Study of student preferences in using the university default learning management system versus the weblog in learning and teaching

Abstract

Previous study done by CheeKeong et al (2010) has found that Web Based Learning Environment (WBLE), the learning management system (LMS) implemented throughout a local private university was underutilized. Most of the respondents have been treating the WBLE as a platform merely for downloading the teaching materials despite various features made available to them. The slow connection of WBLE has been highlighted as one of the main causes of the underutilization. The effectiveness of WBLE as LMS in learning and teaching was thus very limited. This study intended to conduct a more thorough review of the effectiveness of WBLE after about two years whereby the university has taken several actions to improve the responsiveness of the LMS as well as adding more features based on the feedbacks from users. In order to objectively study the students' preference and the possible factors that hinder or promote the use of WBLE, the authors have set up a weblog hosted free by WordPress.com in addition to WBLE as their alternative LMS for an introductory Physics subject for a cohort of post-secondary students taking pre-university science programme. The students will be taking the physics subject along with four other subjects and using WBLE as their main LMS. It is statistically found that the students were more receptive towards the weblog as compared to WBLE. More interactions in the form of comments were recorded in the weblog. Possible factors that promote or hinder the use of WBLE or weblog were surveyed as well. The outcomes show that majority of the students still considered technical issues such as the functions or features available in WBLE and the speed of browsing the WBLE to be the essential determinants for the use of WBLE despite various improvements and measures taken by the University in the recent past two years. However, further investigation has revealed that the design and interface of WBLE play the actual role in attracting the students to frequent the LMS. Some students have proposed to incorporate Skype-like programme into the LMS as they wish to interact and communicate verbally with their lecturers apart from the face-to-face hours in the university. Moreover, they wish to have more interesting materials and multimedia to be uploaded onto the LMS for reading and self-learning. All these have nevertheless set as the good guidelines on how to improve the WBLE and to promote better learning and teaching among the lecturers and the students.