introducing a tentative framework for adopting e-learning systems in developing countries

101 Pages·2011·0.89 MB·English

by  M. Atiqur Rahman

I
NTRODUCING A TENTATIVE
FRAMEWORK FOR ADOPTING
-
E LEARNING SYSTEMS IN

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Master’s (one year) thesis in Informatics (15 credits)

Md. Mahmudul Hasan Khan

Muhammad Atiqur Rahman

Maruf Ahmed

Autumn 2010:MI15

I
Title: Introducing a tentative framework for adopting e-learning systems in
developing countries

Year: 2010

Authors: Md. Mahmudul Hasan Khan, Muhammad Atiqur Rahman, Maruf Ahmed

Supervisor: Björn Abelli

Abstract

In order to develop quality and excellence in e-Learning environment, many
initiatives have been carried out in developing countries. In Bangladesh Information
and communication technologies (ICTS) are considered valuable tools for education
but there is no proper framework for the country to develop a quality e-Learning
system. Though it is somewhat used in higher level of studies but it is still new in
primary education system. If primary education system can be developed through e-
learning, then it will be more beneficial for higher level of studies.
Our goal is to introduce a possible framework to adopt a quality e-Learning system in
primary educational institutes. So that the primary level education system can be
developed and take the advantages of e-Learning system.
The result of this study would create an impact for the community who are still
indifferent about the development of primary education system and prompt the
decision makers of the primary educational institute to introduce e-Learning system in
their institutes through quality framework for e-learning.

Keywords: E‐learning, learning theories, framework, constructive learning,
developing countries, Bangladesh, factors, motivation

II
Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to the following
people who helped and inspired us to complete this thesis:

First, we would like to thank Dr. Björn Abelli, Senior Lecturer and Director of
Studies (Informatics), School of Business and Informatics (IDA), University of Borås
our supervisor for his support, encouragement and guidance during the period of our
study.

Dr. Anders Hjalmarsson, Senior lecturer and researcher in informatics,
University of Borås for his valuable support, suggestions and comments regarding the
study.

Dr. Ananya Raihan, Executive Director of D.Net, Mrs. Rehana Begum Mazumder,
Head Mistress of Zigatola Govt. Model Primary School, Mrs. Rokeya Sultana,
Teacher of Lalbag Rahmotullah Model School and Aasd-Uz-Zaman, Coordinator,
Next Generation e-Learning System in Surovi School for helping us to do survey in 3
schools of Bangladesh.

III
Table of contents:

1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM ......................................................................................................................... 5
1.3 PREVIOUS RESEARCH WITHIN THE AREA ................................................................................... 6
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION ........................................................................................................................ 8
1.5 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................... 8
1.6 DELIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................................... 8
1.7 TARGET GROUP FOR THE STUDY ................................................................................................... 8
1.8 EXPECTED RESULT ............................................................................................................................. 9
1.9 THE BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCHERS ................................................................................ 9
1.10 REFERENCE STRUCTURE .................................................................................................................. 9
1.11 THESIS OUTLINE .................................................................................................................................. 9
2 METHOD ....................................................................................................................................................... 11
2.1 RESEARCH PLAN ............................................................................................................................... 11
2.2 THE ROLES OF THE THEORETICAL AND THE EMPIRICAL STUDY ...................................... 11
2.3 QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE METHOD .......................................................................... 13
2.3.1 Secondary data collection ............................................................................................................. 14
2.4 METHOD OF ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................... 14
3 LITERATURE ON LEARNING THEORIES .......................................................................................... 15
3.1 BEHAVIOURISM LEARNING THEORIES AND E-LEARNING ................................................... 15
3.2 COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORIES AND E-LEARNING ............................................................ 16
3.3 CONSTRUCTIVISM AND E-LEARNING ......................................................................................... 17
3.3.1 Koohang’s model .......................................................................................................................... 18
4 LITERATURE REVIEW OF EMPIRICALLY ORIENTED E-LEARNING WORK IN
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES .............................................................................................................................. 22
4.1 TECHNOLOGY ..................................................................................................................................... 23
4.2 CULTURE .............................................................................................................................................. 24
4.3 USER CHARACTERISTICS ................................................................................................................ 25
4.3.1 e-Learning implementation barriers from Bangladesh perspective ............................................. 27
5 FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADOPTION OF A QUALITY E-LEARNING SYSTEM ................. 31
5.1 INSTITUTIONAL FACTOR ................................................................................................................ 31
5.2 TECHNOLOGICAL FACTOR ............................................................................................................. 32
5.3 INTERFACE DESIGN .......................................................................................................................... 34
5.4 INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN FACTOR ............................................................................................... 34
5.5 ORGANIZING LEARNING RESOURCES ......................................................................................... 35
5.6 PEDAGOGICAL FACTOR .................................................................................................................. 36
5.7 EVALUATION FACTOR ..................................................................................................................... 39
5.8 MODELS FOR ADOPTING E-LEARNING SYSTEM: ..................................................................... 40
6 EMPIRICAL STUDY ................................................................................................................................... 43
6.1 DATA COLLECTION METHOD: ....................................................................................................... 43
6.2 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN ............................................................................................................... 43
6.3 SAMPLE SELECTION ......................................................................................................................... 45
7 ANALYSIS AND RESULT .......................................................................................................................... 47
8 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 58
8.1 EVALUATION OF THE RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................. 59
8.2 EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY IN KNOWLEDGE CONTRIBUTION .................................... 59
8.3 VALUE OF THE RESULT ................................................................................................................... 60
8.4 FUTURE WORK ................................................................................................................................... 61
REFERENCES: ...................................................................................................................................................... 62
APPENDIX: ............................................................................................................................................................ 70

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LIST OF TABLES:

Table 1: Motivation in terms of learning theory for student of primary education to adopt e-Learning ............... 20
Table 2: The intensity of barriers from different dimension perspective ............................................................... 26
Table 3 : Recommendation against the barriers ...................................................................................................... 27
Table 4: Teacher-student Ratio and average students per institution by type, 2008 .............................................. 28
Table 5: Indicators of internal efficiency in primary education system 2005-2008 ............................................... 29
Table 6: Main barriers .............................................................................................................................................. 29
Table 7: Break downs of the respondents ................................................................................................................ 43
Table 8: Summary of questionnaire for Teacher & Stuff ...................................................................................... 43
Table 9: Summary of questionnaire for Guardian, teachers, staff ......................................................................... 45
Table 10: Data Gathering details ............................................................................................................................. 46
Table 11: % of Perception of Institutional design factor ........................................................................................ 49
Table 12 : % of Perception of Technological design factor .................................................................................... 50
Table 13 : % of Perception of Interface design factor ............................................................................................. 51
Table 14 : % of Perception of Instructional design factor ...................................................................................... 51
Table 15 : % of Perception of Resource support factor .......................................................................................... 52
Table 16 : % of Perception of Pedagogical design factor ....................................................................................... 53
Table 17 : % of Perception of Evaluation design factor ......................................................................................... 55

[2]
LIST OF FIGURES:
Figure 1: Dynamic Character Recognition Technology (DCRT) ........................................................... 7
Figure 2: Research plan ........................................................................................................................ 11
Figure 3 : The roles of the theoretical and the empirical parts of the research ..................................... 13
Figure 4 : Cognitive controls (Terry Mayes, 2004)............................................................................... 17
Figure 5 : Constructivism & E-Learning Design of Learning .............................................................. 19
Figure 6: Estimated cost vs. yield points for developing countries’ current implementation of various
learning approaches .............................................................................................................................. 23
Figure 7 : The Concerns – Based Adoption Model Adopted from (Hall and Hord, 2001) ................... 41
Figure 8 : % of Perception of Institutional design factor ...................................................................... 49
Figure 9 :% of Perception of Technological design factor ................................................................... 50
Figure 10 : % of Perception of Interface design factor ......................................................................... 51
Figure 11: % of Perception of Instructional design factor .................................................................... 52
Figure 12 : % of Perception of Resource support factor ....................................................................... 53
Figure 13 : % of Perception of Pedagogical design factor .................................................................... 54
Figure 14: % of Perception of Evaluation design factor ....................................................................... 55
Figure 15: A tentative framework for the adoption of a quality e-Learning system in primary
educational institutes and the barriers affecting the factors .................................................................. 56

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1 INTRODUCTION
The aim of this chapter is to describe and identify the problems therein e-Learning system in
developing countries like Bangladesh for primary education and to present arguments for the
relevance of the study.

1.1 BACKGROUND

The term “e” is an abbreviation of “electronic”; electronic refers to application of computer
in the process of communication, data collection management information storage,
automation and etc. However, Roffe believes that the term “e” has nothing to do with
electronics and is referred to (Roffe 2002).

The term e-Learning is currently used to describe the use of computer technology
to support learning. Several synonyms have been used over the years to describe the same
activity. These include (Waight, Willging et al.; Romiszowski 2004; Khan 2005)
computer-based learning of Computer-aided learning, Computer-assisted instruction,
electronic learning, Learning technology and technology-enhanced learning, Technology
based learning, Web based learning, Internet-based learning, Advanced distributed learning,
Web based instruction, Online learning, Network learning, Distance learning and Distributed
learning.

E-Learning recognizes the rise of a new age in educational terms. It concedes the
challenges of diversity in programs and learners. Moreover, by another definition, in e-
Learning instructions and acknowledge can be delivered via all electronic media such as

the internet, intranets, extranet and hypertext/hypermedia documents (Govindasamy, 2002).

Now-a-days, e-Learning is playing an important role to spread education in a more effective
and efficient way. Students can improve their learning process and experience by
communicating interactively with their teachers through e-Learning. E-Learning engages the
use of a computer or electronic device in some way to offer educational or learning materials,
and e-manage data, information, and knowledge to improve the performance of the students
(Agarwal, Deo, & Das, 2004).

E-Learning is used to deliver electronically designed interactive learning opportunity to
anyone, anyplace, anytime basis using digital technologies. The e-Learning include web-
based learning, computer based leaning, virtual class rooms, digital collaboration, internet,
intranet, audio and video tape, internet or satellite TV, and CD-Rom (Islam and Selim, 2006).

In developing countries e-Learning is still a new age for the learner communities. Due to
upset economic and social conditions of developed countries, countries like Bangladesh could
not yet establish a dependable e-Learning system. Few initiatives like Open University and
National University, in addition to the international organizations like COL, is trying to
create the eLearning program as extensively accepted tool for learning for wide varieties of
community. But to enhance the learning process and to keep pace with the other countries it
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should be mandatory to adopt the e-Learning technologies properly in pre-primary, primary,
secondary as well as higher secondary education.

The Internet and e-resources are spreading new opportunities for different kinds of e-
Learning, for example, formal e-Learning which is tied into school curriculum (Brindley,
2004). An e-Learning course offers a flexible time and location approach by changing the
learning environment. It enables learning to take place in a variety of different places, both
physical and virtual. Learners now have a choice and as a result increasingly wish to combine
the options, choosing when and where they study and learn. For education providers,
preparation and integration of materials and services have now become a challenge, because
it fundamentally changes the learning environment (OECD, 2001, p. 22).

In spite of many good intentions for developing countries to advance in technical terms, it is
rarely yet the case. Most technologies are designed in developing countries in their own
context and thus when trying to implement these technologies a number of limitations and
problems are encountered. However, developing countries like Bangladesh still don't have
many specialists in ICT in education, and rely mainly on the precious few of enthusiastic,
over-worked, pioneering teachers to drive change in their schools.

The whole world is now linked with Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
which has brought a significant change in open education and communication. In
Bangladesh, government has declared it as a trust sector. To stay even with others in contest
the rest of the world almost all developing countries are thinking to adopt e-Learning.
Bangladesh is not lagged behind of this step. But, there are few major issues like national
strategy, connectivity, accreditation, acceptability, quality of the learning materials, and
relevant contents that have to be considered for any eLearning program for Bangladesh (Md
Shahid Uddin Akbar, 2005).
1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM
In Bangladesh e-Learning system has been developed in past few decades but still it is not
reached to the goal where children can easily learn their lessons through e-Learning and can
be motivated for further study. Due to lack of quality teachers, quality ambience and quality
content the education sector of Bangladesh is suffering from many deficiencies. As a result,
most of the students are used to learning by heart without proper understanding. This
condition is worst in rural areas due to skilled teachers, proper teaching-learning materials
and so on. Interactive and user friendly learning is needed to get rid of this tendency and also
the quality education should be ensured.
National strategy and plan for eLearning where government has to play the lead role in
partnership with academician have to be addressed and ensuring access to the local
communities i.e. development of ICT infrastructure, both government and private sector have
to contribute in the process.

E-Learning system should work a way that any child can learn their lessons using computer
without computer literacy and should be easy for all grades of students whether they are low
grades or high. Our vision is to introduce e-Learning solutions in Bangladesh with various
factors to the students, teachers, parents and educators. The system should be friendly, cost
efficient and easy for developing new educational contents.

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From now on, great challenge for Bangladesh is to create a 'Knowledge based Society' where
citizens are equipped with knowledge and skill of Information & Communication
Technology (ICT). Using ICT in the education sector, the costs can be brought down; the
quality of education can be improved and impart uniformity. It is necessary to enlarge user
friendly e-Learning opportunities to all, including most vulnerable groups, like low income
and less skilled people, girls and women as well as children out of schools if the country is
concerned about the quality education.

As there is no established e-Learning system developed so far in primary education system.
From our points of view , to have an effective e-Learning system in primary education system
first of all we need to know what basic foundation needs to develop an e-Learning system in
primary education system and How to enhance the quality of learning processes in primary
education system. Consequently, it has to be defined what factors affecting the adoption of a
quality e-Learning system in primary educational institute.There are several learning theories
which have been aligned with e-Learning theories like behaviorism theories, cognitive
theories, constructivism theories and Khan’s Octagonal framework for planning, developing,
delivering, managing, and evaluating e-Learning programs have been investigated in this
thesis and also case studies of different researchers can we base the investigation on for this
research.
1.3 PREVIOUS RESEARCH WITHIN THE AREA
Many different initiatives have been made till now in different countries to implement a
suitable teaching leaning methods. Integrating ICT in education sector has become very
important for many countries. Ministry of education of Malaysia has a private channel where
various educational programs are being broadcasted regularly. China has also started English
learning through mobile phone technology where any learner can download his/her study
materials. India has also launched ‘Interactive Radio Learning’ for students’ learning and
teachers’ training which is time and cost effective. In this learning system, in the class there is
an interactive radio; and an instructor or specialist in the studio who conducts the teacher in
the class. Following the instruction of the specialist, the teacher teaches the lesson to
students. This method is very effective in India (Mahmud, 2009).

The Afghans Next Generation e-Learning (ANGeL, 2010) platform is a resource which is
available to all higher education institutions in Afghanistan and developed under the
leadership of the University of Western Cape in South Africa. E-Learning Alliances of
afghan uses blended e-Learning or blended e-education interchangeably. In this system,
students can learn from traditional face to face interaction as well as global engagement; both
physical and digital content are used.
Here the system uses:
(cid:190) A pedagogy that has practice, assessment, and review system
(cid:190) A combined learning tasks and activities
(cid:190) A combined content delivered by a mix of technologies CDs, cell phones, the
computer, and the Internet
(cid:190) A combined lecturers, tutors, facilitators, course coordinators or other students
(Afghans Next Generation e-Learning, 2009)

Using computer software, animated graphic, multimedia presentations and flashcards to teach
literacy the Tata Computer Based Functional Literacy Programme (CBFL) in India uses
combined methods (UNESCO, 2006). Tata telecommunication services offer mobile
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education for rural communities and physically handicapped people. In this system, the
mobile phone is used as a device which allows the user to access to voice, text messaging and
educational content and takes mock tests on the move no matter where the person is (Tata,
2009).

A pilot study of e-Learning of Math in Secondary Schools in Gazipur and Comilla from 2009
has been initiated by Bangladesh Government with the support of BRAC under ‘Teaching
Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project’ (TQI-SEP). For the underprivileged
secondary students of rural Bangladesh Ministry of Education formally inaugurated Mobile
ICT Lab of TQI-SEP to provide e-Learning . This initiative will ensure primary ICT
knowledge as well as ICT based education for the students where a total number of 17
Mobile ICT Labs in 17 Cars will move across the country to introduce e-Learning system
with the teachers and students of one thousand schools by December, 2010. Each lab includes
five laptops, five wireless internet modems, two digital cameras, multimedia projector,
webcam, printer, pen drive, interactive board, e-Learning CD, speaker, generator etc. and also
enhance the teaching capacity of the teachers (The Daily Samakal, 2010).

Japan is also developing Kite character recognition technology (KITE group) for next
generation and D.Net, a research institute has introduced this technology for the
underprivileged pre-primary school children of Bangladesh (Asad-Uz-Zaman Asad, 2010). In
this technology students can learn spelling, counting and various studies. A WAKOM pen
tablet is used for this technology where students will write their answers on it and through
dynamic character recognition technology students will be answered whether their answers
are correct or not. In one of the researches made by D.Net where students were categorized
based on their performance into good, very good and unsatisfactory group and after using this
technology it was found that this technology developed the students from ‘good’ quality to
‘very good’ quality and ‘unsatisfactory’ quality to ‘good’ quality. That means students really
enjoyed this new method of learning.

Figure 1: Dynamic Character Recognition Technology (DCRT)

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