Dr. Karen Ferreira-Meyers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Introduction                                                                                         p.4

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background

1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 Objectives

1.4 Research Questions

1.5 Significance

1.6 Conclusion

Chapter 2: Literature Review                                                                               p.9      

2.0 Introduction

2.1 Communicative and social-constructivist approaches to learning

2.2 Learners’ feedback and emotions regarding Moodle

2.3 Implementation of Moodle at UNISWA

2.4 Language learning and the use of an LMS

2.5 TAM Models

2.6 Conclusion

Chapter 3: Methodology                                                                                        p.22

3.0 Introduction

3.1 Research Design

3.2 Sample

3.3 Instruments

3.4 Data Collection

3.5 Data Analysis

3.6 Conclusion

Chapter 4: Data Analysis                                                                                      p.28

4.0 Introduction

4.1 Research Question 1

4.2 Research Question 2

4.3 Conclusion

Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusions                                                               p.55

5.0 Introduction

5.1 Summary of Findings

5.2 Discussion

5.3 Implications/Suggestions/Recommendations

5.4 Limitations

5.5 Revised TAM Model

5.6 Conclusions

List of references                                                                                                    p.65

Appendices                                                                                                              p.71

 

 

CHAPTER 1

1. Introduction

This particular study aims at determining the meanings/sense learners give to their autonomous learning situation in a learning management system such as Moodle. The problem is centered around the learners and seeks to find out how these learners rate/perceive their learning process an whether the instructional design of the environment in Moodle can assist in the learning of a course like ENG302 (Writing, composition and stylistics). It also seeks to find out whether there are significant differences between respondents from the Institute of distance education IDE (part-time learners) and respondents who take the same course but on a full-time basis.

1.1 Background to the Study

The Institute of Distance Education of the University of Swaziland is a fast-growing institute set up in 1994 within the University of Swaziland to receive learners that are unable to attain entry into the mainstream, full-time University environment. A variety of reasons for their “exclusion” exist, but the main one seems to be that there is insufficient space for all the learners in Swaziland with the needed attributes for entry at university level.

A parallel course exists for most University of Swaziland courses, such as the courses in the Department of English. Since two years the researcher has been trying to develop a Moodle environment to manage the teaching and learning of this course, for both the distance (IDE) learner and the full-time student. The researcher teaches both the full-time and the part-time learners which gives her the advantage of being able to compare the learners’ reactions to this learning system. The learners at Uniswa are keen to learn online but do not seem very actively involved. The study therefore also aims at discovering what is “blocking” the learners from taking on this mode of learning.

1.2 Problem Statement

The teaching of Eng302, Writing, Composition and Stylistics, to students doing a BA Humanities degree, has traditionally been tackled differently when it came to part-time and full-time students. In a bid to ensure that both groups learn the same content, a Learning Management System – LMS (Moodle) is used to manage learning rhythms, contents, etc. The research aims at getting the learners’ feedback of such an environment and to further contribute to the knowledge on blended learning at the University of Swaziland, as it is felt that blended learning will more and more take the forefront of educational progress.

1.3 Objectives

The objectives of this study are to:

1. Determine learners’ opinions of an online learning management system such as Moodle

2. Determine learners’ views on possible (dis)advantages of LMSs and/or Moodle

3. Analyze the possibilities of teaching English language courses such as ENG302 (Writing, composition and stylistics) using Moodle as the main platform (in addition to face-to-face classes)

4. Verify whether the learners’ views are related to their educational setting (full-time face-to-face or part-time blended learning)

The objectives will assist the researcher to look at previous TAM Models and determine whether Moodle as it is used at the University of Swaziland fits in the model. The research will possibly propose an adjected TAM model.

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is an information systems theory that models how users come to accept and use a technology. The model suggests that when users are presented with a new technology, a number of factors influence their decision about how and when they will use it, notably:

• Perceived usefulness (PU) - This was defined by Fred Davis (1989) as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance".

• Perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) - Davis (1989) defined this as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free from effort".

The TAM has been continuously studied and expanded-the two major upgrades being the TAM 2 (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000; Venkatesh, 2000) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (or UTAUT, Venkatesh et al., 2003). A TAM 3 has also been proposed (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008). We have found that, in recent years, a number of studies on education have used TAM to examine learners’ willingness to accept e-learning systems (Lee, Cheung, & Chen, 2005; Liaw, in press; Ngai, Poon, & Chan, 2007; Ong, Lai, & Wang, 2004; Pan, Gunter, Sivo, & Cornell, 2005; Pituch & Lee, 2006; Raaij & Schepers, in press; Yi & Hwang, 2003) or online courses (Arbaugh, 2002; Arbaugh & Duray, 2002; Gao, 2005; Landry, Griffeth, & Hartman, 2006; Selim, 2003).

1.4 Research Questions

Research question 1: What is the learners’ feedback on the institutional delivery of the ENG302 course in Moodle?

Research question one has various components, including perceived usefulness of Moodle, actual usage of Moodle, etc. These are detailed below in the relevant sections.

Research question 2: Is there a significant difference in the feedback between part-time (off-campus) and full-time (on-campus) learners?

This research question wants to verify whether IDE learners and full-time learners view their learning process differently, whether they need/use Moodle for different reasons, and whether their reactions to an online learning environment are similar or different.

1.5 Methodology

In general the researcher is positioning her methodology from a qualitative approach. In order to answer the main research question, namely what meaning/sense do learners give their autonomous learning situation in an online learning management system such as Moodle, or how learners view their learning process, the researcher will use some qualitative methods such as surveys. The researcher will prepare a questionnaire that the researcher will distribute to all participants in the Eng302 and IDE-Eng302 module. The main questions will include:

• Background information regarding whether the course meets the learner’s needs, enough support is received by the learner, course is well taught and learner would recommend Moodle to a friend

• Frequency and place of computer usage; internet usage for research

• Perceived usefulness of Moodle

• Perceived ease of use of Moodle

• Attitude towards Moodle

• Actual usage of Moodle in general and in the Eng302 module

• Teaching factors

In addition to the above-mentioned topics which will be surveyed using a multiple choice type of question, there are five open-ended questions to further probe the respondent’s feelings and opinions. These look at the reasons for liking or disliking Moodle, the actual experiences learners have with Moodle, the way the lecturer “used” Moodle and how the respondents feel the University could use Moodle to enhance the teaching/learning environment.

Before undertaking any detailed analysis, the responses the questionnaire questions will have to be vetted for consistency and completeness. It is important to have a policy for handling inconsistent and or incomplete questionnaires.

If the researcher finds that most respondents answered all questions, the researcher may decide to reject incomplete questionnaires. However, the characteristics of rejected questionnaires must be investigated in the same way that the researcher investigate non-response to ensure that the researcher do not introduce any systematic bias. Alternatively, most respondents may have omitted a few specific questions. In this case, it is more appropriate to remove those questions from the analysis but keep responses to the other questions.

The population was purposefully and conveniently chosen as the researcher-lecturer was appointed as the instructor of both respondents groups. As the researcher has only 45 learners in the IDE group and 6 in the full-time group, the researcher feel that there is no need for sampling. The researcher will be in a position to analyze all responses.

As is the case in a large number of surveys the researcher will ask my participants to respond to questions on an ordinal scale, such a five-point agreement scale. For example, respondents are asked to specify the extent to which they agree with a particular statement. They are offered the choice of: strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree. It is common practice to convert the ordinal scale to its numerical equivalent (e.g. the numbers 1 to 5) and to analyze the data as if they were simple numerical data.

This study will be based on the ‘mixed’ or ‘multiple’ research approach which combines a predominantly qualitative method with limited quantitative aspects. It has been argued that mixed methods can validate information and “also provide more comprehensive answers to research questions going beyond the limitations of a single approach” (PREST Module A5, 2004: 2). The issue of reliability in any kind of research is best tackled through triangulation and the researcher wants to blend the qualitative and quantitative so as to triangulate the information gathered. Macun & Pose (cited in PREST Module B1, 2004: 89) stipulate that triangulation is crucial to strengthen and verify research findings. Some limited quantitative research methods will also be applied, when analysing the data to reach the study findings.