E-LEARNING EFFECTS ON UoNS BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Running Head: E-LEARNING EFFECTS ON UoN’S BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS

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Though e-learning still faces a number of difficulties in Kenya, not least because it is expensive to implement and computer literacy remains low, it is fast catching on and ironically for nearly the same reasons i.e. it reduces costs and computer literacy is rising. Fuelled with the rise of the internet as well innovations in other information and communication technologies, online education is fast developing in the Kenyan education system and is now widely used in many universities and many research areas. There is hardly a set definition of what exactly e-learning refers to and in fact, the concept means different things to different people or in different fields. In business, e-learning refers to the use of the company network to provide training to employees while in the educational field, e-learning refers to numerous forms of procedural, electronically supported instruction and or learning that uses individual students’ personal knowledge, practice and experience to effect the transfer and acquisition of knowledge and skills (Kerkman, 2004).

E-learning has evolved greatly ever since computers were introduced in education. From the use of technology to supplement traditional teaching, through to the blended learning services which used both traditional and e-learning methods and the newly emerging forms which attempt to eliminate nearly all forms of traditional methods of teaching and learning. Globally, many higher education institutions are moving towards education imparted online through a Learning Management System (LMS, in which all aspects of a subject are dealt with through a consistent standard process throughout the institution. LMS is a software application or Web-based technology used to plan, implement, and assess a specific learning process (Harasim, et al., 1995). Many Universities and Colleges are now offering academic degrees and certificate courses by way of the internet, of which many are delivered wholly online. In addition to this, many educational institutions are as well offering online support services to students, like online advising, e-counselling, online buying of valuable study material, etc. Thus e-learning with its more active and interesting opportunities is gradually replacing the traditional forms of teaching.

The University of Nairobi’s School of Continuing and Distance Education’s objectives include delivering knowledge and quality education, flexibly to the student population out of campus. This objective is particularly relevant for those students who are unable to regularly attend college, either because they are working or other wisely engaged, but still desire to acquire education. Among this cadre of students are institution based students pursuing bachelor of Education or graduate degrees. These students are occupied when schools are in session and only find time to attend university during school holidays, and while away, they take along with them study materials and thus the education can only be delivered to them by distance learning, which is in turn greatly helped by the introduction of e-learning. There are numerous other motivations for the movement towards the adoption of the e-trend both at the University of Nairobi, in Kenya and the world.

Positive Effects of E-Learning

It is a highly interactive mode of learning as well as teaching, in which lecturers only facilitate rather than act as a teachers per se, where the students are made to take on the responsibility for their education. Thus students would tend to take more initiative in research, and other aspects of study, which would boost the level and quality of knowledge acquisition, retention and ease than traditional modes of education. Research shows that there is a greater degree of knowledge retention and application to the teaching job averages an increase of 25 percent over traditional methods, according to an independent study by J.D. Fletcher (Ambient Insight Research, 2009), while another 12 year study conducted by the US Department of Education revealed that students in online learning generally performed better than those in face-to-face courses. Students are able to interact with their lecturer’s through the myriads of communication channels through which questions etc can be put to the instructor’s and prompt responses received, besides affording students the opportunity easily participate and discuss course topics with one another, from the comfort of their offices or homes. This whole process is backed up by the easy access to the best, updated information universally accessible to all e.g. online libraries, books and other educational materials.

One of the major benefits of e-learning in the Bachelor of Education degrees both for the University of Nairobi (UoN) and the students is the reduction in the costs. UoN cuts back on lecture halls space and costs, student hostels, subsidised meals at the messes, student travel, overheads among other expenses. On the other hand, students pay less college fees and perhaps most importantly, school based students do not have to take leaves from their regular teaching jobs or worse yet quit their jobs in order to pursue further education. E-learning makes sense too, for students in primary/secondary schools would normally lose their teachers when they take leaves or quit to attend university. Thus while teachers receive acquire further skills and education, this can be done without disruptions in the country’s schools which are often under staffed.

Flexibility, convenience to the students comes with increased access to scarce educational resources such as lecturers and libraries, not just at the UoN but also globally. With basic internet connections, audio or video students can access resources outside the country, in virtual libraries, open sourced resources such as the MIT OpenCourseWare program which has made substantial portions of that university’s curriculum and lectures available for free online.

Perhaps most crucially, e-learning helps future educators develop skills required for the changing times, skills that will ultimately be passed on to their own students thus improving the quality of education in Kenyan schools. Particular, e-learning ensures that learners have the digital literacy skills required in their disciplines, professions or careers. Bates asserts that the key motivation for eLearning in education is that it enables learners to develop essential skills for knowledge-based workers by embedding the use of information and communications technologies within the curriculum. He also argues that using eLearning in this way has major implications for course design and the assessment of learners both at the University during the education of the teachers as well as in schools where the graduates would go to teach (Bates, 2009).

Like no other training form, e-learning promises to provide a single experience that accommodates the three distinct learning styles of auditory learners, visual learners, and kinaesthetic learners (Allen & Seaman, 2003). Other unique opportunities created by the advent and development of e-learning are more efficient training of a globally dispersed audience; and reduced publishing and distribution costs as Web-based training becomes a standard. E-learning also offers individualized instruction, which print media, cannot provide, and instructor-led courses allow clumsily and at great cost. In conjunction with assessing needs, e-learning can target specific needs. And by using learning style tests, e-learning can locate and target individual learning preferences.

Limitations of E-Learning in Education

E-learning is equally faced with a number of difficulties both on the part of the University as well as the students. For a start, the School must make significant investments in the development of the necessary infrastructure for the programs to be implemented efficiently (Kerkman, 2004). The existent technological infrastructure cannot support a fully functioning e-learning program and sourcing for more funds would present a challenge to the school. In addition, computer and internet literacy remains poor in the country. As such, running educational programs hinged almost entirely on such technologies is not only difficult but may as well lead into reduced quality of the education which would ultimately reflect on the quality of teachers that the country’s children would receive.

On the part of the students, it is an inescapable fact that most of the students in public universities come from poor families, and thus would be unable to raise the necessary resources. Internet connections and computers, phone services and even mains electricity are both expensive and unavailable in most parts of the country. As such introduction of such programs that would require massive technology are less likely to succeed.

Cultural acceptance of virtual education in Kenya may be a problem, since many students may be psychologically indisposed to it. In addition, while technology has improved immensely, it is difficult to entirely replace or even rival the traditional methods of education, especially in developing and technologically challenged country like Kenya. Not least because of the wealth of printed books.

For future educators, social aspects achieved through constant interaction with both peers and lecturers is indispensable for developing classroom communication and teaching skills, personal confidence etc. E-learning lectures and materials are carefully prepared and edited. The impersonality, suppression of communication mechanisms such as body language, and elimination of peer-to-peer learning that are part of this potential disadvantage are lessening with advances in communications technologies.

It may seem advantageous that synchronous e-learning is self-paced. Advanced learners are allowed to speed through or bypass instruction that is redundant, but most importantly, novices slow their own progress through content, eliminating frustration with themselves, their fellow learners, and the course. Given the numerous technological difficulties, coupled with the fact that some people naturally have long learning curves, exposing them to e-learning would place them at a disadvantage.

Conclusion

E-learning necessarily gives a positive contribution to education. Even so, computers will never completely eliminate human instructors and other forms of educational delivery. What is important is to know exactly what e-learning advantages exist and build those into the traditional methods of education. All collaborative learning theory show that human interaction is a vital ingredient to learning and it is easy to agree that indeed the magical classroom bond between the teacher and the student, and among the students themselves, can never be replicated through communications technology. Consideration of this is particularly crucial when designing e-learning, realizing the potential for the medium to isolate learners. With well-delivered synchronous distance education, and technology like message boards, chats, e-mail, and tele-conferencing, this potential drawback is reduced.

References

Bates, A. (2005) Technology, e-Learning and Distance Education London: Routledge

Kerkman, L. (2004). Convenience of Online Education Attracts Midcareer Students. Chronicle of Philanthropy, 16(6), 11–12 Academic Search Premier database.

Harasim, L., Hiltz, S., Teles, L. and Turoff, M. (1995). Learning Networks: A Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Allen, I.E. and Seaman, J. (2003). Sizing the Opportunity: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2002 and 2003 Wellesley, MA: The Sloan Consortium

Ambient Insight Research (2009). US Self-paced e-Learning Market Monroe WA: Ambient Insight Research