Taking it easy with e-learning

WHAT can be better than watching lectures from the comfort of your own home? Many students rejoiced when e-learning week was introduced, as it implied that we would be having a holiday. But I thought otherwise.

Being inquisitive, I asked around for students’ feedback.Many gave a thumbs up, saying that e-learning was convenient, and pre-recorded lectures allowed for playback, which helped students who cannot keep up.

But there are also students like me, who recognise that e-learning will actually impede their studies because when it is so easy to gather academic material, it takes away the discipline of doing so.

Some are more down to earth. They talked about how e-learning meant missing out on cheap western food and the chance to bump into the occassional chio-bu.

As my own e-learning trial beckons, I cannot help but consider the implications.

For one, e-learning is supposed to reduce time wasted on travelling, hence increasing productivity. But it has also encouraged multi-tasking, leading to a lack of focus and less substantial work being done. Thus it all boils down to discipline.

With e-learning, students may need to exercise greater self control over their tendency to give in to distractions. Think of the times when you were supposed to find information for a report, only to end up reading blogs, or worse, posting comments on them.

Also, our academic culture here is such that students and professors do not really have close relationships, perhaps due to the reserved nature of students. Could online learning make this even worse, as it would remove real life interaction? But at the same time, studies have shown that reserved people communicate better online.

My personal take is that online communication can never replicate the vigour and immediacy of students shooting off a query or comment in class. While it helps to encourage students to discuss online, e-learning should not replace real-life interaction. It is best to integrate both.

E-learning also means that professors have less control over their students. For instance, in real life lectures, if lecturers see students sleeping, talking or not paying attention, this will indicate to them that they are not being engaging enough, or are boring.

Without this kind of feedback, online lectures can end up like a two-hour news broadcast, except that news broadcasters are usually more aesthetically pleasing.

Moreover, while students are encouraged to actively interact with classmates and professors online with e-learning through discussion boards, they may not bother. For with e-learning, students no longer need to deal with the awkward pauses, the serious gaze of the professor, and the pressure to break the stifl ing silence as the class awaits their answers.

Granted that the e-learning trial is meant to test the feasibility of home-based lectures in the case of a potential flu pandemic (although a haze crisis with a PSI of 200 is more applicable now), but it is a serious option to consider as we progress as a technogically advanced nation.

Plans to wire up the country with Wi-Fi access would only complement e-learning. And e-learning is the way to go for universities, as they seek to attract distance-learning students. In fact, NTU already lags
behind many universities when it comes to this.

But many of these universities still keep a real-life lecture style, for while e-learning is a good complement to the existing system and a convenient substitute in times of crises, it still has its disadvantages.

Ultimately, for all the perks e-learning offer, such as convenience and permanence of lecture material, it really depends on how students embrace the technology. If they remain sceptical and shun it, they will never realise its benefits.

Students who think that online learning reduces interaction, and therefore do not bother to interact online at all, are only shooting themselves in the foot.

Nevertheless, we should not get carried away with the desirability of e-learning. It is vital to get continuous feedback from students and faculty but not all subjects are suitable for it.

As my “Management with Humour” lecturer says: “For every solution implemented, you plant a seed of potential problems”. I cannot agree more.

Most importantly, the writer knows that if e-learning is implemented, he will never be able to bump into his mass comm chiobu. What’s more, he just got a feel of when her lectures are.