Web-based curricula should not be designed to replace the teaching of content material. It should be designed to help teachers and students make sense of content and its importance. In web-based curricula, students should be asked to critically examine problems, develop collaborative efforts, conduct research, analyze and synthesize information and apply newly acquired knowledge to the solution of assigned problems. Through well-developed activities, teachers facilitate student construction of knowledge, including didactic delivery of content material at pertinent times. Teachers are able to elevate learning expectations through intrinsic motivation by developing collaborative and cooperative working relationships with students to produce products for distribution to the public on the web.
Students learn to analyze, synthesize and evaluate the materials they find through their research.
They learn to assess their own work. Teachers wishing to create web-based curricula must approach the task realizing that a successful classroom activity or lesson will not necessarily transfer successfully into the web media. Planning and organization to take advantage of the power of the Internet and the mind must become part of the teacher's practice. Teachers using web-based curricula must take on a different role, the role of facilitator. When teachers shift from didactic instructional models to the facilitation models, when effective web-based lessons are designed and implemented, students will be able to take advantage of another avenue to learning and understanding, the information super highway.