A Discussion on E-Learning in Higher Education – Development and Deployment

Abstract:
This paper attempts to evaluate the use of e-learning in higher education. First, we will look at what constitutes a generic definition of e-learning that supports the learning requirements of undergraduate students studying in different disciplines. We then attempt to establish a framework of e-learning attributes that will serve as essential requirements of an e-learning course. We will also present the experiences we have acquired when we developed and deployed e-learning course in our Business Analytics programme.

Introduction

UniSIM has embarked on the journey of e-learning since 2007. The term e-learning has been around since the 1980s. Many have assumed that e-learning is a form of distance learning, which has been in existence even longer than e-learning. However, they are not synonymous. E-learning requires an electronic platform for execution while distance learning can be executed via many other means besides an electronic platform. Distance learning is synonymous with distance as it is to facilitate learning for people who are located at distances far away from the source of the production or facilitation of learning. On the other hand, one of the purposes of e-learning when it started out was to be used as a convenient and cost-saving approach to package learning content, such as in CDs and in computers. Another purpose at its early stage of inception was to add animations, simulations, and interactions to paper-based learning content with the aid of computer tools. E-learning has evolved since then into a popular form of online learning and training with the advent of the Internet and World Wide Web.

In tertiary education institutes, e-learning is getting to be more prevalent with many institutions supplementing their classroom lectures with online e-learning materials. Such an approach can be termed as blended e-learning. In UniSIM, there is a distinction between what constitutes a full e-learning course versus a blended e-learning course, established by the Education & Technology Production department (ETP). For a course to be qualified as full e-learning, it must have the following features; (a) contain no face-to-face lecture sessions, although some critical face-to-face tutorials or seminar sessions could be retained, (b) all course content or subject matter learning is done online, which includes acquiring course-specific knowledge through online learning activities, and (c) all mandatory and supplementary study/reading materials must be made available online. As for blended e-learning, it combines online experiences with face-to-face approaches.

This paper attempts to evaluate the use of e-learning in higher education. First, we will look at what constitutes a generic definition of e-learning that supports the learning requirements of undergraduate students studying in different disciplines. We then attempt to establish a framework of e-learning attributes that will serve as essential requirements of an e-learning course. We will also present the experiences we have acquired when we developed and deployed e-learning course in our Business Analytics programme. Lastly, we will review some of the feedback obtained from a short survey given to students who had attended the e-learning courses.

A definition for E-Learning

The alphabet e in e-learning stands for electronic, thus a natural extension to define e-learning is that it is a pedagogical method to facilitate the student’s learning process by electronic means. The essence of this definition is that e-learning is not about the technology but about facilitating learning. Thus, as long as effective learning can be achieved by any electronic means, it is a good e-learning method. This is an important distinction that has to be recognized if one is to effectively utilize e-learning.

Many a times, the approach to developing e-learning materials focuses on the technology rather than the learning process. As Shirley Alexander (1996) argued, "..instead of focusing on the features of the technology, the most important question is
'What do I want my students to learn?' It is only when this question has been considered,
along with other questions such as 'what is known about the way students learn this' that
features of a number of strategies (both technological and non-technological) should be
considered as to their suitability in helping students learn this course/concept."
(Alexander, 1996)

With this in mind, it brings us to the next important consideration. How do we ensure students effectively learnt what we required them to learn? This leads us to the guiding principle of requiring students to achieve competency in desired learning outcomes and the use of appropriate pedagogies to facilitate the student’s learning process in acquiring competency of desired outcomes. Technologies and electronic tools will then be just the means to support this guiding principle.

Bates (1995) summarized the issue: "…is not so much one of knowing how to use a particular technology, but the lack of an appropriate conceptual framework to guide the use of technology. Put simply, this means that many people with the responsibility to teach have not been given an appropriate instructional framework on which to base their practice.” (Bates, 1995, p245)

The danger of educational technologies manifesting themselves in the form of jazzy multi-media presentations that are incorporated in an e-learning module without due consideration of its merit in supporting student’s attainment of desired learning outcomes is potentially an expensive and time-consuming move towards failure. Many a time, educators failed to assess the value of the technology prior to incorporating it into the learning programme due to pressure from different peoples (Lambert, 1999). The mere present of technologies does not in itself improve the learning (Alexander, 1998); it is the correct adoption of a particular technology that provides a positive impact on student learning.

Thus, before venturing off to develop e-learning courses, an e-learning development framework should first be adopted, which could serve as a guide for developers.

An E-Learning Development Framework

The premise that we will establish in conceptualizing an e-learning development framework is that the e-learning environment should emulate classroom experience while at the same time provide features above and beyond what a classroom teaching session could do.

First, what are the important features that support successful classroom teaching? A conceptual model of classroom teaching is given in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Essential Features of Classroom Teaching

In Figure 1, a list of essential features of an effective classroom teaching session is suggested. It is not an exhaustive list but should cover most of the important aspects of classroom teaching. Although the main priority of teaching is to impart knowledge, there are actually many other subtle features that make classroom teaching a part of the academia process. Together, these features make up the overall experience that a student receives when he/she attends a lecture/tutorial/seminar. Let us provide you with a brief illustration on how these features manifest themselves in a classroom teaching environment.

Besides imparting knowledge, a classroom teaching session may usually be accompanied by demonstration of difficult concepts, elaborations and emphasis on major principles, illustrations and examples on how principles are applied. These activities invoke the sense of hearing, seeing and sometimes doing as well from students. The presence of the instructor also brings a degree of learning discipline to the students.

Through a classroom teaching session, students will have opportunities for interactions (with other students and the instructor) and also the ability to explore the subject matter more closely with occasional and spontaneous queries for the instructor. Feedback from instructor to student queries will be swift (fast response) and the presence of a dedicated instructor will provide reassurance and empathy to the students who are trying to learn unknown subject matter for the first time. The classroom setting, the presence of other students and the direction of the instructor all add up to an academic environment that exudes a need to learn.

Lastly, the classroom setting provides a place for intellectual socializing (during Q&A, breaks, group discussions, etc.) and evokes peer encouragement as students will naturally be pressured to a certain extent to learn as they see peers busy deciphering imparted knowledge from the instructor.

With this understanding of the subtle features in a teaching classroom, we could conceptualize an e-learning development framework that could provide guidelines on establishing e-learning modules that would emulate classroom experience while at the same time provide additional features above and beyond what a classroom teaching session could do. Figure 2 shows a conceptual e-learning development framework.

Figure 2: Conceptual E-Learning Development Framework

The framework provides a matrix evaluation between the basic requirements of developing an e-learning course and the essential features of a classroom teaching session. This matrix approach is to ensure that e-learning courses that are developed will contain elements that emulate classroom teaching, given the presumption that such emulation will ensure e-learning is an effective alternative to face-to-face teaching sessions in terms of knowledge acquisition through hearing, seeing and doing. Thus, for each e-learning attribute on the top of the matrix framework, we traced its impact on the essential classroom teaching features by designating an “X” if there is an impact between an e-learning attribute and a classroom teaching feature. E-learning developers should use the framework as a guideline to incorporate necessary attributes into their e-learning modules in order to effect an enriching virtual learning environment for the students.

There are 12 attributes in the e-learning development framework. The first attribute, digitized subject content, is essentially the lecturing and learning materials that the instructor would put up to provide adequate knowledge that cover the stated learning outcomes of the course. In this aspect, there is opportunity for instructor to put up more materials than what he/she could afford in a classroom setting, provided that learning materials are effectively linked in the e-learning environment.

The other 11 attributes serve to support the various features one finds in a classroom teaching session. The matrix table itself is self-explanatory. However, there are 2 interesting observations that we would like to highlight. First observation is that if synchronous communication such as webcasting is incorporated in the e-learning course, it will essentially emulate almost all features of a classroom teaching environment (except for explore). That leads us to our second interesting observation, which is in e-learning course, we have the opportunity to encourage students to do a lot more exploration by incorporating the right attributes such as Quizzes and Content Knowledge Assessments, Interactive Simulations, Further Reading Linkages, and Quick & Logical Navigation.

We will briefly elaborate the possible forms that some of the e-learning attributes could be incorporated in the course.

Course Information
Communicating the course requirements, syllabus and objectives is very important as students are responsible in planning for their own learning. Students could be lost if the syllabus and objectives are not properly communicated to them. Palloff and Pratt (2001) advise, “If clear guidelines are not presented, students can become confused and disorganized and the learning process will suffer”.

In an online environment, a module delivery plan is an essential tool to the students. Such a plan should state the beginning dates, milestones and due dates of the module. It should contain the weeks in the semester, a list of self-directed courseware, reading materials, assignments, activities or tests to be completed in the semester. Students should be encouraged to follow the module delivery plan closely so that they would have completed the expected activities and milestones before the next session.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
FAQ is a list of frequently asked questions and their answers. A FAQ for your module would help to reduce the number of questions and allows students to look for information themselves before calling the lecturers for help. This eliminates the provision of repetitive answers to repetitive questions and frees the lecturers to engage their students in collaborative learning.

Attendance Requirements
Although online learning provides students with the flexibility to learn any time and any where, lecturers must still state the attendance requirements for online collaborations if they want good participation. Lecturers should communicate the benefits of online collaboration to the students. This would help them to understand the purposes of having online collaborations and to ensure that they are willing participants of the programme. Plan the number of online collaboration work for the semester, table it in the module delivery plan so that students are kept informed in advance and strategize their participations.

Technical Skills
Students need not be a computer expert to do online learning. However, they must be comfortable with the use of computers and be able to access the Internet and learning materials via Blackboard and use the collaborative tools to start their first online conversation.

Explanations must be provided of plug-ins and what type of plug-ins are required to be installed on the computer before it could be used to view the learning materials in BlackBoard. A virtual demonstration on where to get the plug-ins and how to install them could be incorporated.

Communication
Discussion boards in Blackboard must be fully utilized to encourage group discussions, interactions, feedback, group collaborations and rapport building. However, other digital communications means such as MSN or Skype could be introduced to support close communication among students.

Discussion on Development and Deployment

In the Business Analytics programme at the School of Business, three blended e-learning courses have been developed and offered to students. We will briefly discuss some of the experience we gained in developing and deploying these courses.

Discussion on Development

In developing e-learning courses, some traits are noted. The course developer must be a believer of e-learning and is willing to try different means and ways to conduct e-learning courses. The course should be divided into many study units and each study units further divided into many portions of short topics. This chunking approach allows easier control during development and easier editing and revisions.

(a) Role of the E-Course Developer

The e-course developer plays the important role of transforming a course taught in the traditional face-to-face method to one that is taught with lesser face-to-face interactions and more interactions via electronic means. His/her duties are as follows:

(b) Role of Learning Development Specialist (LDS)

While the course developer has the expertise knowledge in the contents of the course, the LDS has the expertise knowledge in the technical aspects of the e-course development and hence can play a technical advisory role in the process of e-course development. The duties of LDS are as follows:

(c) Generic Steps in e-Course Development

Step 1 – Compartmentalize the Contents

Decides on the content to be included in the e-course, divide the content into 6 study units, each study units into a few chapters and each chapter into a few topics. In my course ANL301, each study unit has two chapters and each chapter has four to six study topics.

Step 2 – Features of Study Topics

Decides on the best method to deliver the content for each topic and incorporate the appropriate features in the methods of presentation for each topic. For topics which are descriptive in nature, such as introduction and definition of concepts, a web-based presentation method may be appropriate. Topics that are technical in nature may be presented using voice-embedded presentation method where steps-by-steps guidance is provided. Topics that are highly abstract in nature may be presented using video-embedded presentation method.

Step 3 – Self-Assessment in Study Topics

Create suitable self-assessment questions at the end of each study topic to test the understanding of the students. The questions should be short by nature and test questions on the content available in the e-course. The format could be true or false, multiple choice questions, simple calculations or structural questions or analysis of diagrams.

Step 4 – Discussion Board for Study Units

Discussion Board is an important platform for students to acquire knowledge via the e-mode. Since there are limited face-to-face interactions with the students, students should be encouraged to post questions and discuss among themselves using the Discussion Board facility.

Step 5 – Constant Interactions

With the decrease in the number of face-to-face interactions, it is natural for students to feel anxious about their progress in the learning, especially whether they are moving in the right track in understanding certain concepts. To address their anxiety, maintain constant interactions with them is the only way.

(d) Dos and Don’ts in e-Course Development

Do

(i) Be concise in the course content. Each topic should not require more than 30 minutes of student’s attention.

(ii) Provide information on the sources where students can refer to if more reading is needed.

(iii) Provide answers to the self-assessment questions.

(iv) Introduce interactive features for students to actively participate in the e-learning.

Don’ts

(i) Put too much content in each topic.

(ii) Put too much emphasis on the technical format and neglect the content.

(iii) Set irrelevant questions or questions that relate to contents not covered in the e-course for self-assessment.

(e) Reflections

Students are concerned about misinterpreting the principles and concepts they learnt in the e-learning materials. The face-to-face sessions should not be used as a replacement of the e-course. It should be used to explain the difficult concept to the students and provide instant reply to queries raised by them. It should also be used to discuss difficult questions and the relevant approach to answer the questions. The following table provides some criteria for selecting technical tools to support development.

Table 1: Some Criteria For Selection Of Tools For E-Learning

Classification of technologies for enabling learning in an online mode (Adapted from Curtis, 1997)

Discussion on Deployment

(a) Role of e-Instructor

The e-instructor is the party that conducts the e-course. His/her duties are as follows:

(i) Follow the tutor e-course guide to conduct the e-course according to the schedule.

(ii) Post leading questions in the Discussion Board to stimulate learning via the e-mode.

(iii) Regulate the discussions in the Discussion Board and provide answers to the queries raised by the students.

(iv) Grade the Discussion Board Exercise and the Group-Based Assignments.

(b) Students Engagement in Online Environment.

The success of the e-course depends on the extent of engagement that students will experience in the online environment. Besides putting all the materials online, students have to be encouraged to discuss, to go through the activities and do the online assessments. It is important for the instructor to initiate discussions and to provide constant feedback to the students so as to boost their confidence in learning in an online environment.

(c) Online Discussions

Online discussions form a very important area in the e-learning process. Create adequate discussion forums to stimulate online engagement. For example, in the Business Analytics courses, there were at least two forums created in the Discussion Board. One is a General Forum and the other is the Topic Forum. In the General Forum, a self-introduction track is established for instructor to introduce himself/herself to the students and also for the students to introduce themselves to each other. It builds virtual rapport. Other discussion tracks in this forum could be created for students to post any general questions they have regarding the course. As for the Topic Forum, focused discussion tracks were created, one for each study unit in the course, which are meant for students to post questions pertaining to specific study units in the course.

(d) Dos and Don’ts

Do

(i) Post leading questions in the discussion board.

(ii) Encourage students to discuss actively among themselves in the discussion board.

(iii) Intercept the discussion at appropriate timing and direct the discussion to the right track.

(iv) Reply promptly and constructively to questions posted in the discussion board.

Don’ts

(i) Post strong negative comments when replying to students’ questions.

(ii) Be too late in replying query from students.

Conclusion

E-learning is an important medium that UniSIM has adopted to support its academic process. In order to make it a success, instructors and e-developers should approach its development and deployment with a correct mindset guided by appropriate strategies. This paper has provided a conceptual e-learning development framework that could assist instructors and e-developers to carry out e-learning activities.

REFERENCES

Alexander, S. (1996), “Teaching and learning on the World Wide Web,” In AusWeb95: Innovation and diversity, Debreceny, R. and Ellis, A. (eds) pp 93-99, Ballina, New South Wales: Norsearch.

http://www.scu.edu.au/sponsored/ausweb/ausweb95/papers/education2/alexander/

Alexander, S. McKenzie, J and Geissinger, H. (1998) An Evaluation of Information Technology Projects for University Learning, CUTSD, Commonwealth of Australia.

Bates, A.W. (1995) Technology, open learning and distance education, London: Routledge.

Lambert S. and Williams R. (1999) “A Model Of Selecting Educational Technologies To Improve Student Learning,” HERDSA Annual International Conference, Melbourne.

Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt (2001), Lessons From the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass

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