Post by Jaeme, 7 July 09 @ 5:50 pm
Effectiveness of technology allows people to access to the Internet anytime and anywhere. Almost 90% of our daily life includes the process of learning and communicating which involves the internet. In today’s education environment, many universities are establishing e learning to enable students to learn through the internet.
E learning is a delivery of learning, training or education program by an electronic mean, such as a computer. The first local university in Malaysia to conduct e learning is University Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) in 1997, almost two decades after the internet was introduced in Malaysia. The second virtual university that conducted e learning is Multimedia University (MMU) which was established in 1999. This was followed by University Technology MARA (UTM), University Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Open University Malaysia.
E learning is a delivery of learning, training or education program by an electronic mean, such as a computer. The first local university in Malaysia to conduct e learning is University Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) in 1997, almost two decades after the internet was introduced in Malaysia. The second virtual university that conducted e learning is Multimedia University (MMU) which was established in 1999. This was followed by University Technology MARA (UTM), University Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Open University Malaysia.
Following are the pros of e learning:
1. Convenience and Portability
E learners can easily access to the learning programme at anytime through internet access. E learners are not required to physically attend the classes and they can learn when they are at home or work. Reading materials are online which enables e learners to download it for their own reading.
2. More reflection and higher retention
E learning encourages students to practice and improve their learning performance. Besides that, students can focus on what they need to learn and they can do this in a variety of learning styles, as retention is frequently better than in a traditional classroom.
3. Time and cost savings.
Due to the fact that all learning materials are available over the internet, there are fewer materials to print. Therefore, this results in a paperless environment. Reading materials can be shared and reused in a more efficient way. Students can download reading materials from internet and it only requires a few minutes to download.
4. Enhanced learning.
More practice and features developed in e Learning, e learning offer learners more exciting ways to engage with the course. Besides that, e learning provides lecturers a flexible ways to deliver the knowledge to their students and results in a greater interaction and collaboration.
5. Greater Collaboration.
- E learning provides opportunities for the groups to work together. It creates shared electronic conversations that can be thoughtful and more permanent than voice conversations.
Although e learning brings benefit to people, but there are still some disadvantages in e learning.
1. Misuse and abuse of technology.
- Since rules and codes are all in digital forms, students may break the rules and cheat their way to success. Students in Malaysian universities have the tendency to break the intranet security set by the university and even try to modify their results or to get preview of the final examination questions.
2. Lack of human interaction.
- Since learning is done through the internet, students do not need to attend the classes nor meet their lecturers. Therefore, some students may not able to understand certain information if there are no lecturers to explain to them. Due to this problem, e learning will not be effective if students are unable to understand the online notes given to them.
3. Lack of motivation and effort among students.
- One of the biggest problems of e-learning is that it makes students lazy and ineffective. Because of e-learning provides educational task that can be done either by the tutor or some sophisticated software, students can do this simple task by just downloading the notes.
References:
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/elearning/uomelearning/ebenefits/
http://www.charm.au.edu/SCPaper/UniversityLevel%20eLearning%20in%20ASEAN.pdf
2 comments:
You really done a good job
i think this group has really done a good job in the dicussion.keep it up
Post a Comment