E-õppe kasutamispraktikad Tartu Ülikoolis sotsiaalteaduskonna näitel
Date
2008
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The purpose of current research is to study how the students from Faculty of Social Sciences
of Tartu University participate in e-Learning, their attitude to it and if the proportion of e-
Learning is sufficient or not. Five main research questions are posed:
- How the students assess e-Learning?
- Which are the main obstructing factors for students to use e-Learning?
- Is the proportion of e-Learning sufficient in the opinion of the students?
- How the students assess the results of e-Learning compared with the results of
traditional learning?
- Which are the main motivators to participate in e-Learning?
From theoretical points of view, I used the authors who had researched the using practices of
e-Learning, the opportunities to research e-Learning and the positive and negative factors
which influence the participation in e-Learning.
The selection was made from random choice of students from Tartu University Faculty of
Social Sciences who answered the poll at the web environment e-formular.com. The selection
is not very representative but that is pilot study only. The poll consisted of 12 questions,
including both multiple-choice questions and questions with free answers. 111 students
answered to poll, including both stationary students and adult learners. The poll was opened
to answering for two weeks from the end of March till the beginning of April. All filled
questionnaires were accepted.
The answers to research questions:
- The students assess e-Learning rather positive way of learning because e-Learning
enables them to study in suitable time and at convenient place chosen by themselves.
The students also like the fact that the learning materials, tests and tasks are all
available from the one web environment at the same time.
- The fact that there is no contact with lecturer and co-students is considered as the
biggest obstruction to participate in e-Learning. Not having contact makes learning
more difficult and there is no discussion between students to understand the learning
material better. The students are quite used with traditional learning and auditorial
lectures and such attitude does not inspire to participate in e-Learning
- Regarding the sufficiency of e-Learning proportion, there is no very firm stand
according to answers. The opinions that proportion is "sufficient", "not sufficient" and
"there is difficult to assess the sufficiency of proportion" were divided almost equally.
- The learning results are basically the same than in traditional learning. The answers
showed that the place and the way of learning did not play important role in learning
results. There is possible to achieve positive results in web learning the same way as in
traditional learning.
- The most significant motivating factor is convenience and the opportunity to choose
the place for learning. The fact that learning materials and tasks are collected into one
web environment is also important - necessary material can be found more easily and
learning is more convenient. Saving the time is also important factor because all
necessary knowledgments are available from one web environment instead of sitting
in lecture lasting for several hours.
According to the results of current research, e-Learning is well welcomed among the students
of Faculty of Sciences and the questionnaries showed expected results.
Keywords
bakalaureusetööd, haridus, kõrgharidus, e-õpe, Tartu Ülikool