IS E-LEARNING REPLACING THE TRADITIONAL LECTURE?

• By Jonathan D. Owens and Liz Price, Lincoln Business School, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK .

• Published in Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Education and Training (Vol. 52 No. 2, 2010).

review some of the learning technologies associated with teaching and learning in higher education (HE).

It looks at e-learning and information technology (IT) as tools for replacing the traditional learning experience in HE, i.e. the “chalk and talk” lecture and seminar.

~ HE is on the threshold of being transformed through the application of learning technologies.

PURPOSE

This article also suggest that the learning technology implications for Higher Education Institutes cannot assume that presenting new technologies automatically make their institutions “youth friendly” and new generation would like to see some concrete benefits of technology.

However, this paper attempts to investigate in which direction higher

education might go. Is this generation wants a change?

Thus this study suggests that not only the new technologies play a part but also help to free up time in order to engage and support students in new and interesting ways.

METHODOLOGY• Case based approach:- took place at Lincoln Business School

(LBS), University of Lincoln & Buckinghamshire Business School (BBS), Buckinghamshire New University in UK Higher Education Institutes (HEIs).

• Three units that offered similar content and level were selected for this study (all the units include a web site) aimed at supporting fulltime undergraduate and postgraduate students’ learning.

• Unstructured interview with the lecturer and a questionnaire on students were used.

FINDINGS

Interview (with the Lecturers) Each unit provided with a web site that aimed to offer additional

support for the students.

Lecturer - able to publish the lecture notes, the syllabus, the module outline, the assessment brief and any other text material.

The related web links could be edited at the discretion by the lecturer who has the control over the content of the web site.

Discussion forum with the lecturers were very helpful and the feedback build the level of interaction between the student-lecturer using internet base learning.

FINDINGS

Questionnaire on Students

1) Level Certificate in Management Studies (CMS): Operations Management Module

- Only 21% of respondents at Lincoln Business School (LBS) and 19% respondents at Buckinghamshire Business School (BBS) log on to the web site at least once a week.

- 2/3 of the students at the two institutes visit the web site once per month or less, or not more than five times in a semester to look at the lecturer’s questions, lecture notes and to surf other material related to their assessment.

- Majority of students in both HE feel the web site helps their learning, makes it easier to keep up to date with the lectures, offers the opportunity to discuss questions with the lecturer, and ask for clarifications.

2) Level BA 2: Management of Operations Module at Lincoln Business School (LBS) and Buckinghamshire Business School (BBS)

- Roughly about 49% Lincoln Business School (LBS) and 47% Buckinghamshire Business School (BBS) of the students use the web site on a weekly basis.

- This was perhaps an expected finding at level three undergraduate rather than level two undergraduate because of the maturity of the student towards learning and the weighting of the degree programme at the final level in England and Wales.

- Similar to the previous two levels, these students mostly use the lecture notes; lecturer’s questions and use the web links.

3) Level BA 3: Strategic Management Module at Lincoln Business School (LBS) and Buckinghamshire Business School (BBS)

- Almost 2/3 of the students at each institute visit the web site at least every week.

-The students at Lincoln Business School (LBS) and Buckinghamshire Business School (BBS) felt that the web site helps their learning, makes it easier to keep up to date with the lectures, offers the opportunity to discuss questions with the lecturer, and to ask for clarifications.

- It is clear that the students at both institutes would use the web site more often if there was more material related to the module assessment.

CONCLUSION Overall in this study, more than half the cohort had used the particular

function of the web site, or had expressed a preference for how the web site had been used.

Yes, Education is being transformed through the application, integration and utilization of learning technologies in UK Higher Education Institutions. From a traditional perception, e-learning will act only as supportive capacity to the traditional teaching and learning approach at Higher Education Institutions.

So the question, “Is e-learning replacing the traditional lecture?” the indication from this research is not answerable at the moment.

~ In future all courses offered will be a mixture of face-to-face and online learning and more students will use mobile technology as a tool for learning.

IS E-LEARNING REPLACING THE TRADITIONAL LECTURE?

THE END

~THANK YOU~

PRESENTED BY:-

KOMALAH A/P PURUSOTHMAN (M20101000079)