ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF THE E-LEARNING STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

AT WALTER SISULU UNIVERSITY

Presenter: T. Mayisela E-learning Specialist Mthatha Campus;

Acting Manager, Education Technology and Innovation Unit

Centre for Learning and Teaching Development

Presentation

Outline

• Background•E-learning strategy•E-learning targets•Towards blended learning•Success factors•Current successes•Frequently used tools•Monitoring•Evaluation•Conclusion and Recommendations

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Background

• WSU, a developing university situated in the Eastern Cape in South Africa, commits itself to providing technological learner-centred education, innovative learning and teaching, and opportunities for life-long learning.

• Challenges: – less prepared students, – low pass rates

• Most of these students come from a poor educational background and often find it difficult to cope with the teaching styles such as formal lectures and with study skills such as private reading, note taking, time management, asking questions in large groups, team/project work and IT competence (Lowe & Cook 2003).

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E-learning strategy

The four focus areas are:

• Setting up and maintaining the electronic learning environment;

• Promoting awareness of the University stakeholders about the electronic learning environment and possibilities this offers them;

• Capacitating academic staff on e-learning; and• Ensuring student participation in e-learning

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E-learning Targets• Each year there will be 20 lecturers rewarded

for their best e-learning practices at the grassroot events

• By 2012, 25% of the lecturers use WiSeUp as a learning management tool (at least: put their PPT’s on WiSeUp)

• By 2012, 100% of the lecturers put their course outlines on WiSeUp

• By 2012, all first year students are introduced to e-learning techniques

• By 2012, 25% of classrooms to have data projectors and also smartboards in all e-learning centres

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Towards Blended Learning

Web Enhanced Hybrid (Blended)

• Passive learners, behaviourist

• Course Documents• Power Point Notes• Lecturer = Subject

Expert• Lecturer Centered • Lecturer provides content• Group Work

• Active learner, constructivist• Interactive Web learning

tools• Online discussions• Student Centered• Lecturer Presence• Student is responsible for

content gathering • Community Building

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Success Factors Institutional Factors• Organizational Readiness with managerial support• Resources are available and supportive, including

technical support with informed and supported faculty,

• Introduced as a scholarly and transformative redesign process (not just an add-on technology)

Lecturers• Continued Professional development• Ongoing Pedagogical SupportStudents• Recognize student need for time management and

responsibility for their learning

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Success Factors (Cont…)Pedagogic • Lecturer’s knowledge of the technical tools

and their fit to the content delivery and students

• Build an integrated model of activities so that expectations can be reinforced as ‘before, during and after’ F2F activities

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Current Successes Setting up and maintaining the electronic learning

environment• 411 PCs in 10 computer labs; (48 +80 in progress)

across WSU campuses • Staff development labs (3 campuses; 4th one in progress) • Since 2009, WSU has made tremendous progress in the

use of blended learning; adopted Blackboard (overview) (renamed WiSeUp)

• Since 2010, all courses, including all students are loaded on WiSeUp

• All students registered for support courses (academic advising and WRC)

• WiSeUp Helpdesk

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Current Successes (cont…) Promoting awareness

• The CLTD webpage was revamped in 2009, ongoing updates

• Newsletter, Issue 6; Brochures• Grassroots events, conferences

Capacitating academic staff on e-learning• Trained at Basic and Intermediate level, Grassroots & Conf

erence presenters• WiSeUp Helpdesk

Ensuring student participation in e-learning • 2378 students trained on WiSeUp (2010), 2359 students

(2011)• e-Learning assistants (all campuses) trained on WiSeUp;

75 in 2010, 77 in 2011• Active courses; 328 (2010) and 586 (2011)

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Frequently used tools

• Powerpoint, Ms Word, PDF files, Web resources

• E-mail, Blogs, Journals, Discussion forums• Assessment tools (built-in, Respondus)• Survey (Evaluation of teaching)• Safe Assign

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Monitoring

• Bbat: http://bbat.cle.intra.wsu.ac.za– Active courses (updated)– Access patterns– Number of clicks per item

• Course tools– Reports– Performance dashboards– Early warning system

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Evaluation• Staff and students’ perceptions and

experiences• Impact of e-learning per course (trained

lecturer, students)– pass rates pre and post e-learning

implementation

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Methodology• Case study approach (Nuffic pilot

departments)

• Questionnaires (mixed method)

• 15 of 44 (34%) responded

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Design for Blended Learning

 Consider– Teaching Styles– Learning Styles

•Auditory•Visual•Kinaesthetic(BenZion, 1999; Gadner, 1983)

– Active learning: Engaging students in the learning process

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Findings

• Basic – 27%• Intermediate -73 %• As a result of training

– Loaded materials - 80%– Announcement – 13%– Not responded – 7%

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Findings: Advantages

• Easy, flexible, work on the course at your own pace and time – 73%

• Provide ease of communication and access to online material – 60%

• Can be used in the office and at home – 53%

• Will offer cost effective measures for my department – 33%

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Finding: Challenges

• Reduction of face-to-face contact with students – 13%

• Materials development is time consuming -53%• Lack of IT, technical skills among staff – 40%• Insufficient e-learning training and support

provided -0%• Lack of support from top management – 13%• The current state of computers in our offices is not

good -20%• Technical problems and challenges in accessing

online materials – 60%

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Findings • Promoted collaborative learning - 53 % • Access rich information from various

sources – 47%• Allowed my students to evaluate one

another’s responses – 40%• Created a platform for lecturer and

students to communicate about the subject matter - 60%

• Created the possibility for students to work on their own even when it is impossible to hold classes -60%

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Findings (cont…)

• To interact with learning materials – 67%• To construct knowledge more effectively –

27%• Students’ retention of knowledge – 33%• To engage in group work – 40%• Improved my students’ pass rate – 13%

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Conclusion and Recommendation• E-learning adoption rate is increasing

satisfactorily at WSU• Learning, teaching techniques, e-

pedagogy• Use of Open courseware e.g. MIT• Make optimal use of the limited resources• Explore potential use of electronic

resources/integrated systems for learning, teaching, support services.

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Thank you

tmayisela@wsu.ac.za

Questions

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