Is Web-based seminar an effective way of learning in adult education?

The Internet can be used to solve pedagogical problems. To give an example, seminars for crowded courses exceeding a hundred participants would not be possible without Web-based arrangements. These arrangements may provide help especially for adult learners. We organized a Web-based coursework and seminar during the knowledge work and its tools course for some students (experimental group). Simultaneously, we ran the same course including a conventional coursework and seminar for other students (control group). During the coursework and while in the seminar the students were expected to work in small groups. In the Web-based seminar each group had their own workspace in the Web CT environment for publishing and presenting coursework. At the final phase the students were expected to familiarize themselves with the presentations of other groups. In this paper we analyze the benefit of our WWW-based seminar based on the goals of the course. At the beginning and the end of the course we analyzed how useful and interesting the students regarded five themes of the course. In addition, the students were expected to analyze their own development of PC software use skills, groupware use skills, and the skill of knowledge work management. Differences between the experimental group and the control group were found by studying motivation. From this perspective the study found out that the WWW-based coursework and seminar help adult learners to improve their learning on productivity issues related to PC software and groupware. The younger students of the WWW-based coursework and seminar appear to benefit more from the WWW-based arrangements in the learning of analyzing individual knowledge work. Additionally, the younger students appear to be more motivated in the traditional seminar in the learning of analyzing collaboration and work management. The result reflects the need for looking at student profiles before planning learning activities on the Web.