The following recommendations have been made by the following areas of research, corresponding to the four groups that combined to produce this report:

• Course Objectives
• Web-Based Learning
• LCC Goals
• Technology

• It’s recommended that the content of the web site not vary much from the requirements of the Board of Regents for an accredited Technical Communications class
• If any changes are made to the content, approval should be gained from the Board of Regents first
• The LCC should attend to making sure that the original goals expressed for the face to face Technical Writing class are not compromised
• Observe the revelations made in similar courses already instituted at James Madison University and Ketterling University.

• The course material that is presented online must have examples to support the theory or show examples of how a particular technique is used in communication (e.g. the section on Resume Writing must include a few sample resumes).
• Although the course will be primarily online, there must be a contact faculty person for the students to get in touch with in case they have a question. This faculty person must be available have at least three office hours per week.
• The ICARUS project should provide a web tool in which students can submit questions immediately while reviewing the course material. This tool must be in addition to the bulletin board/newsgroup set up for the class. The turn around time for the question-submittal system must be minimized to be within a reasonable range.
• There should be a provision to submit homework online. To protect the integrity of this system, a secure login and password system needs to be set up.
• The information delivered through lectures must be kept concise and pertinent to the goals of the class. Creativity must be employed to sustain the interest of the student.
• The first couple of assignments should be relatively easy, giving the students a chance to learn the system.

• Students preferred to see and hear their lectures, rather then read them. Therefore it is recommended that Internet classes use audio to enforce what is written. Animation can also be used to enforce certain topics.
• Minimize the amount of material that has to be learned at a given time. One solution would be to only place on the Internet current material and as the course moves on, slowly update the web site.
• Make the web site as clear and precise as possible. Skipping around the site is not an optimal approach. Students were unlikely to scroll through large amounts of material to find information.
• In order for the class to be effective, students have to be forced to participate regularly. Participation was a major factor for students and educators in learning the material. Promoting discussions and having students take turns leading those discussions made the courses more meaningful and beneficial.

• The design of the interface should not distract from the content. Limit your colors, fancy designs, and movement (i.e. animated GIFs).
• Keep the layout simple and clean.
• Make sure your page is easily read by everyone, no matter what his or her capabilities.
• Visitors should always know the context in which they are operating.
• Consistency aids in navigation through your site. As people become familiar with your site ("behavior" of page), they are able to predict how to perform tasks.
• Eliminate breaks, broken links, etc. that can make viewing the Web site frustrating and unpleasant.
• Be unique so learners know when they have entered/exited the classroom domain.
• Appearance should match the purpose of the page.
• Support a variety of visitors by having different page layouts available. This may not be necessary for ICARUS b/c in general, the learners will be specific group of individuals.

• Scantron and multiple-choice tests have the potential to be less effective than other methods of evaluating students.
• The creators of the test questions will have to take extra care to see that the questions they do provide are clear and will have a small chance of being misinterpreted.
• A system to appeal ambiguous questions should be established.

• Establish communications avenues between students and professors
• Ensure that professors are available for face to face meetings with students that are having problems

• Coordinate with other schools to ensure the quality of the curricula in the new web-based course and its conjunction with the curricula for students in other schools
• Allow professors freedom to embellish on course topics via newsgroups or e-mailings
• Enrich professors with new research opportunities as well as more variegated teaching options

• Those off-campus students with slower speed modems should either look into purchasing an Ethernet connection (if they can afford it) or come to school to view downloadable documents
• On or off-campus students who feel the need to see their teacher face-to-face should check their office hours or set appointments.
• Be patient when using the Internet.

• HTML codes used in the ICARUS project must be the most supported standards in order to accommodate all possible users.
• All project pages should be copyrightable so that work can be freely distributed. And copies and derivatives must be "copylefted" so they can be freely distributed as well.

• Structure of the web site should be consistent with what the student already knows an expects from the web
• Each lesson should be one chunk of knowledge
• The structure should follow the three-click rule
• Plan for growth and maintenance in the structure

• Every page should give the user some idea where they are inside a structure
• Every link should tell the user where they are going
• Every page should have some type of navigation
• Navigation should be consistent and redundant
• Allow searching

• Use color to group items together or to express difference
• Use color consistently
• Use a maximum of three to seven colors
• Make foreground colors contrast with background colors

• Use clear icons and graphic identity schemes. Also have an overview section as well as a summary screen that will aid in the user’s ability to obtain information quickly.
• Users should always be able to return to the homepage as well as other major navigation sites, such as Next and Previous pages.

• Images should be consistent, well positioned, well proportioned, and meaningful and creative
• Keep fonts readable by using consistent fonts at each heading level, and watching their size and character.

• Provide alternate means for some types of information that will give disabled students trouble
• Cohere to World Wide Web Consortium standards and technologies

• Keep web page download time to a minimum
• Advise students to stay offline during peak hours
• Have users store information of their hard drives
• Allow text based browsing in case a user has his/her images turned off

• Always allow alternate means for accessing information that may be otherwise inaccessible due to a user’s browser or other unsupported technology
• Make sure user interface will work with the user’s minimum requirements
• Check with OIT before requiring plug-ins on a web site