E-learning Materials Research Articles

CHALLENGES IN THE APPLICATIONS OF E-LEARNING BY SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

This is an empirical research study which investigated the challenges in the application of e-learning in secondary schools in Onitsha North LGA, Anambra State, Nigeria. Two hundred and twenty-five (225) teachers in public secondary schools were used as the sample for the study. A self-developed instrument (TIUELM) on the availability and use of e-learning materials was used for data collection. The instrument contained 25 items. The reliability co-efficient of the instrument stood at 0.88. The data collected were analyzed using frequency distribution and mean. The findings revealed: acute shortage of e-learning materials such as on-line/internet-connected computers, e-mail facilities, multimedia television, multimedia computer and digital library. It was also revealed that the few available ones such as off-line/ordinary computers, scanner, printer and ready-made courseware are not utilized because the teachers lack the knowledge and skills of computer application. The only material identified as available and in use is the telephone. It was recommended among other things that, the government should embark on a massive computer training program for teachers. Teachers should be trained and retrained through in–service training, seminars, workshops and conferences for acquisition of the knowledge and skills needed for e-learning application in secondary schools in Nigeria.

Mind the Gap: Global Data Sharing

Mind the Gap: Global Data Sharing

Development and evaluation of an e-learning course for deaf and hard of hearing based on the advanced Adapted Pedagogical Index method

Web-based and adapted e-learning materials provide alternative methods of learning to those used in a traditional classroom. Within the study described in this article, deaf and hard of hearing people used an adaptive e-learning environment to improve their computer literacy. This environment included streaming video with sign language interpreter video and subtitles. The courses were based on the learning management system Moodle, which also includes sign language streaming videos and subtitles. A different approach is required when adapting e-learning courses for the deaf and hard of hearing: new guidelines must be developed concerning the loading and display of video material. This is shown in the example of the e-learning course, ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence). The usability of the e-learning course is analyzed and confirmed using two methods: first, the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI) evaluation method, and second, the Adapted Pedagogical Index (AdaPI), which was developed as part of this study, and gives an index to measure the pedagogical effectiveness of e-learning courses adapted for people with disabilities. With 116 participants, of whom 22 are deaf or hard of hearing, the e-learning course for the target group has been found suitable and appropriate according to both evaluation methods.

What do clinical pharmacologists do? A questionnaire survey of senior UK clinical pharmacologists.

Since the discipline expanded during 1970-1990, the number of UK consultant clinical pharmacologists has fallen. This paper describes the results of a questionnaire survey of the work patterns of 53 UK consultant clinical pharmacologists, including 35 (66%) employed by universities and 13 (25%) employed by the National Health Service (NHS). The range of activities undertaken includes: teaching medical students and others the principles of clinical pharmacology and practical therapeutics; research in a wide range of pharmacological and therapeutic areas; patient care, mostly in acute and general hospital medicine and in out-patient clinics; service both locally and nationally on a wide range of committees related to drug therapy; editorial work on learned journals and preparation of written teaching materials, including journal articles, didactic textbooks, reference books, and e-learning materials. The median amount of time that a UK consultant clinical pharmacologist spends on these activities is 50 hours per week; several work more than that. The time is spent as follows: teaching 10%; research 40%; clinical work 30%; policy and administration 12%; editorial work and writing 8%. The numbers of physicians who have been newly registered with the General Medical Council as clinical pharmacologists each year has so far been undiminished, but the number of consultant posts has fallen in 1990-2010. Many trainees therefore leave the discipline when they become consultants.

Recent Trends in E-Learning Materials : Shifting from Courseware to the Tablet PC and Apps.

Recent Trends in E-Learning Materials : Shifting from Courseware to the Tablet PC and Apps.

Do Student-Instructor Co-Created eLearning Materials Lead to Better Learning Outcomes? Empirical Results from a German Large Scale Course Pilot Study

Do Student-Instructor Co-Created eLearning Materials Lead to Better Learning Outcomes? Empirical Results from a German Large Scale Course Pilot Study

Development and Evaluation of the Blended LearningCourses at Sam Ratulangi University in Indonesia

The advancement in educational technology precipitated by the dissemination of Internet in recent years has a potential to improve the quality of education by encouraging participation and collaboration between instructors and students. Educational institutions use information and communication technology (ICT) as a tool for teaching and learning in a number of ways including but not limited to Internet-based content delivery and visualization. This research involves the development and evaluation of blended learning courses at University of Sam Ratulangi (UNSRAT), Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The current work was aimed to redesign two courses of the existing curriculum based on the ADDIE instructional design model to support student-centered learning and develop e-learning materials. One of the courses was then delivered as two separate classes, the first class was delivered through conventional learning and the second class was delivered by blended learning. These were done to obtain a comprehensive view of students' preferences for learning model. Whereas the other course was entirely delivered by blended learning to acquire an evaluation of students' experience in this learning model. In this paper, the development of the courses based on the instructional design are described. From the questionnaire and examination results, students' achievements both for conventional learning and blended learning are evaluated. The outcome of the research can be seen as a description of students' experience and can offer recommendation on how to design e-learning based courses under the circumstances at UNSRAT.

Developing an e-Learning Material for Arts Learning

Developing an e-Learning Material for Arts Learning

A matematikai logika alapfogalmainak elsajátítása e-learning tananyag segítségével a szakért?i rendszerek oktatásában

A világ egyre gyorsabban halad az elektronikus eszközök használatának irányába. Természetes, hogy az oktatás sem maradhat le ezek megismertetésében és használatában. Az elmúlt évtized folyamán az oktatásban az e-learning egyre fontosabb szerephez jutott, hiszen segítségével megvalósíthatóvá vált a diákközpontú tanulás, amikor is a diák saját ütemében haladhat a tananyagban. 
 A szakért?i rendszerek tantárgy oktatása során rájöttem, hogy a képzés során diákjaink oktatásából kimarad a logika és középiskolából hozott tudásuk nem elegend? ahhoz, hogy erre építhessük a Prolog illetve Clips programnyelvek oktatását. Hiszen a szakért?i rendszerek esetén ? adott rendszer leírásához akár több ezer állítás paramétert is fel kell használni, ezért az alapvet? matematikai logikai fogalmak ismerete nélkülözhetetlen. Arra gondoltam, hogy egy e-learning tananyag segítségével a kurzus elején hatékonyan és gyorsan tudjuk pótolni és elsajátíttatni a számukra nélkülözhetetlen logikai alapfogalmakat. Ebben a cikkben egy olyan e-learning környezetet mutatok be, mely lehet?vé teszi Informatikus és szakigazgatási agrármérnök szakos hallgatóinknak a szakért?i rendszerek cím? tantárgy megalapozásához szükséges logikai alapfogalmak elsajátítását illetve átismétlését.

Interactive versus reproductive learning, a comparison of medical school graduates with participants of a postgraduate CPD session.

Aims: In order to develop the e-learning teaching material for medical professionals who are not physicians, we compared solution-based interactive and reading-based reproductive learning with regard to the increase of knowledge. Furthermore we tried to identify additional factors influencing learning.Methods: We used a quasi-experimental double-stage study design with pre-test (point of time t1), intervention and post-test (point of time t2). The classification into three comparable groups was carried out according to the pre-test results. The interactive and reproductive group participated in the intervention but not the control group. All three groups consisted of graduates of medical schools (N=150) and more experienced physiotherapists during continuing training (N=66). The increase of knowledge was assessed by the post-test. The analysis of variance was the most important statistical tool.Results: Interactive learning generated a higher increase of knowledge than reproductive learning but was more time consuming. The two groups which participated in the intervention obtained better results than the control group. The level of education and the prior knowledge also influenced the post-test results. Conclusion: We recommend combining interactive and reproductive approaches for designing the e-learning platform.

The influence of student characteristics on the use of adaptive e-learning material

Adaptive e-learning materials can help teachers to educate heterogeneous student groups. This study provides empirical data about the way academic students differ in their learning when using adaptive e-learning materials. Ninety-four students participated in the study. We determined characteristics in a heterogeneous student group by collecting demographic data and measuring motivation and prior knowledge. We also measured the learning paths students followed and learning strategies they used when working with adaptive e-learning material in a molecular biology course. We then combined these data to study if and how student characteristics relate to the learning paths and strategies they used. We observed that students did follow different learning paths. Gender did not have an effect, but (mainly Dutch) BSc students differed from (international) MSc students in the intrinsic motivation they had and the learning paths and strategies they followed when using the adaptive e-learning material. Highlights? Adaptive e-learning materials can help teachers to educate heterogeneous student groups. ? Students differ in the learning paths they follow and strategies they use when working with adaptive e-learning materials. ? University graduate and undergraduate students participated in the study. ? Results from traces, test scores, intrinsic motivation inventory responses and student self-reports were analysed.

Creating eLearning material with optimal utilisation of limited resources

The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.

Information Security Awareness On-Line Materials Design with Knowledge Maps

Information Security Awareness, though known as a primary and important issue in the domain of Information Security, CSI computer crime and security survey showed poor security awareness training in public and private sectors. In many studies, the authors have found that the usage of knowledge maps helps the process of learning and conception building. Therefore, the authors have tried to figure out if the implementation of knowledge maps on the training materials of Information Security Awareness will improve the learning performance. Based on the e-learning materials for E-Mail Information Security Awareness, the authors designed them in the format of knowledge maps and compared the learning performance with common browsing-based materials. The results showed the knowledge map-based materials lead to higher learning performance than browse-based ones.

A self-adjusting e-course generation process for personalized learning

This paper proposes a self-adjusting e-course generation process, which support to provide a truly personalized learning environment. The proposed process is divided into four steps: (1) determining learning concept structure, (2) adjusting the difficulty of the e-learning material, (3) analyzing a learner’s ability and learning goals, and (4) composing personalized e-courses. Meanwhile, this paper applies the collaborative voting approach to determine the difficulty of the e-learning material, and the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to analyze a learner’s ability and her/his learning goals. Since evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been developed to find close optimal solutions, this paper adopts them to compose personalized e-courses that meet individual learners’ demands. Once a learner learns one or more learning concepts covered in a personalized e-course, the feedback information from the learner must be returned to: (I) self-adjust the difficulty of the e-learning material for step 2, and (II) update the learners’ ability and learning goals for step 3. Furthermore, to find appropriate EAs for personalized e-course composition, this paper devises some experiments to compare two widely applied EAs, Genetic algorithms (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). When the number of e-learning materials is less than 300, the experimented results indicate that the executing effectiveness of PSO is better than that of GA. Besides, to validate the practicability of the proposed process, an e-course authoring tool based on the proposed process is developed to generate personalized e-courses. The generated personalized e-courses have been provided to 103 actual learners who participate in an “Introduction to Computer” curriculum. The investigation results indicate that the proposed process adapts to learners by utilizing the feedback from many learners. In other words, learning experiences of one organization/class can benefit to another organization/class’s learners in the same curriculum.

Investigation of the impact of two verbal instruction formats and prior knowledge on student learning in a simulation-based learning environment

This study investigated how the format of verbal instructions in computer simulations and prior knowledge (PK) affected 8th graders' cognitive load (CL) level and achievement in a multimedia learning environment. Although PK was not found to significantly affect student performance and CL level, instruction format was found to impact both. Students who used narrative simulations were found to have a greater CL but also to perform better than those using simulations with on-screen text instructions. However, no significant differences were found between the cognitive efficiency of the two groups. The difficulty of the subject matter and limitations in students' prior content-related knowledge may have increased the intrinsic CL, such that students had difficulty in interpreting the content even if their PK was relatively high. The narrative instructions were more likely than the on-screen text information to reduce the extraneous CL and promote understanding of content. A new measure of cognitive processing is needed to identify the types of CL involved in e-learning and determine the properties of adequate e-learning materials. Finally, the findings of the study are discussed and suggestions for future studies and instructional design are provided.

Usefulness of a bidirectional e-learning material for explaining surgical anesthesia to cancer patients

BackgroundWe developed an e-learning system, which is based on an interactive animation video that assists anesthesiologists in preanesthetic interviews. Materials and MethodsFirst, the feasibility of the system was investigated in 18 anesthesiologists and 95 volunteers from the general public. Content/quantity, operability, and satisfaction were assessed with a five-point scale. Secondly, a randomized controlled trial was conducted on 211 cancer patients who were scheduled to undergo general anesthesia. They were divided into an e-learning group (n=106) and a control group (n=105). The patients in the e-learning group watched the interactive animation before a preanesthetic interview by an anesthesiologist. ResultsIn 10 of the 11 items for content/quantity, operability, and satisfaction, the average score for both anesthesiologists and volunteers was ≥3.0 in feasibility study. Then, the level of patient comprehension of preoperative rounds and postoperative complications in the e-learning group was significantly higher than that in the control group (mean: 4.4±0.5 versus 4.1±0.7, P=0.003, and 4.3±0.5 versus 4.2±0.5, P=0.02); however, no significant difference in anxiety was seen between the two groups. Patient satisfaction in the e-learning group was significantly higher (mean: 4.3±0.5 versus 4.0±0.6, P=0.002). ConclusionThe e-learning system is an effective supplementary tool for preanesthetic interviews in cancer patients.

Electronic learning and open educational resources in the health sciences in Ghana

To determine whether a group of Ghanaian students are able to easily use electronic learning material and whether they perceive this method of learning as acceptable. The University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) and the School of Medical Sciences (SMS), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and fifty third year medical students at SMS and nineteen fifth year medical students at UGMS METHODS: Two e-learning materials were developed, one on the polymerase chain reaction and the other on total abdominal hysterectomy and these were distributed to selected medical students. Two weeks after the distribution of the programmes, a one-page, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the target groups of students at the two institutions. Ninety three percent (139) of respondents at KNUST and 95% (18) at UG report having access to a computer for learning purposes. All of the UG students viewed the TAH programme; 82% (130) of the KNUST students viewed the PCR animations. All students who viewed the programmes at both institutions indicated that the e-learning pro-grammes were "more effective" in comparison to other methods of learning. Computer ownership or availability at both medical schools is sufficient to permit the distribution and viewing of e-learning materials by students and the medical students considered both programmes to be very helpful.

Nutrient analysis explained for non-chemists by using interactive e-learning material

The diverse educational and professional background of individuals involved in food composition data work presents challenges in their training. In particular, it is difficult to explain chemical analysis of nutrients to individuals lacking a background in chemistry. Therefore an interactive e-learning module entitled “Nutrient Analysis for Non-chemists” was developed. Interactive e-learning provides a powerful set of tools to stimulate a learning process tailored to the needs and background of course members. In its design, specific aims derived from theories on learning and instruction were first formulated: motivate the student; provide an authentic learning context; visualize important concepts; promote active learning; and avoid unnecessary cognitive load. The e-learning module developed contains a large variety of interactive exercises, animations, and background information. The following four topics or cases were elaborated: Fats and Fatty Acids, Proteins and Amino Acids, Carbohydrates and Fiber, and Elements. In diverse educational settings, the module was evaluated by course members of postgraduate courses who highly appreciated it with an overall score of 4.5 on a 5-point scale. The e-learning module that was developed can be nicely integrated into a blended learning course on food composition data. However, it is also very well suited for individual distance learning.

Topic Segmentation and Evaluation Measures for Elearning based on Domain and Pedagogical Ontology

Block level segments obtained from e-learning material should form cohesive blocks of e-learning content not only from continuity perspective but also from concept coverage perspective. Therefore in this work two new evaluation measures specificity and proximity have been proposed to evaluate the segments from this concept coverage perspective. These two methods of segmentation have been compared using the standard evaluation measure pk and the two new proposed evaluation measures. Block level text segmentation for elearning material has been implemented using texttiling method based on domain and pedagogical ontology and this has been compared with hierarchical Latent Dirichlet Allocation based on domain and pedagogical ontology.

Towards Designing Elearning Materials based on Multi Learners Styles

Towards Designing Elearning Materials based on Multi Learners Styles