Abstract
Web-based learning systems, if designed appropriately, offer many advantages over the traditional learning environments. This study addresses the design and development of new approaches and network technologies based on the newly induced pedagogical models to support collaborative teaching, knowledge sharing, lifelong learning opportunities for anyone to offer or participate in courses free of charge. The authors propose and implement a Web-based learning environment called "School for All" in the Web-based Educities. To satisfy the needs of individual instructors, adaptive Web-based authoring tools and methods of teaching have been proposed, including five adaptive modules - Curriculum Setting, Co-teaching and Privileges Setting, Reward Setting, Assessment Setting and Information Sharing Setting. Thirty representative courses that used this adaptive School for All system were under close observations and investigation. An additional questionnaire was also used to collect online teachers' perceptions of this Web-based learning environment. Online teachers reported that these adaptive modules could support their online teaching effectively. More results were presented and more issues regarding online teaching were discussed in this paper. © 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.