Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
course materials and reads solely on his/
her own until examination time.
with students responding positively to the quality
resources they make available (Buzzetto-More,
2008).
Although the significant advantage of digital
resources is that they can offer flexibility of for-
mat, and ease of storage and retrieval, however,
digitization, on its own, is not enough to ensure
flexibility and use. A major difficulty with early
digital 'multimedia' resources was their inflex-
ibility; they were not designed for reuse across a
range of contexts. Consequently resources were
often based around a single educational model and
made available in a set format. Ease of finding
suitable resources is another important factor in
their effectiveness, as suggested by studies show-
ing that the current generation of students often
choose to source digital resources in preference
to print based materials and their habitual use of
'Google' as a primary resource search engine.
Among the reasons given for these preferences
are that the computer terminal provides a 'one
stop shop' for resources, and that while Google
may not provide the best quality information or
most efficient search, it is familiar and has a track
record of producing results that are adequate.
Similar criteria of unified access, familiarity and
adequacy seem likely to apply to teachers' strate-
gies in sourcing resources (Littlejohn et al, 2008).
For all its potential in dealing with learners
individually, online learning does have its own
invisibility problems. The other side of online
learning can seem far away and isolated. For the
learner, the price of empowerment is the responsi-
bility of wielding that power. As with all distance
learning, e-Learning relies on self-motivation.
With no enforced discipline or deadlines, it is easy
for the learner to be distracted and put off work
for a distant tomorrow. With no human presence,
it is also impossible for a learner with a problem
to obtain help easily. Thus, personal interaction
between the instructor and engineering students is
either absent or else very different from traditional
face-to face learning. Other subtle disadvantages
of e-Learning include the ability to read text from
•
E-Learning is interactive; the software
permits the engineering student to commu-
nicate, not only with the lecturer, but also
with fellow classmates. It enriches and
supplements the classroom experience by
engaging the Web.
•
E-Learning has the ability to communicate
consistently to learners by providing the
same concepts and engineering informa-
tion - unlike classroom learning, where
different instructors may not follow the
same curriculum or teach different things
within the curriculum.
•
E-Learning is cost effective in terms of
learners per instructor. In addition, it saves
classroom time and this is very significant
for learners who are employed on a full-
time basis.
•
Engineering students, instructors and eval-
uators can track learning outcomes more
easily (Magoha & Andrew, 2004).
It has been found that all of the respondents
considered the online course materials beneficial
to their overall learning experience. Obtained re-
sults have shown a positive effect on engineering
student learning, problem-solving skills, and criti-
cal thinking skills, with females responding more
positively than males. Comparing undergraduates
who completed quizzes online with engineering
students who took traditional paper-based quizzes
leads to reveal that students who took the quizzes
online significantly outperformed engineering
students who took the pencil-and-paper quizzes.
It has been asserted that web-enhanced learning
improves instruction and course management and
offers numerous pedagogical benefits for learners.
Engineering students in Web-enabled learning en-
vironments become more active and self directed
learners, who are exposed to enhanced learning
materials. Course Websites have proved to be an
effective means of delivering learning materials,
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