Why Use IT Tools to Support Homework?

IT Tools can make assigning, completing, collecting, assessing, organizing, and tracking homework easier and more convenient for both instructors and students.

How IT Tools Can Support Homework-related Tasks:

At the most basic level, instructors can use e-mail both to distribute assignments and collect students' work, even if that work includes images, audio, or video components. For instance, an instructor could assign a reading, with the material itself included within the main body of the message or as an attachment, along with instructions to the students to write a short paper analyzing the reading. After reading the material and writing their papers, students could then submit their completed assignments, again either as simple text or as wordprocessed documents attached to their e-mail replies.

Web-based course management tools, such as WebCT and Blackboard, often build upon such a construct by organizing distinct online areas and functions within course websites through which students can receive and turn in their assignments. Such systems also improve instructors' and students' ability to track, organize, and archive the work. Instructors can benefit further by using software, either stand alone or included with such course managment applications, to record their assessments of student work. Once entered, such data can be analyzed to assess both individual and class progress.