About PowerWeb
- Components: A Brief Overview
- Preparing to Use PowerWeb-some registration notes
- Online Advisory Board
- Annual Editions Advisory Board
- Help-what to do when all else fails
PowerWeb is a dynamic supplement to your course materials. Course-specific rather than book-specific, PowerWeb engages your students in three levels of resource materials: refereed, carefully selected articles available in the past year in journals and magazines; weekly updates providing a comprehensive discussion of relevant and current issues that occurred in the prior week; and links to course-specific, current news of the day. A series of study aids such as quizzes, Web links, and interactive exercises including a glossary, makes PowerWeb a true avenue to extending learning about a subject and gives the instructor many options in incorporating PowerWeb into the course.
The elements of each PowerWeb are available from the left navigation bar on the Home Page and also from every page in the site via the Navigation bar that appears at the top of each page. There, if you have a Netscape 4.0 or Explorer 4.0 Internet browser, you can conveniently flip from one menu to another by clicking on the arrow on the Navigation bar. You can return to the main page by clicking on "HOME" on the PowerWeb bar above the menu choices on the Navigation bar.
Contents:
From the Contents page there are links to each article in both Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF format) and as a faster downloading Web page (HTML format). Each article also has a link to the article review form and to an article quiz question. The contents have been divided into units. Each unit is linked to corresponding Internet sites on the Links page, which is also divided by units. From the Contents page, you will find most of what you are looking for with just a click or two.
The Adobe® Acrobat® articles have been tested to work as Acrobat® 3.x files with Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher. Acrobat® files take longer to download, but the extra time is worth it. Once downloaded, the articles are printable in high quality. The graphics are high resolution and the type is clean and crisp. Acrobat printouts are generally easier to read and use less paper than an HTML printout. When viewing the articles on screen with the Acrobat Reader, you have the ability to zoom in and out of the page to get a closer look at details (e.g., graphics). It could, however, be awkward to read a document on-screen with Acrobat since a lot of up-and-down, left-and-right scrolling is needed to read the multicolumn formatted text.
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader®. You can download it from Adobe's Web site for free by clicking on the Icon to the right.
The HTML versions of the articles have been optimized for on-screen reading. They are in one column format and can be read by scrolling down with your browser as you read. The graphics, however, can be limited to the screen resolution of your computer. HTML is the fastest and easiest way to present content on the Internet. While Acrobat is a widely used browser plug-in, frequently some school or computer lab computers do not allow students to install any plug-ins to the computers' hard drives, and some Internet users work on older computers that do not have the capability of using Acrobat with a browser. By offering the articles in HTML, anyone with a browser can still access the articles contained in the product.
The PowerWeb Test Your Knowledge form can be used in any number of ways: to assess the student's comprehension of an article, for extra credit, as a tool to assist in developing assigned papers, or simply for reference. Even if it is not required, this page can be very useful for providing students a means of reflecting on the articles and enhancing their comprehension. If it is required, students just click on the "Fill out the article review form" link under each article's listing in the Contents, complete the form and click on the "Send e-mail" button. In this case, instructors must give students their e-mail address in a clear manner. Writing it on a whiteboard or blackboard or having a direct link on a class Web page is the best way to avoid mistakes. A copy of the form will be e-mailed to both the student and the instructor. Instructors may want to inform students that they have received the e-mail submission.
Quizzes:
The quiz questions are designed to enhance and reinforce understanding of the overall theme of each PowerWeb article, and should serve as an excellent study guide. The practice quizzes are multiple-choice and self-grading. Each article has one corresponding question. The quiz questions can be accessed via the Quizzes page or by clicking on "Try a quiz question" link under each article's listing in the Contents.
Links:
The Links page is a collection of carefully researched and selected World Wide Web sites that support the articles. These links are divided into units that correspond to the units in the Contents.
Topics:
The Topic Guide suggests how the article selections relate to topics of traditional concern to students and professionals involved with each PowerWeb's area of study. It is useful for reading and research, and is arranged alphabetically according to topics that pertain to the articles with links to each article's Contents listing.
Index:
The PowerWeb Index allows the user to enter a word or phrase in Boolean form to retrieve article data. It is also useful as a research tool. Specific directions about how to search using the Boolean method are available in the Help file on the Index page.
Interactive Exercises:
As a study aid, each PowerWeb contains interactive exercises, including a glossary that supports the user's knowledge of that field of study.
Updates:
Updates to the subject matter occur via articles selected in three different ways:
On a weekly basis, an expert in the field assesses the major issue impacting the field and provides an analysis, a set of Web links for further information, and discussion questions.
Student Resources:
This section of PowerWeb has information to help students get through their busy semester and to make college life just a little bit easier. You can reach any section directly by using the Navigation bar that is on the bottom of every page or by flipping the arrow on the Navigation bar at the top of the page if your browser is Netscape 4.0 or higher or Explorer 4.0 or higher.
Up to the minute headlines from around the world.
Ten original essays that will help you to develop the skills necessary to do well in college are available here. How to Study, How to Write Term Papers, and How to Perform Better on Tests are just some of the topics covered.
The Web is a fantastic research tool, but using it effectively takes practice and skill. It is easy to get lost or diverted from your research goals. Even worse, since anyone can put anything on the Web, it becomes important to be able to sort through information and evaluate its reliability. There are thousands of unreliable sources and biased Web sites on the Internet. Problems of privacy and precaution for computer viruses are all things you should know about before doing research online. We have assembled some excerpts from our book WebQuester, A Guidebook to the Web for your use. The information will help you evaluate Web resources and do searches effectively and the accompanying interactive exercises are fun. You may discover you don't know as much about the Web as you thought you did!
When writing a paper or doing research, you may be required to utilize several journals. Here you will find links to popular online journals and general library pages that list more popular journal sites. Find, read, and print information about most any subject that will appear in articles in the current editions of these online journals.
What's next? Are you thinking about what you are going to do after college? We have assembled some links that can help you with your decision. The following information could help you decide how to look for a job, how and where to apply to graduate school, or whether to think about transferring to a new school. Whatever you do, remember that an informed decision is a smart decision.
Surfing the Net can take a lot of time; time you need to spend learning important information for your degree. With this page, we've tried to provide links to a few of the most popular and informative sites. We have also provided a chart that will help you identify what kind of sites you're surfing to. Instructor Resources:
Aside from the IRG for each course, this section includes forms for evaluating Web activities and reviewing articles.
PowerWeb is a password protected site. Students access PowerWeb through a password packaged with the McGraw-Hill textbook.
Our Advisory Board for online materials provides consistent input and advice on products being developed as well as on products being revised. They are professors from many disciplines all deeply involved in the development of exciting interactive materials and in the pedagogy of instructional design.
Visit Advisory Board for a complete listing of members
Each Annual Edition title is assessed by an expert group of professors in the field before it goes to press. This ensures that the topics are relevant and that information is current.
- FAQ
- The suggested minimal system for using PowerWeb:
- At least a 28.8 BPS connection to the Internet.
- Use Netscape Navigator 4.x and higher or Internet Explorer 4.x and higher.
- A color monitor capable of displaying 256 colors.
- The display area should be set for 800x600 pixels.
- Troubleshooting
- I lost my password, what do I do now?
Contact us and we'll give you a new one.
- I never received the article review forms my students sent.
Your e-mail address may not have been entered correctly. If students filled in their e-mail address on the article review form, they should receive a copy of the e-mail that was sent to your e-mail address--even if that e-mail address was filled in incorrectly. Students can still forward that "CC-ed" (copy) e-mail to you via your e-mail program using your correct e-mail address. Students may want to print out the article review form before they submit/e-mail it for their records and as proof that the form was completed as required (the review form automatically puts the date and time on the answers page that is submitted to your e-mail address). - I receive one of these error messages when I try to load an Acrobat document:
"There was an error processing a page. There was a problem reading this document (9)."
and/or
"This file contains information not understood by the viewer. Suppress further errors?"
Your version of Acrobat® reader can't read 3.x files. Just download the current version of Acrobat® reader and install it. The files should download and display correctly.
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