abstract
the open learning institute of hong kong was established in 1989 in response to demands for increase access to tertiary education for working adults and the need to restrain the work force to meet the changing profile of the industrial and commercial sectors. the institute was renamed the open university of hong kong (ouhk) in 1998 with its tremendous increase in number of students. since establishment, ouhk faced a community unconvinced of the validity and credibility of open and distance education. pressure from students for the speedy development of programs has been heavy. the introduction of an open educational system produced disbelief in many that anything of value could be produced. the university’s staff was aware of the need to address this misconception from the beginning. this led to the introduction of very elaborate systems for quality control, although the development of these systems was not always done in a structured, holistic manner. in 1998, ouhk introduced the internet learning system to some of its courses. this was a new exploration in hong kong ‘s distance education history. quality assurance and effectiveness were determined to be the most important issues in its deployment. this research focused on the present internet learning courses in ouhk in a view to find out the best way to implement it for ouhk students. the research was done by questionnaire survey to students who were currently taking internet learning subjects. the result showed internet learning was widely accepted as a modern and effective learning method. major concerns were the need for improving communication between students and tutors. tutors’ workload was increased and re-shaped substantially that might result in a potential threat to teaching quality. some deliberate strategies might be needed to stimulate student and tutor laggards to accept the new technology and learning approach. an intermediate “integrated mode” of traditional and internet learning mode could be used to accelerate complete conversion, by which, all the internet learning features could be utilized effectively.
introduction
emerging information technologies in internet are triggering significant changes in distance learning. use of internet learning has been widely used in tertiary education, although some may be at experimental stage. ouhk started its internet learning in a limited number of subjects in 1998. only courses chosen related to information systems were chosen as ouhk believed students taking these courses would be easier to accept this new way of learning. this decision was made on the assumption that it subject students were more familiar with using technology and were less reluctant to innovative ideas. ouhk had adopted an “integrated model” which allowed students to obtain study material, submitting assignments and communicating with tutors via the internet and at the same time there were face-to-face tutorial sessions. the university hadnever properly identified what it meant for “internet learning”. for understandable reasons, the emphasis had been more on speedily demonstrating that stringent internet system exist rather than allowing staff to evolve a new method, identifying a technology, and then develop appropriate efficient internet systems. the result had been an emphasis on “fitness for purpose” in an initial stage. certainly, the need to satisfy ease of use and convenience had been given a high priority. however, these considerations might have distracted the university from fully considering the other aspects such as efficiency and effectiveness.
ouhk had established a high qualitative and quantitative target in delivering distance education in hong kong, hopefully to nearby countries in the future. internet learning undoubtedly could increase number of learners without too many constraints in staffing and classroom availability. quality assurance of internet learning had become a priority issue. the present internet learning technology used was quite mature and stable. ouhk’s current focus was on identifying any issues in the design, implementation, and student feedback of the current internet learning courses. this research had considered all the aspects from students, tutors and the university’s various supporting functions. this study was conducted in the open university of hong kong in 2000. the target respondents were current students of the internet learning courses.
research questions
the purpose of this research was to testify the original thoughts in the design of the internet learning system in ouhk. the original design thoughts included elements from learning behavior, performance measurements, communication and technology. the research questions mainly focused on the following three areas:
· firstly, how do learners perceive an internet learning environment?
· secondly, what are the learning styles usually identified in an internet learning environment integrated with a traditional classroom?
· thirdly, what are the key-factors affecting the learner’s attitudes and performance in internet learning?
literature review
looking upon the past educational media study, media’s instructional effects are not clear enough as far as we conceive media as vehicles conveying instructional contents. clark (1983) concluded that we could not attribute any direct instructional effects to media. to say it more softly, we learned at least the “technology does not do it alone” lesson (salomon, 1992). however, when the computer appeared, many researchers felt that it is different from the previous media because it can interact with the learner. as it is a symbol-manipulating machine, it would affect and enhance our thinking ability. “partners in cognition” (salomon, perkins and globerson, 1991) is a good example reflecting such a view. on the other hand, is there any trade-off in this phenomenon, or are not we losing something by getting something? in order to use new technologies in a healthier manner, it is important to critically examine the nature and the real experience of students and tutors in such an environment, which is the purpose of this study.
rumble (1981, 1992) has described how to evaluate the output of a distance education institution and the four criteria for use in evaluating the achievements of distance education system. both the time taken to produce a graduate and the output-input ratio were included in his assessment. he has also suggested the four possible criteria that may include:
1) providing opportunities for access to education and training
2) completion and drop-out rates
3) the quality of output
4) cost-efficiency and cost effectiveness
organizational analysts such as hecksher (1994) believe that we are witnessing the emergence of the post-bureaucratic organization in which “everyone takes responsibility for the success of the whole”, and in which the relationships between people “are determined by problems rather than predetermined by structures” (ibid. p.24). borrowing from hecksher’s preferred term for this new kind of organization, the interactive organization (hecksher’s, 1994:24), we can now envisage the global interactive university that acts very much as a partnership of professional academics will emerge. these universities will have the flexibility to choose how to teach and how to learn. the new model emerged will be a global interactive multi-national university. it is interactive because it is based on a network of financially independently individuals who are in partnership with each other, and because it supports interactive, dialogue-based learning.
during the past twenty years, three major questionnaire instruments had been developed to explore students’ approaches to learning in higher education:
(1) marton and saljo (1976a,b); qualitative difference in learning
(2) entwistle, hanley and hounsell (1979) and entwistle and ramsden (1983); approaches to studying inventory (asi)
(3) biggs (1977); study processes
they were grounded in western concepts of learning and purposes of education (perkins, 1992). these research results had been applied in various geographical settings around the world: including australia, britain, canada, hong kong, mainland china, nepal, nigeria, philippines, south africa, spain, the united states, and venezuela. however, these researches had not taken into consideration of the impact from the use of technology.
survey of web-based distant education and its issues
distance education differs from conventional education in many fronts. it differs not only in the underlying philosophy of learning mode which active versus passive it differs on various other fronts. the table below illustrates the difference between the mode of distance education and conventional education.
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