Using Moodle to Enhance Student Satisfaction from ICT Ela Goyal MCA Department, SIES College of Management Studies, Nerul, Navi Mumbai, India
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Abstract - Both undergraduate and graduate courses are experiencing a migration away from the traditional classroom and toward a greater emphasis for electronic delivery of content. This trend cuts across all departments and schools in the university system. In this study, perspective of students from a business schools, towards expectations and satisfaction from information and communication technologies usage, was studied. The perception was taken at two times. One was before the use of a learning management system, Moodle, in course management and delivery and the other was after using Moodle. The findings indicated that there is a gap between what is expected and what is being given in terms of ICT usage. Also, the satisfaction of the students significantly improved with the use of a specialized software for learning. The findings could be useful to any management institution which is thinking of making effective use of ICT in its curriculum. Keywords: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Learning Management System (LMS), expectations, satisfaction, Moodle, management education
I. INTRODUCTION The use of ICT to support teaching and learning in higher education has expanded in range and frequency over the past decade (Albert & Thomes, 2000; Annand, 1999; Jennings, 1995). ICTs are now commonly used in universities and colleges to support many activities associated with teaching and learning. These activities include planning and development of courses and curricula (Clouse & Nelson, 1999–2000), communication between instructors and administrators (Black, 2000), student-to-student and student- toinstructor interactions (Paj & Wallace, 2001), support services to students (Potter, 1997), and management of the educational process (Adria & Woudstra, 2001). New technologies provide more opportunities for matching diverse teaching methods to diverse student needs. Schrand (2008) suggests the use of technology in education has several benefits for motivating students. Schrand further states that the technology can facilitate more active student participation and learning in the classroom, and appeal to multiple intelligences, and different learning styles. Jonassen, Howland, Marra and
Seema Purohit Director, NM Institute of Technology and Development Dadar(w), Mumbai India
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Crismond (2008) state that technology can be only effective in the learning process when it meets a learning requirement. Access to technology related multimedia has previously been shown (Agarwal & Karahanna, 2000) to improve cognitive engagement and cognitive absorption in users. Great expectations have emerged for technological advances to meet society’s demands in new way. Many universities and private corporations are investing significant capital in e-learning systems (Levy, 2006). However, as many projects such as the UK eUniversity, NYU Online, Scottish Knowledge, Universities 21 and Global University Alliance (GUA), which all developed around e-learning applications, have failed to realize their aims and goals, leading many to question the quality and capabilities of this form of education. Full understanding of the factors contributing to effectiveness of e-learning systems will help EUniversities and institutions channel funding to effective factors and redesign or eliminate non-effective factors (Levy, 2006). Moodle is an open source LMS, based on sound pedagogical principles, which was mostly developed in academic context. It is open to registered users and offers many different functions, ranging from course management to monitoring students’ activities; it can be used as a repository for course material, but it also offers the possibility to develop forums, wikis, quizzes, surveys and other interactive in-built activities, without any need for particular computer skills. The main advantage of such an environment is that it is self-contained and all the above described functions are seamlessly integrated on the same platform, thus creating the feeling of being in a classroom – though a virtual one (Fontanin M, 2008). In this paper, comparison of the satisfaction, of the students, from ICT with and without a Moodle, is done. A way of improving the satisfaction of students from ICT usage is tried in this paper through Moodle.
II. OBJECTIVES The study has the following objectives: 1. To determine student expectations from ICT usage.
2. To determine the student satisfaction with the current usage of ICT in their institution. 3. To identify, if using, specialized software for teaching and learning process has an impact on the satisfaction from ICT usage.
III. METHODOLOGY AND HYPOTHESIS A questionnaire based survey was conducted at a management institution in a metropolitan city of India. The respondents are second year students of Masters in Management Studies course. The questionnaire had 35 factors that can affect the use of ICT and 20 outcomes of using ICT. The questionnaire was administered to 60 students at two times. As they entered college, at the beginning of the semester, they were asked to fill the questionnaire. Later, Moodle was used in their course management and learning. After using moodle in their course, they were asked to fill the questionnaire again. The following hypothesis would be tested H10: There is no significant difference between expectations and satisfaction for the students in terms of ICT usage. H20: There is no significant difference in satisfaction of the stakeholders before and after using Moodle. IV. LITERATURE REVIEW A number of studies have been conducted to either relate the use of technology and stakeholder satisfaction, or their preferences or both. A study was conducted by Zhao (Zhao et. al., 2009) to provide (a) school administrators with the findings they need to make a cost-effective technology investment in distance programs, (b) information for educators who plan to teach or to improve distance courses, and (c) the participating schools and faculty with feedback on how information technologies are used in other schools and how users perceive the impact of information technologies on their productivity and technology preference. From the findings of this study, it was found that most faculty and students stated that e-mail, Internet lecture notes and assignments, and Internet or Webbased discussion groups helped increase their teaching and learning productivity in distance courses. The findings also imply that the stakeholders considered these technologies as productivity enhancers. Also, more faculty members perceived telephone, voicemail, and TV-based live video and audio as productivity enhancers and preferred using TV-based live video and audio as compared with students. Such differences were explained by the difference between users’ familiarity with and preference for technology. From the internet, students would simply gather variety of latest information that is useful for their assignments. It is common to say that more than 50 percent of students’ assignments are based on information from the
internet (Norzaidi M. D., & Salwani M. I., 2009). Thus, today, academic life without access to the internet is hardly imagining. However, much still is unknown about how university student use the internet information systems for academic work. According to a study done in Malaysia, (Norzaidi M. D., & Salwani M. I., 2009) issues such as, technology resistance, technology satisfaction, task-technology fit, and usage have raised the question of whether universities have been on the right track in terms of students’ the internet usage and its effectiveness, particularly after spending huge investments on the internet systems. In this study, the use of Technologies by faculty members and students, User Productivity, and user Preference in Distance Education was studied and analyzed. The findings of the study show that technology satisfaction has relationship with students’ performance. The study suggests that in order to attain improvements in the students’ performance, the university should consider the fit between the tasks requirements and the functionalities of their internet systems. When there is a fit, this would create a positive perception among the students in terms of the usefulness and satisfaction of their internet systems and therefore, promote higher level of usage among them. Also, the students’ performance is not affected by their resistance towards internet usage, implying again that the condition of mandatory usage exists in the university. A study on how Web 2.0 technologies can be used to enhance students’ learning experience was done in USA. (Lending, 2010) The researcher argues that to truly understand collaboration, students must learn more than what collaboration is; they must see it work on a task that is meaningful to the student. The exercise provided a meaningful task that cannot be done by a single student; however, it can be done effectively by many students working together. As they worked on the task, they used a Web 2.0 technology, the wiki. They finished the assignment feeling more comfortable with the technology, and having seen it work. The instructor facilitated learning by students in a collaborative method. The learning outcome moves from knowledge acquisition to knowledge integration. The study showed improvement in grades and thus improvement in satisfaction. A study was conducted in Japan, (Yamauchi, 2009) to show how technology can help the teacher to accommodate different learning needs and get/keep students motivated. The students were supposed to learn research and presentation methods by using English in conjunction with computers and the Internet. In addition to using Moodle, other web tools including weblogs and online materials were integrated into learning activities. These activities helped students feel more comfortable using computers and the Internet, and encouraged them to look for better ways to express themselves. Also, the activities were utilized flexibly to accommodate
TABLE I ANOVA Sum of satisfaction Sum of Mean Squares df Square F Sig. .034 Between 2425.805 1 2425.805 4.670 Groups Within 41554.390 80 519.430 Groups Total 43980.195 81 students’ diverse abilities and interests, helping keep them actively engaged with the course. Overall, the use of technology improved the learning of the students, their grades improved, thus improving their satisfaction The study conducted by Lee, (Lee et. al., 2007) elaborates on accountability for educational quality or learner satisfaction: faculty members or instructors are less influential in e-learning classes than in physical classes and should not be held solely accountable. Instead, improving educational quality and learner satisfaction within the context of e-learning should be an integrated effort of all related parties. Freeze (Freeze et. al., 2010) did a study utilizing the Information Systems Success model in examining elearning systems success. The study was built on the premise that system quality and information quality influence system use and user satisfaction, which in turn impact system success. The results revealed that both system quality and information quality had significant positive impact on user satisfaction and system use. Additionally, the results showed that user satisfaction, compared to system use, had a stronger impact on TABLE II Descriptive Questions Sum of satisfaction 95% Confidence Interval for Mean Lower Upper N Mean S.D S.E Bound Bound Min Max 41 137.00 19.267 3.009 130.92 143.08 72 173
With Moodle Without 41 126.12 25.839 4.035 117.97 134.28 59 Moodle Total 82 131.56 23.302 2.573 126.44 136.68 59
175 175
system success. To increase student satisfaction, it is important for instructors to make available a system that provides students with needed, relevant, up-to-date information through a user friendly and interactive system.
V.
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
a) 1-Way ANOVA The satisfaction for all the factors was summed. 1-Way ANOVA was applied on this total for the two different times. In the dependent factor list, the “sum of satisfaction” was put and the factor on which the analysis was done was the “Moodle use”. Significant difference was obtained for the “sum of satisfaction” based on Moodle’s use. The Mean value for the satisfaction after Moodle use was found to be significantly higher than without Moodle use. Hence, the null hypothesis H20: “There is no significant difference in satisfaction of the stakeholders before and after using Moodle” is rejected. Thus, it can be said that the use of the open source LMS Moodle, being a specialized software for teaching and learning process, significantly improved the satisfaction of the stakeholders from ICT usage in their institutes. With better satisfaction of the stakeholders, the use of technology would be more effective and efficient. This would improve the performance of the stakeholders and in turn the productivity of the educational institute. b) Gap between Expectations and Satisfaction The next table shows all the factors that were studied for efficient usage of ICT. The outcomes of using ICT in the learning process were also listed in the questionnaire. The students were asked to rate the importance and for satisfaction the scales were from not at all satisfied to very satisfied. Mean for the importance and mean for satisfaction of each of these factors, as given by the respondents, was calculated. This was the satisfaction taken without the use of Moodle. After the use of Moodle in their course management, the students were asked to give their satisfaction for the same factors again. This was satisfaction with the use of Moodle. The mean was again calculated for satisfaction with Moodle software. The values obtained are shown in the table below. The table shows that there is a big gap between expectations and satisfaction for all the factors and outcomes. This clearly shows that what the stakeholders want from ICT is not what they are getting. The difference between expectations and satisfaction for all the factors and outcomes was calculated. The difference between expectations and satisfaction without Moodle is positive for all factors/outcomes of ICT. This clearly shows that what the stakeholders want from ICT is not what they are getting. After the use of Moodle, the satisfaction has clearly gone up. Thus, the gap between satisfaction and expectation has reduced.
TABLE III
Factors for ICT usage/Outcomes of ICT Usage Ease of availability of ICT Reliability (i.e. should do as expected of it) of ICT Time to upload and download (speed) ICT being a part of the organization's work culture Availability of resources to promote ICT usage Mandatory institutional requirement for all students and teachers to take basic technology courses Providing students more opportunities to use technology in their coursework Providing library reserves electronically All courses at the institute to have a course website Technical support to use ICT at the institutional level Mandatory technology courses such as MIS, HRIS for all students/teachers ICT integration into classrooms to be as organizational policy Intranet site of the institution Availability of a National Government Policy to implement ICT in the institute Policy to evaluate the effectiveness of the ICT use Infrastructural readiness of the institute to support ICT Financial readiness of the institute to support ICT Cultural readiness of the institute to support ICT Teacher's technical competence In-class training provided by the faculty for ICT they are using in class Availability of specialized IT teachers Providing encouragement to teachers to use technology in their teaching more often Upgrading teacher's ICT skills Building awareness towards importance of Technology Use by fellow teachers IT and data security Technology being a part of daily routine Keeping up with current developments in ICT Adaptability of the course to be being taught through ICT Availability of educational software Ease of learning technology Ease of navigation of the course content through an ICT device
3.51 3.56 3.46 3.41 3.2
Mean Satisfaction without Moodle(µs) 2.48 2.5 2.5 2.58 2.35
1.03 1.06 0.96 0.83 0.85
Mean Satisfaction with Moodle(µsm) 2.98 2.95 2.93 2.9 2.66
3
2.3
0.7
2.46
3.12
2.45
0.67
2.83
3.22 3.02 3.15
2.35 2.25 2.43
0.87 0.77 0.72
2.76 2.54 2.88
2.8
2.23
0.57
2.46
2.98
2.5
0.48
2.68
3.07
2.35
0.72
2.63
2.8
2.33
0.47
2.66
2.9
2.25
0.65
2.73
3.44
2.25
1.19
2.78
3.37 3 3.29
2.33 2.43 2.6
1.04 0.57 0.69
2.8 2.83 2.83
3.1
2.53
0.57
2.71
3.24
2.6
0.64
2.51
3.05
2.6
0.45
2.66
3.29
2.5
0.79
2.76
3.05
2.7
0.35
2.78
2.83 3.34 2.93 3.17
2.5 2.65 2.8 2.7
0.33 0.69 0.13 0.47
2.59 2.73 2.85 2.54
3.15
2.5
0.65
2.56
3.24 3.2
2.55 2.53
0.69 0.67
2.54 2.8
3.34
2.58
0.76
2.78
Mean Expectation (µe)
Difference (µe - µs)
TABLE IV
Factors for ICT usage/Outcomes of ICT Usage Convenience(time and place) Better collaboration among teachers using online discussion boards Improving communication between students and teachers Improvement in understanding of complex or abstract concepts More opportunities for practice and reinforcement Improve overall learning More focus on real-world tasks and examples Greater control of class activities Increased motivation towards learning Increase in efficiency Increase in productivity Increase in quality of projects Improve group learning Allow active learning Make the work more interesting Improving the presentation of the subject Develop the power to think Improvements in student grades Reducing the cost of education
technologically savvy does not mean that the stakeholders are satisfied by its use. The usage has to be
3.41
Mean Satisfaction without Moodle(µs) 2.6
3.22
0.81
Mean Satisfaction with Moodle(µsm) 2.88
2.35
0.87
2.63
3.49
2.43
1.06
2.85
3.07
2.48
0.59
2.71
3.12
2.43
0.69
2.63
3.29
2.55
0.74
2.73
3.27
2.53
0.74
2.66
3
2.48
0.52
2.8
2.93
2.55
0.38
2.76
3.41 3.46 3.44 3.24 3.32 3.39
2.53 2.53 2.55 2.55 2.5 2.6
0.88 0.93 0.89 0.69 0.82 0.79
2.88 2.83 2.83 2.76 2.71 2.83
3.34
2.53
0.81
2.83
Mean Expectation (µe)
3.24 3.27 3.34
VI. CONCLUSIONS Summarizing the findings of the study, a) The satisfaction level from ICT usage was significantly low for all the factors as compared to the expectations from ICT usage. b) The use of specialized software helped improving the satisfaction for all the factors, thus reducing the gap between satisfaction and expectations for ICT usage. The satisfaction was significantly higher as shown through 1-way ANOVA statistical test from ICT usage when a specialized learning software, Moodle, was employed.
2.38 0.86 2.63 2.48 0.79 2.61 2.63 0.71 2.88 in accordance with the requirements of the stakeholders to make it successful. When the stakeholders get what they want, their acceptance for the same would be higher and hence the efficiency with which it is being used. Thus the overall learning outcomes can be met in a better
manner, improving the performance and hence the productivity of the stakeholders. VII. REFERENCES [1]
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Difference (µe - µs)
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