Thursday, July 9, 2009

A discussion on E-Learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students prespective.


E-Learning (or Electronic learning or eLearning), defined in Wikipedia, is a term for all types of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process. In Malaysia, E-Learning had been introduced by universities such as UTM (University Technology Malaysia) and MMU (Multimedia University). From the students’ perspective, e-learning provides pros and cons:

Pros:
(a) Convenience and flexibility to learners
E-Learning is self-paced and the learning sessions are available 24x7. Learners are not bound to a specific day/time to physically attend classes. They can also pause learning sessions at their convenience.

(b) Reducing environmental impact
E-Learning allows people to avoid travel expenses. It provides a virtual environment and helpful in reduce the usage of paper. With virtual notes instead of paper notes, eLearning is a more environmentally friendly solution.

(c) Affordable education
E-learning can drastically reduce the costs of higher education, making it much more affordable and accessible to the students. An internet connection, a computer, and a projector would allow an entire classroom in a third world university to benefit from the knowledge of a distant instructor.

Cons:
(a) Technology skill required
The students without technology skill are forced to put more efforts to learn about it. Furthermore, some students may not able to switch to new e-learning environment.

(b) Lack of Human Interaction
Learning is traditionally a process of passing information from one human being to another. However, e-learning has been taken place without face to face communication. Thus, high level understanding may not reach.

(c) Lack of Motivation
E-Learning requires self-discipline for students. Some students may not able to follow the syllabus of E-Learning with poor motivation. Thus, the objective of e-learning has failed to achieve.

Conclusion
E-Learning is a good strategy for all students since its advantages greater than its disadvantages. In my opinion, there are not disadvantages for me as it depends the ways of how we use E-Learning to achieve education goals.

References:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_learning
(2) http://elearn2.utm.my/09101/file.php/1/response/index.html

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