ARE PEERLESS E-RESOURCES ANY BETTER TOOLS FOR SUPPORTING STUDENTS IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS THAN THE MORE TRADITIONAL TOOLS? THE CASE OF MZUZU UNIVERSITY, MALAWI

Abstract

E-resources have gradually been introduced and accepted into the academia around the globe over recent years, and a variety of novelty learning technologies have been developed to serve students both for open and distance learning (ODL) and Face to Face residential Delivery modes (F2F). To serve our ODL Bachelor of Education students well, Mzuzu University decided to develop e-modules, based on blending PowerPoint slides, audio and videos as a complementary initiative to printed modules and textbooks. The aim of this study was to explore students' perceptions of e-modules as a learning tool compared with other e-learning tools and more traditional tools used in the 8 th , 9 th and 10 th semester courses. The study employed qualitative and quantitative research design and the data was collected through use of questionnaires specifically developed for this study and analyses of related case-studies. We found that the majority of the students identified e-modules and social media apps as better learning tools than printed modules and traditional textbooks, lectures, podcasts and study circles. The results demonstrated that e-resources were perceived as ideal and much better learning tools than printed module, traditional textbooks and lectures.