Hip-Hop music has a way, lyrically speaking, of bringing things down to the basic, elemental level – of cutting through all of the hype and ideology and getting down to what really matters most. One well-known rap song serves as an example – “It’s all about the Benjamins.” In this instance Benjamins refers to the picture of Benjamin Franklin who appears on the 100 dollar bill and the song decries the state of our culture – that is to say everything driven by dollars.

So what is the basic, elemental level in web-based instruction? Hopefully it’s not all about the Benjamins, but rather it’s all about the Outcomes. For too long, higher education has been driven more by high quality INPUTS to the learning process and has left outcomes to a sort of Que Sera Sera purgatory. If you hire and retain great faculty, build well-designed classrooms, develop high standards and provide general support, then learning is bound to happen.

Certainly these elements are all important but they do not guarantee that learning will occur. No matter what delivery system you use, traditional classrooms or web-based instruction, the focus should be on TEACHING and LEARNING strategies, based on clearly articulated goals. The only way to make sure that these strategies achieve these goals is through Assessment – continuous Assessment of student performance and continuous assessment of the instruction. The Teach-Learn Assess model is circular and without any one element in the process, there is no guarantee that learning outcomes will be achieved.

Many faculty are still wary of web-based instruction, claiming that it is inferior to traditional face-to-face learning. Web enthusiasts counter that web-based instruction offers new and exciting potential because of its rich multimedia capabilities. Both views focus on INPUTS and forget that it’s all about the Outcomes – which means the focus should be on the Teaching, Learning and ASSESSING process and not on the delivery system.

So make sure you define what YOUR Benjamins are in your web course and ASSESS, ASSESS, ASSESS.