Web-based education in bioprocess engineering O.D.T. Sessink 1 , H. van der Schaaf 1 , H.H. Beeftink 1 , R.J.M. Hartog 2 and J. Tramper 1 1 Food and Bioprocess Engineering Group 2 Wageningen Multimedia Research Center, PO Box 8129 6700EV, Wageningen University, The Netherlands The combination of web technology, knowledge of bioprocess engineering, and theories on learning and instruction might yield innovative learning material for bioprocess engineering. In this article, an overview of the characteristics of web-based learning material is given, as well as guidelines for the design of learning material from theories of learning and instruction and from the bioprocess engineering domain. A diverse body of learning material is presented, which illustrates the application of these guidelines; this material has been developed during the past six years for different courses, mostly at undergraduate level, and it illustrates how web-based learning material can enable various different approaches to learning objectives that might improve overall learning. Such learning material has been used for several years in education, it has been evaluated with positive results, and is now part of the regular learning material for bioprocess engineering at Wageningen Uni- versity. Introduction The landscape of academic learning is changing since the mass adoption of the internet in education. Most of these changes have addressed communication and distribution; however, web technology enables new approaches for con- tent that might change the way future learning material (LM) is designed and used [1,2]. In this article we argue how the combination of web-technology, knowledge of bioprocess engineering and theories for learning and instruction might yield inno- vative bioprocess engineering LM. We first give an over- view of the characteristics of web-based LM; then we present guidelines for the design of web-based LM [3]; finally, a variety of web-based LM modules is presented, to illustrate these guidelines and to show the various approaches that are facilitated by web-technology. The material is available online (http://fbt.wur.nl/; choose ‘Con- tent showcase’ and then select any of the listed process engineering modules). Characteristics of web-based learning material Web-based LM is created with web-technology (Box 1) but is also a subset of digital LM; therefore, it has character- istics that are unique for web-based LM and characteristics of digital LM in general. (i) Web-based LM requires only a web-browser (Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox), which are available by default on most platforms, and an internet connec- tion, whereas digital LM, in general, might have many more requirements. (ii) Web-based LM is directly accessible by many students simultaneously, and is independent of time and place. In contrast to digital LM that is distributed on physical media (e.g. CD-ROM), students directly access the original source of the material and, therefore, the latest version of that LM. Authors can update their LM during a course to incorporate feedback from students, even if the material is used in distance education. (iii) Although not unique to web-technology, the hyper- link is perhaps the most well known characteristic of web-technology. The hyperlink enables one piece of web-based material to reference another piece of web-based material, such as LM from another university, literature or an online encyclopedia. (iv) Digital LM, in general, permits various forms of multimedia and interaction. It might include formatted text, drawings, photos, animations, simu- lations, video, interactive applications and commu- nication components. Web-based LM, in particular, offers various high-level components to build such rich material, where using multimedia in LM might, if used appropriately, improve learning effectiveness [4,5]. (v) Digital LM enables interaction with the student, for example, the LM can show a response to a student action, such as mouse or keyboard actions. One of the most important applications for interaction in LM is feedback – the information about progress towards a particular goal [6] – for which there are several design guidelines available [7]. (vi) Digital LM has access to computational resources, which can be used to provide simulations that can produce output from student input in model systems. In a flight simulator, for example, the inputs are the handles and the control stick, and the outputs are changes in the cockpit window and the indicators. If LM enables only a few combina- tions of inputs, simulation is not required because all possible outputs can be pre-calculated and included in the material [8]; however, if a wide or unlimited range of student inputs are permitted, a simulation is appropriate [9,10]. The effect of input on output is Review TRENDS in Biotechnology Vol.25 No.1 Corresponding author: Beeftink, H.H. (rik.beeftink@wur.nl). Available online 17 November 2006. www.sciencedirect.com 0167-7799/$ – see front matter ß 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2006.11.001