Humanities-based curriculum online: A role for the arts in designing web based interdisciplinary inquiry

The ability of ArtsOnline, a web site designed by professionals at the Los Angeles Educational Partnership (LAEP), to support interdisciplinary inquiry for an arts centered, humanities-based, program at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), was evaluated from June to August in 1999. As research findings reported herein show, design barriers and challenges can lessen the benefits from application of IT for interdisciplinary inquiry. Some of the design barriers and challenges mentioned included inadequate web site design, insufficient editing and information presentation, along with low access to IT by teachers and students, lack of funding, low administrative support and lack of teacher training. Findings detailed in this paper are from transcripts developed from five focus groups (N=30) convened at UCLA to evaluate ArtsOnline. The UCLA Armand Hammer Museum and Grunwald Center for the Graphics Arts and LAEP funded the evaluation.