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How Do Users Evaluate Their Participation In Online Universities Courses
9 May 2004.
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Last month, the portal elearningeuropa.info closed the contest "e-Learning for Higher Education Award" in which participants were asked to tell about their experience taking part in higher education on line courses. A great number of comments reached the editorial, most of them being very interesting, not only for their nominal nature, but also because they reflect the present situation of e-learning in Universities. We have considered necessary to collect the general ideas drawn from the messages received.
After a quick reading on the comments sent by those that have experienced e-learning in higher education by attending some course on line, the first conclusion reached is that using e-learning has made life easier. Although some comments include certain complaints, e-learning is described, in general terms, as a worthwhile and rewarding experience.
Eamon Odonovan comments that The virtual university enables a professional to effectively balance work, home and study. This comment could sumarize the opinion given by those professionals that have chosen e-learning to enlarge their university studies. In fact, some professionals express their need of keeping on their training for a better development of their work. In this sense Lucia Bertini expresses that e-learning is the answer to the necessity of specific training to improve and develop professionalyl , because e-learning regards the possibility of reconciling the obligations of work with the will of going deeply into the emerging matters. On the other hand, some other professionals express their chosing e-learning as a main way of entretainment. e-Learnig flexibility gives them the possiblity of attending university courses for the pleasure of doing it. Actually, Miquel deMarcos that has expressed this aspect of learning as a leisure activity claims that there should exist some kind of help from the institutions to encourage e-learning.
Speaking about the aspects of learning itself, users have declared that online courses contain much more material than traditional courses and that a part from the contents acquired in the courses e-learning helps as well to learn other things, for example how to find the information in Internet.
Mariann Hintz, doing a MBA at the Open University UK expresses three clear aspects related to e-learning that sumarize the rest of opinions: Development, discipline and distraction. Some users have developed reading skills, some others ICT skills. Users highlight the fact that e-learning requires much discipline, specially to avoid the distraction produced in terms of finding information when searching the net. However, all the users agree in stating that disciplinary and distraction problems are over thanks to the close contact kept with the tutors. In fact, Roberto Lopez a student of the UOC in Spain says that paradoxically, she has more contact with the tutors than I had in the presential university and an Italian student, Tatiana Levcheva agrees by saying that in courses on line he has found all the conditions never found in the normal universities in Italy where one feels abandoned to onseself without any real relationship with teachers.
Forums and chats are also seen as a very possitive aspect of the on line learning. Users agree to state that if you have a problem you ask your colleagues for help, someone always answers. Users have found the climate among students very stimulating and the possibility of participating in forums and chats is described as a good balance between the individual work and the possibility to share knowledge and personal experiences with other students. Actually, most users express that forums and chats minimize the feeling of loneliness and coldness that distance learning apparently seems to imply.
Of course there are more aspects that praise on line courses, such as the possibility it gives students to follow the courses from any part of the world. Miriam Levy from Germany states that e-learning enhanced her being in touch with her German University, following German classes when being away for a semester in Columbia. Also accessibility is a matter that has been mentioned by users, like Antonio Capotorto, that consider on line courses a save in time and money in reaching high eduction level for people otherwise excluded. E-learning has been described by Mario Rinaldi as a highly democratic system in giving the option of getting qualified.
However, some others users, like Cinzia Pettinelli, have also express having had some uncertainties relative to the use of some informatic instruments( 339 ) that made their participation somehow frustrating. Such is the case of a student in her university in Poland who expresses that she was limited in implementing and participating in online activities as much as she wanted as technology in Poland is still underdeveloped.
It is important to point out that most users that have participated in the contest wrote positive comments on e-learning. This may be due to the fact that those who have participated were essentially satisfied with their experiences in e-learning. We can also assume that such is the case for the majority of people that currently undertake online courses. Although some users have expressed to have had an initial prejudice against distance learning, they have got over it by realizing that e-learning was much more useful than they ever thought.
After a quick reading on the comments sent by those that have experienced e-learning in higher education by attending some course on line, the first conclusion reached is that using e-learning has made life easier. Although some comments include certain complaints, e-learning is described, in general terms, as a worthwhile and rewarding experience.
Eamon Odonovan comments that The virtual university enables a professional to effectively balance work, home and study. This comment could sumarize the opinion given by those professionals that have chosen e-learning to enlarge their university studies. In fact, some professionals express their need of keeping on their training for a better development of their work. In this sense Lucia Bertini expresses that e-learning is the answer to the necessity of specific training to improve and develop professionalyl , because e-learning regards the possibility of reconciling the obligations of work with the will of going deeply into the emerging matters. On the other hand, some other professionals express their chosing e-learning as a main way of entretainment. e-Learnig flexibility gives them the possiblity of attending university courses for the pleasure of doing it. Actually, Miquel deMarcos that has expressed this aspect of learning as a leisure activity claims that there should exist some kind of help from the institutions to encourage e-learning.
Speaking about the aspects of learning itself, users have declared that online courses contain much more material than traditional courses and that a part from the contents acquired in the courses e-learning helps as well to learn other things, for example how to find the information in Internet.
Mariann Hintz, doing a MBA at the Open University UK expresses three clear aspects related to e-learning that sumarize the rest of opinions: Development, discipline and distraction. Some users have developed reading skills, some others ICT skills. Users highlight the fact that e-learning requires much discipline, specially to avoid the distraction produced in terms of finding information when searching the net. However, all the users agree in stating that disciplinary and distraction problems are over thanks to the close contact kept with the tutors. In fact, Roberto Lopez a student of the UOC in Spain says that paradoxically, she has more contact with the tutors than I had in the presential university and an Italian student, Tatiana Levcheva agrees by saying that in courses on line he has found all the conditions never found in the normal universities in Italy where one feels abandoned to onseself without any real relationship with teachers.
Forums and chats are also seen as a very possitive aspect of the on line learning. Users agree to state that if you have a problem you ask your colleagues for help, someone always answers. Users have found the climate among students very stimulating and the possibility of participating in forums and chats is described as a good balance between the individual work and the possibility to share knowledge and personal experiences with other students. Actually, most users express that forums and chats minimize the feeling of loneliness and coldness that distance learning apparently seems to imply.
Of course there are more aspects that praise on line courses, such as the possibility it gives students to follow the courses from any part of the world. Miriam Levy from Germany states that e-learning enhanced her being in touch with her German University, following German classes when being away for a semester in Columbia. Also accessibility is a matter that has been mentioned by users, like Antonio Capotorto, that consider on line courses a save in time and money in reaching high eduction level for people otherwise excluded. E-learning has been described by Mario Rinaldi as a highly democratic system in giving the option of getting qualified.
However, some others users, like Cinzia Pettinelli, have also express having had some uncertainties relative to the use of some informatic instruments( 339 ) that made their participation somehow frustrating. Such is the case of a student in her university in Poland who expresses that she was limited in implementing and participating in online activities as much as she wanted as technology in Poland is still underdeveloped.
It is important to point out that most users that have participated in the contest wrote positive comments on e-learning. This may be due to the fact that those who have participated were essentially satisfied with their experiences in e-learning. We can also assume that such is the case for the majority of people that currently undertake online courses. Although some users have expressed to have had an initial prejudice against distance learning, they have got over it by realizing that e-learning was much more useful than they ever thought.
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