presented is based on a proposed educational ... like board, PowerPoint presentations (PPTs), notes, Over ... education or technical education is affected by new.
eLearning: A Better Learning Experience G. D. Bhutkara, M. L. Dhorea, S. B. Karthicka, H. K. Abhyankarb a Assistant Professor, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, India b Principal, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, India Abstract - This paper presents an idea of eLearning and related initiatives to support teaching-learning process at Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune (VIT-Pune), India. The paper elaborates on eLearning process along with its association with higher education. Also, it describes the use of eLearning to implement and support on-campus academic environment. The case study presented is based on a proposed educational Management Information System called eMIS, designed for more liberal and flexible teaching and learning mode at VIT, Pune. A related survey about exposure and interest in mediums like board, PowerPoint presentations (PPTs), notes, Over Head Projector (OHP), videoconferencing, online facility, edocumentation etc. is also presented in this paper. Next discussion is about the departmental portal - eCompIT as well as departmental e-Bulletin - Compendium that supports building an effective eLearning environment. Index Terms - eLearning, eMIS, higher education, eCOMPIT, Compendium. I. INTRODUCTION
In
1990s, the rise of the Internet and web
technology provided a renewed impetus to education. Due to use of the Internet and web technology, many social activities like education, commerce, governance and mass communication have been accelerated not just in urban areas, but also in rural areas in most of the developing world. As mentioned by Baptista-Nunes et al. [2], today, no concept, approach, technology or innovation without a small “e” in front of it, is considered to be viable. Some of these concepts are imposed on us by political need or marketing need. So, in last few years, Information Technology (IT) has completely changed the concept of education and especially higher education. Like most of forms of education, higher education or technical education is affected by new
SKIMA 2008
approaches like eLearning, online environments or virtual learning environments [8]. These approaches have tried to empower teachers, students and even teaching-learning process. An eLearning aims to provide an appropriate environment capable of supporting not only the acquisition of subject matter, but also development of other skills like online communication, discussion, negotiation and teamwork. Educational practitioners also face many difficulties. On one side, they are expected to know new pedagogical approaches along with very fast moving technological environment and on the other side, world feels that they should identify the relevance of these new approaches in their daily practice of teaching-learning process and they must practise them. The main challenge for teachers and academicians is the appropriate use of IT as delivery vehicle in higher and technical education according to Baptista-Nunes et al. [2]. These new educational technologies consist of PPTs, emails, chatting, bulletin board systems, websites, videoconferencing etc. So, higher education is slowly incorporating these emerging new modes of delivery. This paper presents and discusses an attempt to use eLearning for supporting interactive academic environment at VIT-Pune, India. VIT-Pune is a leading engineering institute in Maharashtra state in India. It is an autonomous institute affiliated with University of Pune. It has at present about 2800 students, 225 faculty members, 67 well-equipped laboratories with support of 150 administrative and supportive staff. It has very strong alumni spread all over the world.
II. eLearning eLearning refers to a learning that is delivered or enabled via electronic technology. As discussed by Jong-Ki Lee et al. [7], it is an active process of acquiring information as well as knowledge and can be accomplished through individual experience, maturity and interaction with one’s environment. It encompasses a range of techniques and technologies such as the PPTs,
159
videoconferencing, online facility [3], edocumentation etc. eLearning can be valuable when used as a part of a well-planned and properly supported education and training environment. But eLearning is not a magical tablet or bullet that can replace all existing and obsolete pedagogical theories and approaches. Many professionals today believe that we should stop referring it by a separate name and begin considering it as an IEEE SKIMA 2008
integral part of complete learning environment. eLearning incorporates selfmotivation, efficiency, communication and technology. So, there are technologies encompassing a range of resources, tools & media and creating an environment that enables rich, interactive and online learning. As mentioned by Ausserhofer et al. [1], the aim of eLearning should be to show actual problems and open questions and draw attention to these to provide better solutions. According to Jong-Ki Lee et al. [7], an increasing effectiveness of eLearning has become one of the most important practical issues in both educational and information system fields. Even, quality of eLearning system is a critical issue and eLearning should be perceived as useful and easy to use. III. eLearning AND HIGHER EDUCATION The development of eLearning environment requires significant changes and alterations to the traditional methodology of delivering higher education. This implies not only changes in course structures or curriculum, but also changes in attitudes, in order to accommodate the new challenges posed by eLearning. So, eLearning in this new form must not only meet the objectives of how students learn, but also take into account the interests, motivations, priorities and preferences of the students. In a traditional classroom, curriculum is presented part to whole, with emphasis on basic skills and explicit knowledge. According to Baptista-Nunes et al. [2], students are viewed as empty vessels into which knowledge is poured. Teachers behave in more authoritative manner, disseminating facts and correcting answers. An assessment of student learning is viewed as separate from teaching and occurs almost entirely through examination at the end of the course. Students work individually and in competition. Many students face a lot of stress during end examinations. eLearning has the potential to change this scenario, by providing facilities for peer interaction, continuous assessment, collaboration,
SKIMA 2008
and teamwork. A successful eLearning use not only needs to be well designed, to adopt appropriate pedagogical approaches, but also needs to pay attention to surrounding issues such as program structure, institutional strategy and academic management processes. The use of eLearning needs to be based on evidence-based practice and sound academic research. Thus, without well-directed vision and supportive thought process, eLearning in higher education will have very limited role to play. IV. eMIS eMIS [5] is designed as a total solution for academic management and effective teachinglearning mode at VIT-Pune, Pune, India. The title eMIS is an abbreviation of educational Management Information System. It will support all processes required for academic management and a liberal teaching-learning mode. The application - eMIS is based on a requirement analysis and research performed during last two years. The authors are closely involved in requirement analysis and design of eMIS as members of Executive and Working Committees dealing with eMIS. For eMIS, the “subjects” are students, staff, management and other stakeholders like alumni, parents etc. All stakeholders will be using this application directly or indirectly. Many representatives of management, staff and students have participated in analysis and primary design of eMIS. This participatory design of eMIS is expected to fulfill their needs and expectations Accounts Canteen Department Examination Hostel Inventory Maintenance Student activities
Alumni Dead stock Establishment Feedback Housekeeping Library Self development Student section
Systems
Time table
motivating them to use the system better. Therefore this research is more than the traditional interpretative research. The implementation of eMIS will start shortly after the related financial support issues are sorted out with respective implementing vendors. eMIS [5] has various modules as shown in following table I: TABLE I: eMIS MODULES
160
The pedagogical model proposed in eMIS is based on the assumption that eLearning allows an improvement on the traditional classroom learning approach. So, the research team decided to adopt a moderate experiential learning approach [2] with certain assumptions such as: 1. The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator who can support independent learning process, if required by students. 2. Learning involves action and reaction processes by the learners at both individual and group levels rather than just a passive reception of knowledge. 3. Collaboration and interpersonal relationships are essential elements in order to explore multiple perspectives, to exchange experience and ideas and to overcome isolation. 4. Learning activities must be authentic and should cover at least real context. 5. Learning should also remain on-campus activity with f2f (face to face) support and discussions in classrooms and laboratories. 6. The additional guidance must still be provided through the seminars, projects and practical sessions. The students will be provided with following academic details on eMIS [5] platform: Syllabus of course, Timetable, Teaching plans, Classroom, laboratory and home assignments, Course material – PPTs, notes, e-documents, references etc, Question papers and question banks, Examination schedules, Notices, Events, seminars and guest lectures, Industry visits, Other achievements. The eMIS will allow students some flexibility to study at own convenience, but still they need to participate in reasonable on-campus activities. In near future, eMIS will offer a virtual classroom environment with support of video-conferencing for teaching-learning process whenever required. But, this should not be taken as a substitute for f2f classroom teaching. V. LEARNING ENVIRONMENT The learning environment should be a web-based platform for the delivery of most of the academic inputs allowing teachers to build collaborative learning environments. These include PPTs, e-
SKIMA 2008
documents, bulletin boards etc. To enhance eLeaning environment, our department Department of Computer Engineering has a departmental portal –eCOMPIT; which is available on Intranet at VIT, Pune. This portal provides information about faculty, syllabus, notes, lab manuals, time table, question papers, projects, seminars, notices etc. The home page of this departmental portal - eCOMPIT is shown in the following screen I. It was launched in early 2007; so it is relatively a new service. Though it has received a good response from students and faculty; more efforts are needed to make it vital in eLearning environment related with Department of Computer Engineering. Currently, many students and faculty are using eCOMPIT for supporting their extensive academic activities. It is a good solution to information and knowledge search specific to many courses and is providing a better platform for self-study.
SCREEN I: HOME PAGE OF eCOMPIT
Compendium is a monthly departmental ebulletin that has objective to share major activities, events and achievements with students, staff, alumni and industry. It is an important element in eLearning environment in the department. So, it provides periodically details about student and staff achievements, project ideas, latest technological trends, important web site links, departmental seminars, event schedules, technical articles, alumni news etc. So, it creates opportunities to the students, faculty and alumni to know about the developments related with the Department of Computer Engineering. The home page for Compendium is shown ahead in screen II. Compendium hits not only every
161
student’s mailbox, but also every alumnus’s mailbox through email each month. So, effectively alumni learn about departmental development regularly. This helps the department to involve alumni in various academic activities and events. So, compendium is a vital tool in eLearning environment.
The students were asked to select one or more medium(s) for both the categories – the medium(s) they are exposed to and the medium(s) they are interested in while learning. Each number in the table II shows number of student opting for that medium. The first entry in table II is about students’ exposure to the mediums. The second entry in table II is about their choice about medium(s) of their interest. The data in Table II can be represented effectively using the following graph I. In the graph I, the student response about exposure to mediums is shown using blue color (light-color) cones and student response about mediums of interest is shown using red color (darkcolor) cones. On X-axis, the mediums are considered in sequence respectively as board, Notes & OHP, PPTs, Video Conferencing and Online & other mediums. On Y-axis, the number of student responding positively for the respective medium is shown. Mediums
SCREEN II: HOME PAGE OF COMPENDIUM
VI. THE SURVEY
40
The success of eLearning in any academic environment depends upon exposure of teachinglearning mediums [6] to the students as well as their interest in these mediums. For achieving this, the survey was conducted in October 2007 among the students in Department of Computer Engineering. The student users for this survey were chosen from classes of second and third year of engineering from a branch - IT. The user sample size was 34, including 14 girl students. The learning mediums were divided into categories such as board, notes & OHP, PPTs, video conferencing and online & others like edocuments. The student users filled questionnaires [4] concerning demographic information (e.g. age, class, sex etc.), their exposure to the mediums and their choice about medium(s) of interest. Their response is shown in table II. Mediums
Board
Notes & OHP
PPTs
Video Confer encing
Online & Others
Most exposed
34
20
28
02
12
Interestwise
17
20
20
22
21
TABLE II: STUDENT RESPONSE TO MEDIUMS
SKIMA 2008
30 20 10 0 1
2
3
4
5
GRAPH I: STUDENT RESPONSE
The above graph shows that students are now interested in learning mediums like video conferencing and online learning sessions. Also, many students still believe that classroom board, notes & OHP, PPTs are essential part of learning environment; but if they are used along with interesting mediums mentioned above. This survey can be considered while designing the eLearning environment. As discussed by Ausserhofer [1], traditional mediums fail to give answers to queries asked by students. Extensive use of these mediums without much use of interactive mediums like videoconferencing and online facility [3] in learning process highlights lesser interactivity and flexibility in teaching-learning process. But now, student expects changes and their interest is in more interactive mediums. An increased use of interactive mediums will definitely facilitate and
162
accelerate process of eLearning through extensive teacher student interaction.
VII. EXPERIENCE OF eLearning eLearning has provided a better learning experience and new opportunities for sharing information among individuals and groups like students, teachers, alumni, industry professionals etc. in an academic environment. Benefits of eLearning for students, faculty and institute could be summarized as follows: 1. Electronic distribution of course material; flexibility for students (when to study, at what pace), 2. Supporting different learning styles; accommodation of different ability levels, 3. Establishment of an efficient communication between students and staff, 4. Greater access to information; greater flexibility in maintaining and up-dating course and other academic documentation. Thus, according to Susan Genden [8], student learners with learning disabilities may substantially improve learning ability if they are provided with eLearning environment and support of multimedia. Potential drawbacks of eLearning are that eLearning can be: 1. technology dependent; unsuitable for some types of training which depends on interpersonal contact; 2. restricted by social and economical constraints; 3. no match for f2f teaching; 4. unsuitable for disable students in certain scenarios. Even with the drawback like these, eLearning plays important role in higher education of today.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to thank all the students, teaching and non-teaching staff at VIT, Pune, India for their support during analysis and design of eMIS. Also, we thank our IT students Apurv Gupta, Akshit Gupta, Aditya Batra for their support in student survey considered in this paper. REFERENCES [1] Ausserhofer A., Web based teaching and learning: a panacea? IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol.37, No.3, 1999, 92-96. [2] Baptista Nunes M, McPherson M, No lectures on-campus: can elearning provide a better learning experience? Proceedings of Second IEEE Conference, 2002. [3] Benigno and Trentin, The Evaluation of Online Course, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 16(3), 2000, 259-270. [4] Chauncey Wilson, Designing useful and usable questionnaires: you can’t just “throw a questionnaire together”, ACM Interactions MayJune 2007, 48-49& 63. [5] eMIS: Requirement Analysis Documents, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, Sept. 2007. [6] G. D. Bhutkar, M. S. Kadam, Z. M. Shaikh, Media Selection in Engineering Classrooms, Proceedings of NCBPEE2007, Feb. 2007, No. 38. [7] Jong-Ki Lee, Woong-Kyu Lee, The relationship of e-learner’s self-regulatory efficacy and perception of e-Learning environment quality, Computers in Human Behavior, 24 (2007) 32-47. [8] Susan Genden, The use of multimedia in online distance learning, Wayne State University, 2005.
VIII. CONCLUSION We feel that eLearning is a better learning experience for students, faculty, management and others involved in any academic environment like VIT, Pune. It can be successfully used in oncampus learning without neglecting f2f interaction. Furthermore, eLearning will allow the design of more flexible courses and programs. But still, the introduction of eLearning is a critical stage and requires more acceptance and practice. eLearning is an approach of future and will be supported by many technologies in times to come at educational campus like VIT-Pune.
SKIMA 2008
163
