e-learning

Mike Horne FGS

Partly my motivation for looking at e-learning was the idea of developing a distance learning version of my 'Introducing Buddhism' course.

My main motivation for this is mainly due to the low recruitment for the night class. Though admittedly the last time ran tried to run the course the recruitment were due to a room change - six students attended and registered in one room whilst six sat patiently for me to arrive in another! But it would seem that generally people interested in the course are not prepared to wait for it to start in October. They want to do it now and have forgotten about it by the enrolment time!

Secondly, I have put the course notes (and they are brief notes rather than a stand alone distance learning course) on my web-site and receive enquiries as a result. I always try to answer the questions and include some on a FAQ ('frequently asked questions') page. Following some enquiries I also included a short meditation experiment on the web-pages. [note - sample pages from my web-sites are included in this portfolio as an appendix printed on green paper.]

But is developing an e-learning course just a case of typing up all my overheads and arranging them in a sequence? Is it more than just turning notes into prose and inserting some tasks? We are still finding ways to use the new technology in the world of education, and there are not yet well defined teaching methods (Mayes 2002).

There is a tendency to fall in love with the new technology and ignore its purpose (Mauger 2002), allowing the technology to lead the development to the detriment of the content and users. For example how many times have you sat through a Power-Point presentation where they presenter is determined to show of their Power-Point expertise regardless of whether it helps with the transmission of knowledge?

Also, I do wonder if the new technology is seen, by busy lecturers, as a means of reducing actual contact with students. Rather than spend time helping students individually the tutor can simply point them towards the lecture notes on the web!

Yet I. T. does open courses to a geographically wider audience and break away from traditional classroom teaching (MacDonald 2001). Though it does exclude those without access to the World Wide Web and computer technology (Wills 1999).

Should I be thinking and planning the whole thing afresh? Some of the things I do in the classroom may not translate well into e-learning. Will the aims and outcomes be the same? It is hard to answer those questions; I am not sure that I can view other tutors work without registering for their courses, and to be honest I do not have time for that.

So these are the two main options - take what I have and use that as the framework, or build a new framework and slot what I have into it. I think that the second approach will produce something better.

So what do I need to consider ?

What is different about e-learning?

What is the motivation for the students?

What are the course aims and learning outcomes?

How will I assess the students' progress?

What are the difficulties for students and tutors?

What are the costs?

What is e-learning?

Probably a jargon word for using computer technology to delivery teaching. There are three levels to the transfer of learning using computers.

1- using computers as a means of publishing - e.g. on CD-ROM or the world wide web.

2- the student interacting with a computer program - e.g. a multiple choice quiz.

3- the student interacting with the tutor and/or fellow students - e.g. conferencing, chat-rooms or bulletin boards.

More specifically 'e-learning' is a new way of delivering 'open learning' or 'distance learning'. Distance learning is not something new - correspondence courses have existed for a long time.

But there is a big difference between 'Open Learning' and passing on information in a textbook (Race 1994). It is a course that is designed to stimulate the students' learning. Similarly e-learning is something more than merely publishing information or course notes on the w.w.w.

Student motivation for courses.

The major motivation must be an interest in the subject. But there is already a lot of learning material available. Books, web-sites, courses by religious organisations. So why would someone want to take part in an open learning course? There must be some other motivations: presumably the ability to discuss matters with the tutor in some way, to have the work assessed and to have a schedule to aim for.

Course Aims.

The same as the evening class.

Learning outcomes.

Specific - Same as the evening class.

Generic (or transferable) -

• IT skills.
• Literature search.
• Critical appraisal of source material.

Course content.

Much the same as the evening class.

Practicalities of delivery -

There are a variety of options -

Sending each part of the course by e-mail at regular periods, or on the completion of the previous part. A bit like an electronic version of a correspondence course.

Providing the whole course on CD-ROM and allowing the students to work at their own pace.

Delivering the whole course in an e-learning community such as MERLIN.

A combination of all the above.

Assessments

Quizzes - to encourage students to read the course material and other materials in search of facts.

Reports - essays to be marked by the tutor.

Reflections - perhaps into a portfolio.

Peer discussion and reflection on a 'bulletin board'.

Difficulties for students

• Motivation is always a problem with any form of distance learning.
• Access - the course will be restricted to those with computer and Internet access.
• Students may not have access to books or other learning materials.
• Less contact and discussion with fellow students.
• Enthusiasm for the medium drops off. The students like to use the 'bulletin-board' and/or chat room initially but the usage decreases. There seems to be a critical number of participants required to maintain the interest in this sort of communication. For example look at the following statistics for the use of the MERLIN learning environment by students and tutors of the HETC course:- first week -23 postings, rest of 1st month - 3, May - 11, June - 4, July - 3, August - 0, and September - 0. For other web-based groups and communities I have joined there is a trend for use to drop off until some new people join and their enthusiasm regenerates interest.
• There is an awful lot of information available on the world wide web, but students need to be discerning in its use (Doring 1999). In particular they should be aware of the motives of the publisher/author of the material and the selection criteria used by 'search engines' (which increasingly use paid insertion in their rankings).

Problems for tutors.

• Encouraging and motivating students who you have never met.
• Students may work at varying pace. Thus requiring one-to-one tutoring even in a larger cohort.
• What is a reasonable turn-around time for the tutor to reply to e-mailed queries and assessed work?
• Tutor does not know which books and other reference materials are available to students. Books about Buddhism tend not to stay in print as long as science text books.
• Copyright of materials - unable to copy others' material on to CD-ROM or website without permission. Redrawing others' photographs and drawings onto OHP slides or a whiteboard is acceptable for use in the classroom, but this would look very amateurish if scanned and put on a CD. Being totally ethical (which a course about Buddhism should be) could restrict the course content and the quality of the materials.
• File size - graphic and photographic information takes up more computer memory and takes longer to download - this is a cost consideration for both student and tutor when using e-mail.
• Ephemeral nature of the w.w.w. - cannot rely on links to other web-pages being maintained so the course could quickly become outdated or frustrating if it relies on definite outside resources.
• Timing - tutor and student holidays.
• Flexibility - does the tutor wish to continually update the course materials in light of experience in running the course?
• High student drop out rate. Correspondence courses have a drop our rate as high as 90% and Open University courses lose 50% (Rogers 2001). I have found that the rate for my classroom based geology courses is about 10% and is slightly more for the Buddhism courses.

Costs -

Preparation -

There is a lot of work to be done up front in developing teaching material for any course. I estimate that when I develop a new course I spend about five hours preparing material for one hour's teaching. When I repeat a course I spend a further hour per hour's contact time revising and updating the course content. On top of this there is the administration and student assessments, which take me about three hours and about half an hour per student respectively.

Race (1994 page 38) says that open learning is often paid for on the basis of ten hours preparation for one hour's learning. But he also says that checking and piloting the learning tasks actually takes much longer. In any form of distance learning the tutor does not get the instant feedback that there is in the classroom. If the content of the course or tasks the students are asked to do are inappropriate they cannot be instantly changed. Students are more likely to abandon the course if it does not suit them.

The quality of the material on an e-learning course has to be of a highly professional standard. The students have not met the tutor and can only judge the tutor and course on the quality of the teaching material. To convert an existing course into a polished computer based course I estimate will take about three hours for every "hour" of the course material.

There will be additional time required to obtain or create graphic material to break up the monotony of the text. This may involve efforts to seek copyright permission to use other people's images and quotations. Then the whole thing has to be checked and rechecked to ensure that there are no errors in the computer program. Thus the effort involved is enormous compared with a classroom-based course. The whole course has to be prepared in advance, unlike a classroom based course where the tutor has the option of only preparing the first few sessions in detail in case the course does not recruit sufficient students.

Running - A limit would have to be set for the time spent in one-to-one tutoring. The students may expect high levels of access to the tutor and expect quick responses to their e-mails. To some extent I have experienced the impatience of those responding to my amateur web-sites, but at present I have the option of telling them that they are being unreasonable if I am running the sites on a voluntary basis. If the student has paid a fee for the course they would expect something in return, so ground-rules may have to be agreed. These may prove difficult if the tutor and part-time students can only be on-line at different times of the day, and if the course is international then there is a problem with time zones too!

An e-learning course may require more time for assessments. The tutor cannot get 'body language' feedback on the students' progress in the same way as a normal class. This may entail regular monitoring of a bulletin-board type environment as well as marking assignments. This cannot be left until the end of the course.

Expenses -

Tutor's time.

Cost of producing (on disk or CD), mailing and e-mailing teaching materials.

Telephone costs for internet access for the tutor.

But there will be cost savings over classroom teaching - hire, heating, lighting, travel.

Sylvia Charp (2002) cites several examples of e-learning being used successfully by companies in their staff training. Perhaps e-learning is becoming a useful tool in Higher Education due to decreasing time for personal contact between Lecturers and Students? She lists three important factors in running a successful on-line course - the need for interaction, tutor time involved and costs (though many of the overheads in classroom teaching are reduced in e-learning). She also points out that the courses are funded solely by student fees.

Conclusions -

• The effort involved in developing an e-learning course are probably triple that of a conventional course.
• The tutor ideally needs to be a full time employee of the educational institution to be able to devote the time to running the course and because they are already being paid for the time that they use for the development.
• For the part-time tutor it looks like a major 'labour of love'. So I propose to take the idea no further at present, unless I get the offer of some money or find a huge amount of time on my hands.

Copyright Mike Horne, 2002

Click here for references

home page