A Study On E-Learning Methods: Education 2.0
Abstract
Information and communication tools (ICT), Web 2. 0 applications and the effect that these assets are having on education are rapidly creating new challenges for teachers and students looked with learning online. Educating and learning in an e-learning condition happens uniquely in contrast to in the customary classroom and can show new difficulties to educators and students partaking in this web based learning condition.
Introduction
Oxford presents the concept of e-learning as being a type of “learning conducted via electronic media, typically on the Internet”. In the Canadian Council on Learning’s recent report was stated that e-learning is “the development of knowledge and skills through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly to support interactions for learning – interactions with content, with learning activities and tools, and with other people”. This definition focuses on the idea of “interaction” as a key feature of e-learning and it is close to acknowledging the key role pedagogy plays in effective learning. As seen in recent years, it can be quickly understood that the Internet is transforming the way we work and even the way we learn. We have been witnesses to the increasingly high interest in e-learning, not only from the commercial organizations, but also from the academic institutions.
At a global level, it can be well observed that the market for educational products and services is rapidly expanding. E-learning has become of increasing importance for various reasons, such as the rise of information and global economy and the emergence of a consumer culture. Students of the 21st century demand a flexible structure that allows them to study, work and participate in family life at the same time. This flexibility is reflected in alternative delivery methods that include Internet use. People have also become more sensitive to cultural and gender differences, and to the learning needs of the challenged, needs that might be addressed by e-learning.
Key E-learning Issues
As institutions adopt e-learning, some important new issues arise: institutions must provide an adequate and reliable technical infrastructure to support e-learning activities; teachers and students must possess the technical skills to use e-learning tools; professors must redesign their courses to incorporate e-learning effectively into their pedagogy. The term “e-learning” has many connotations and forms. In this study, we focus on three types of e-learning courses:
- Online distance-learning courses: The professor conducts class sessions online, not via e-mail or telephone. This usually requires no face-to-face meetings between students and teacher either in the classroom or via video during the course.
- Traditional courses supplemented with technology: The instructor teaches all sessions in the classroom, but incorporates technology in some or all classes (using PowerPoint, Web-based activities, online testing, etc. ).
- Hybrid courses: The professor combines elements of online distance learning courses and traditional courses to replace some classroom sessions with virtual sessions.
E-learning in Higher Education
As IT becomes more robust and easier to use, it increasingly infiltrates academic activities in higher education. Course management systems let teachers easily integrate technology into their instruction. Online communication and information access expand a course’s range to wherever and whenever a professor or student logs on. Higher network bandwidth provides a quick and efficient conduit to accomplish these activities. As an increasing number of institutions adopt e-learning strategies, their successes depend not only on the availability of technology but also on the extent to which faculty and students are supported as they explore and develop innovative ways to integrate technology into the learning experience. Pedagogical practices must be adapted, technical proficiency becomes more important, and a reliable and robust technical infrastructure must be maintained in order to use e-learning effectively. These demands are translated into a host of new professor and student support requirements that institutions must address. The use of technology in education, commonly defined as e-learning, has become a standard component in many courses. Technology applications are not limited to the classroom – they are also placing some classroom sessions with virtual sessions or fully replacing classroom courses with online courses.
Conceptual Framework on Inhibiting and Facilitating Factors for E-learning
By using a framework consisting of 36 enabling and disabling factors, this paper will identify the major challenges for e-learning in Romania. The conceptual framework was generated using the findings from an extensive literature study on facilitating and inhibiting factors for e-learning. The framework consists of 36 factors belonging to eight different categories: student, teacher, technology, course, institution, support, costs and society.
Whereas other frameworks and models focus on one or a few factors such as computer anxiety or culture, this framework takes a holistic view by arguing that one cannot exclusively look at technological or individual factors when discussing e-learning enablers and disablers. Important factors are also found in the surrounding society, in the support functions provided, at the institutional arrangement etc.
Major challenges for e-learning in developing countries Researchers on the field have noticed that there are a few factors – which are persistent over time for both students and teachers – that can be considered major challenges for e-learning. These factors are the following ones: support, flexibility, teaching and learning activities, access, academic confidence, localization and attitudes.
Attitudes on IT and e-learning → positive or negative attitudes come from society, politicians, students and teachers themselves and can be made visible in the political agenda or in how people perceive e-learning as not being “as good” as face-to-face teaching. Attitudes can become major challenges for elearning if not addressed correctly and openly.
Flexibility → it refers to the classical mantra of e-learning being learning for “anyone, anytime, anywhere”. The factor concerns many issues, such as whether students should be allowed to learn at self-pace and take the examinations when they want and if they should be allowed to choose the medium of content delivery. Above all, flexibility in assignment pace and course delivery has proven to lead to good results.
Support and guidance for students → this refers to the support systems needed for the student to easily make it through the course. Contact or intervention from the institution to its students and support from the tutor and other staff (including IT help desk) are said to improve learning and pass rates.
Access → the use of ICT for distance education makes access to the technology an enabling or disabling factor, but access also refers to the quality of the connectivity (Bon, 2007). The reliability of this connection and the bandwidth will affect the users’ ability to access the full range of the content needed.
Localization of content → it is about how the course material is adapted in order to fit local culture, traditions and religious beliefs. For instance, images and symbols should be appropriate for the local culture in order to not be offensive or simply confusing (Pagram et al. , 2006).
Teaching and learning activities → this challenge refers to the different teaching and learning activities that can be undertaken during a course. Research shows that activities that affect students’ performance are the level of interactivity, the level of collaboration and interaction with peers and the possibility for hands on practice for students (Andersson, 2008).
Academic confidence → refers to the students’ previous academic experience and qualifications. The student’s academic confidence is a good predictor of a student’s success or failure in e-learning courses and, according to some research, academic factors outnumber other important factors in discriminating between successful and non-successful web-based students.
Conclusion
On the off chance that 'results' is comprehended to incorporate more extensive social, psychological and full of feeling impacts, it is conceivable to state that e-learning affordances positively affect results. The idea of the current proof demonstrates that, when great instructing happens pair with fitting e-learning advancements, at that point understudies are bound to profit what's more, have the capacity to work and learn in manners that vibe progressively regular to them. The investigations in this field likewise point to a more prominent concentrate on explicit instruments, as opposed to the educating and learning forms by which they are effectively utilized.
With respect to the practices that augment the advantages of e-learning, teaching methods which benefit coordinated effort, communication, sharing, critical thinking and hazard taking seem to prompt more prominent understudy commitment and continued fixation – components which are key parts of accomplishment. These primarily co-valuable academic rehearses seem to grow notwithstanding when instructors have not intentionally included such methodologies; this might be on the grounds that they fit with understudies' favored methods for utilizing these innovations. The dominance of long range informal communication in youthful individuals' mechanical lives may likewise add to along these lines of learning. And keeping in mind that numerous understudies are computerized locals in the feeling of being 'at home' with innovation, they all things considered are new to utilizing these equivalent apparatuses in an educative path and past social or prompt purposes.
It is as yet the job of the educator to interface these devices intentionally and to instruct understudies to profit by utilizing these all inclusive apparatuses for learning. A key part of successful learning is the improvement of basic reasoning and metacognition. These run connected at the hip with compelling proficiency rehearses in schools, and coordinating key segments of programs acknowledged so as to make the most ideal conditions for understudies' learning. These focuses additionally complement the significance of the 'C' in ICT: communication (of thoughts, ideas, techniques, practices, learning) is a main segment of the kinds of teaching methods that connect nearly to settled, coordinated employments of e-learning, and connection to positive accomplishment results for understudies after some time.
References
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- Bon, A. (2007). Can the Internet in tertiary education in Africa contribute to social and economic development?. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) (3:3).
- Brown, S. A. , Fuller, R. M. , Vician, C. (2006). Individual Characteristics and e-Learning: The Role of Computer Anxiety and Communication Apprehension, Indiana University. Harriman, G. , (2014). E-Learning Resources, http://www. grayharriman. com/, last accessed on June 23.
- Wan, Z. , Wang, Y. , and Haggerty, N. (2008). Why people benefit from e-learning differently: The effects of psychological processes on eLearning outcomes, Information & Management, 45(8), pp. 513-521. http://www. oxforddictionaries. com/, last accessed on June 23, 2014
