Faculty Members and Students Perceptions of E-Learning in the English Department: A Project Evaluation

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: With the brisk technology developments, e-learning is revolutionalising the educational industry by leaps and bounds, thus becoming a popular method of education for many universities and colleges around the world. In Saudi Arabian universities, there is a tangible presence of Web-based curricular provisions within the traditional university known as blended learning. There is a growing call advocating the inclusion of online learning in every university to provide distance education. There are many issues that arise problematically. Some of these issues include study overload, lack of technological skills and feelings of isolation, problems in course design and course delivery formats. There are other organizational issues related to accreditation and quality assurance procedures. Approach: This study examines this progressive trend by literature review and survey and whether it is promising for the future of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Saudi Arabia. The study also assesses the effectiveness of and preference for, webbased learning as perceived by faculty and students. Results: Faculty and student responses were generally positive overall and indicated that learning improved in an e-learning environment compared to a traditional approach. Conclusion/Recommendations: The results of this study will inform EFL educators as to whether this mode of learning would serve as viable component of future ELT university programmes in English departments in Saudi universities and guide future research efforts towards more efficient and competitive online learning environments.

A Study on Student's Perception towards Online Classes and Effectiveness in Enhancing Active Participation and Communication Skills

“…The findings portray that accessibility of materials that students can access at their convenience gives a positive perception towards students. This statement is in line with the previous study by Al-Dosari [27], which mentioned that online courses users who enrolled considered accessibility an advantage for students e-learning. Moreover, students find that online classes enhance creativity and make them be organized.…”

Odnos študentov zdravstvene nege do e-izobraževanja

“…Dosari (2011) je ugotavljal pozitiven odnos študentov in visokošolskih učiteljev do e-izobraževanja. Kundi in sodelavci (2010) pa so prišli do ugotovitve, da so uporabniki e-izobraževanja redko zadovoljni z njegovo funkcionalnostjo in se tako visokošolske institucije stalno soočajo z nezadovoljstvom uporabnikov novega učnega pristopa.…”

“…Vprašalnik smo oblikovali na podlagi pregleda izvirnih znanstvenih člankov (Keller & Cernerud, 2002;Docherty & Sandhu, 2006;Borstorff & Lowe, 2007;Mitchell, et al, 2007;Yaghoubi, et al, 2008;Dwyer & Reid-Searle, 2009;Kundi, et al, 2010;Moule, et al, 2010;Dosari, 2011;Lin, et al, 2011;Bristol & Kyarsgaard, 2012;Muhammad Umar & Choudhary Zahid, 2012;Ličen, 2013) v mednarodnih bazah podatkov CINAHL in ProQuest ter vzajemni bibliografski-kataložni bazi podatkov COBIB.SI. Sestavljen je iz demografskih podatkov (letnik študija, obvezna prisotnost v e-učilnici, izkušnje z e-učilnico, stil učenja, podpora skupinskega/ individualnega dela) in treh vsebinskih sklopov z uporabo 5-stopenjske Likertove lestvice, in sicer: odnos študentov do e-izobraževanja, pričakovanja in prednosti e-izobraževanja (1 -se sploh ne strinjam, 2 -se ne strinjam, 3 -neopredeljen, 4 -se strinjam, 5 -popolnoma se strinjam).…”

Lessons Learned: Online Teaching Adventures and Misadventures

“…Nonsynchronistic conference systems include the use of: Hypertext, emailing, mailing lists, file downloads and discussion groups. Synchronistic conference systems include the use of: Chatrooms, whiteboard, audio-video streaming, video conferences and virtual classrooms (Abdellatief et al, 2011;Al-Dosari, 2011).…”

“…Some students may lack the required discipline and skills to sucessfully complete online courses. Al-Dosari (2011) stated that online students are expected to: Act with initiative and enthusism; reason effectively and creatively with an integrated, flexible, usuable knowledge base; and monitor and assess their own ablities to achieve desirable outcomes.…”