Development of a Philippine epic website

This study develops a Philippine Epic Website and determines the effectiveness of the medium as a teaching aid. This research used survey questionnaires for data gathering to determine the cognitive effects of using a Philippine Epic Web site specially designed for instructional purposes. The sample of 60 student respondents were taken from three schools: De La Salle University-Manila, University of Perpetual Help-Rizal (Molino Campus), and La Fortuna College (Cabanatuan City). Freshmen AB Literature students were chosen because the researcher believes that to determine the cognitive effects of the Web site, a student should have a very minimal background of epics. The three schools were selected from among other schools because of the internet facilities of the said schools. Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were made:1. The message design of the Web site proved the effectiveness of the medium as a teaching aid. The effectiveness of the medium as a teaching aid was greatly affected by the design of the message and how information was laid-out on screen. Message design or screen design portrayed the creativity of the teacher or the Web designer to improve learning or cognition. This process was similar to evaluating the teacher in the traditional classroom instruction. The teacher was evaluated based on the methods, styles and strategies used in the classroom. In web-based instruction, message and screen designs were based on teaching creativity. Evaluating the screen and message designs was similar to teacher\u27s evaluation. 2. The learner factor or the navigational design of the Web site proved the effectiveness of the medium as a teaching aid. In the learner factor, the ability of the students to find their way in the Web site without being lost was evaluated. This was similar to evaluating the instructional materials using item analysis in the traditional classroom. In the traditional classroom environment, instructional materials were evaluated by running a test in a controlled and experimental group. Using item analysis, the difficulty index was computed as a basis for accepting or rejecting items for revision. In the case of Web-based instructions, the students were evaluating the instructional materials based on their perceptions on ease of navigation.3. The knowledge gained in using the Web site proved the effectiveness of the medium as a teaching aid. In the traditional classroom, tests were the measurement of students\u27 performance. Similarly, in Web-based instructions, tests were also considered important as a measure of students\u27 performance. However, in the design of the survey questionnaire, test items cannot be incorporated because some respondents do not like the idea of taking test while answering survey questionnaires. To measure the educational value of the Philippine Epic Web site, general questions were given to test the reading comprehension of the user. From this process, surface reading or deep reading will be evident based on the scores from the evaluation. The Philippine Epic Website was designed with the context arranged such that both students with deep reading ability and surface reading ability may find the site useful