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Sunday, March 06, 2011

ASIA: Tensions in student preferences for e-learning by professor Carmel McNaught

"If one asks students what they want from e-learning, one often hears: more information resources, more notes, more powerpoints, more stuff. This can be interpreted as students wanting to be spoon-fed and not being interested in constructing their own understanding.", writes professor Carmel McNaught.



However, the evidence of our e-learning research group here in the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research (CLEAR) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) paints a different picture. The following observations are based on a number of studies, involving surveys and interviews, with students and teachers at CUHK.

Studies of web logs of learning management systems (such as Blackboard or Moodle) show a preponderance of non-interactive content files and there is relatively little use (only about a quarter of websites) of the interactive activities listed above. So there is a disconnect between the improvement in student assessment practices in Hong Kong and the use of technology to support students in their assessment endeavours.

It is therefore just a little surprising that here in Hong Kong the use of social media - what is often termed Web 2.0 - is quite low in formal university courses. We do have teachers using podcasts to support student learning, students producing media and displaying them in YouTube or in our ITunesU site, the use of blogs, wikis, twitter and e-portfolios for information sharing and reflection, and a number of mobile learning projects. All good stuff, but only in a small number of courses.

Why this educational conservatism? Why is the abundance of technological infrastructure not used more extensively?
Read more...

Related link
References to these and other studies on student learning can be found here

About Carmel McNaught
She is Director and professor of learning enhancement at the Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Source: University World News