and, increasingly, students will make decisions based on which universities employ these technologies in their learning and teaching. As Postman notes, the deification of technology has lead "to the rapid dissolution of much that is associated with traditional beliefs." (1993, p. 71) That would include traditional teaching beliefs, as well.
