When Henry H. He '00 checked the World Wide Web page for his core course, Literature and Arts C-14, "The Concept of the Hero in Greek Civilization," he randomly came across a contest on course material.

By correctly answering the questions about various movies that are recommended viewing for the course, he wound up winning season tickets for the remainder of the films, a value of $25.

"I was surprised about winning it," he says. "I wasn't surprised there was a contest because I think the entire course has been innovative."

As the Web and the Internet grow increasingly popular among students, professors have turned to the technology as a means of expanding the dimensions of their courses.

The Instructional Computing Group (ICG), which maintains 32 course pages, has seen use of its server quadruple since last fall, as more and more courses are going beyond the standard syllabus-and-reading-list to include multimedia, hot links and discussion groups.

But while many hail the academic benefits these Web pages have added to their courses, the content of some course discussion groups and newsgroups have veered off-course into personal attacks and often offensive flames.

Weaving the Web

Eric M. Mazur, McKay professor of applied physics and the instructor of Physics 11a, "Mechanics," says his page caused so much traffic on the Digitas server last year that he decided to move it to its own.

In the last two weeks, the site at http://physics11.harvard.edu had more than 1,400 hits--requests for files--per day.

"[That's] a lot more than I thought!" Mazur says in an e-mail message.

The Physics 11 page has video demonstrations of concepts ranging from how a vacuum affects free fall to what happens when a TF is placed between two beds of nails with a cinder block on top.

"The goals of the page are to help students review what goes on in lecture [and] to have a single electronic home for all course material," Mazur says. The page also offers "ConcepTests" which test students' understanding of underlying concepts.

Sometimes a Web page can do far more than a textbook alone.

"The course emphasizes the sound culture [of Ancient Greece], says Thomas E. Jenkins, head teaching fellow of Literature and Arts C-14.

The works students read in the course were passed down through an oral tradition, and Jenkins says the written word fails to capture the essence of the pieces.