PU research in this project was connected to the Impact of technology on learning in “traditional” elearning. E-learning is the provision of education and training via the WWW for students who study mainly as individuals using LMSs (or VLEs) like WebCT and Blackboard.
Our research questions was:
1. How does exposure to and use of ICTs in the learning process affect present and future employment?
- What is the impact of learning methodology used in learners’ achievement and motivation?
- What is the impact of ICTs in education/training on access, use of, attitudes toward, and learning outcomes?
- How can ICTs be used to present, comment on and discuss learners’ performance, and what are the implications of such impact?
- Are some subjects better suited for ICT integration than others?
The profile of our responders shows that we obtained a good representation of age (88,2% to 40 years, actively working people), gender (half male, half female) and personal background (if we have in mind, that we investigate the role of ICT for educational purposes and students could be actively working people), of the population engaged in e-learning activities.
Analysis of the results show that the target population pointed an importance to all the opportunities that ICT offered.
Presented results show that responders in our sample held a fairly positive view of the different advantages that ICT can bring to learning and education. However, this positive view of ICT was accompanied by a rather positive attitude towards learning with traditional education methods. A closer inspection of the answers on the individual questions reveals that the responders were especially interested in the use of ICT for purposes of information exchange, if ICT is to be used in an educational context, our responders specifically expressed doubts about the quality of the human interaction when there is no face-to-face contact.
The responders think it important to use ICT in order to develop skills for the future employment such as performing tasks, teamwork, problem solving, self-learning capability, presentation skills, etc. Our population has a positive perception of the different advantages ICT can bring to learning and education. They think that using the new technology – new methods like performance-centered approach, new devices such mobile phones and PDA, is an alternative to the traditional methods for learning and teaching.
