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Overview

Weebly Overview (3:37)

Description

Weebly is a free web hosting service. It is recognized for its easy-to-use “drag and drop” website design. Although Weebly offers advanced tools through its paid plans, users are able to create functional and interactive websites with the free version without technical expertise. Weebly offers hundreds of professional-looking website templates that can be easily customized by adding, editing, and arranging various multimedia. Teachers have the option of registering for Weebly for Education, an extension of Weebly, that is tailored specifically for classroom use. However, teachers may prefer to use Weebly, as Weebly for Education does not yet offer the same range of tools, such as third-party application integration.

Justification for Using this Tool

Weebly as a web-based learning tool has various opportunities to maximize student learning. First, Weebly presents opportunities to integrate multimedia on webpages. Multimedia presentation is important for e-learning as it engages students in active and meaningful learning (Clark and Mayer, 2011). Weebly users can present a diverse array of multimedia on their websites, including text and graphics, including video, photo, and illustration.

Weebly also possesses the ability to achieve the coherence principle, which Mayer and Fiorella (2014) define as removing extraneous content from multimedia to reduce cognitive overload and improve student learning. Weebly accomplishes this by eliminating webpage advertisements and limiting the use of distracting embellishments – such as unnecessary transitions and animations – by offering fixed editing functions that promote webpage minimalism.

Further, Weebly’s App Centre offers various third-party applications that creators can integrate into their website to promote student interactivity that also facilitates meaningful learning. For example, creators can incorporate quizzes, surveys, social media links, and collaborative discussion boards to engage students with the website.

Weebly also offers collaboration opportunities, which Clark and Mayer (2011) propose have great potential to improve individual learning. For instance, students may work together on a Weebly domain to engage in website development using various design principles. Weebly for Education also promotes student collaboration by allowing students to insert comments and feedback to other users’ webpages.

Although Weebly promotes student learning through different design features, a criticism of this web-based learning tool is that it does not readily respect the modality principle, which states that learning is improved through the verbal narration of content (Moreno & Mayer, 1999). Weebly offers audio integration options, however; this is only available through the paid plans.

Strategies for Use

Strategy 1 – For Teachers

Weebly For Teachers (3:08)

This video provides strategies to help teachers integrate Weebly into their classrooms, such as through web-based lessons, classroom blogs, and collaborative student projects.

Strategy 2 – For Students

Weebly For Students (1:32)

This video provides strategies for students to use Weebly as an educational resource, such as for projects or e-portfolios.

Helpful Resources

Resource 1 – Weebly Review

This article presents an informative review of integrating Weebly into the classroom. It explains what Weebly offers, its pros and cons, multimedia tutorials, and suggestions on how teachers can use it in the classroom.

Resource 2 – How to use Weebly (for teachers)

This is a video tutorial for teachers on how to use Weebly. It explains how teachers can use this design tool to create a classroom blog, however; the same steps and principles can be applied to create a class website or lesson.

Resource 3 – How to use Weebly (for students)

This is a video tutorial for students on how to use Weebly.  It explains how to access your account, add pages, text, and images.

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Mayer, R., & Fiorella, L. (2014). Principles for Reducing Extraneous Processing in Multimedia Learning: Coherence, Signaling, Redundancy, Spatial Contiguity, and Temporal Contiguity Principles. In R. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, pp. 279-315).  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139547369.015

Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. E. (1999). Cognitive principles of multimedia learning: The role of modality and contiguity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 358–368.

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