University Level Learning and Teaching via E-Learning Platforms: A Journal Summary

This is a summary of a paper entitled "University Level Learning and Teaching via E-Learning Platforms" written by D. Benta, G. Bologa, S. Dzitac, and I. Dzitac which in the time of writing had collaboration with Agora University of Oradea, Departement of Social Sciences, Romania. The paper was published in Procedia Computer Science Journal (Elsevier) under information technology and quantitative management (ITQM 2015). The journal is an open access under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The paper related to some previous research, such as the comparison between e-learning and traditional learning on the acquisition and retention of knowledge (Kelly et al), three considered dimensions to have benefits of e-learning on learning (Vavpotic et al.) and Chai et al. work in reviewing some papers related to TPACK which resulted that it has positive results in enhancing teachers' capacity to integrate ICT for instructional practice.

There are many open Learning Management Systems that can be used but the researchers decided to use Moodle. One of their reasons for choosing Moodle is it supports face to face training. Moodle has been used in various teaching domain, such as Physics or foreign language. Moodle is also fit with their university requirements so it can serve to produce benefits and improve the teaching process. 

To compare the result of traditional teaching and e-learning, the researchers involved two groups of students from the same faculty. The first group was designed as a traditional group whereas they had to submit their assignment through email, while group two as a modern group and they submitted their assignment through Moodle. The result showed that group two had more improvement than group one, especially in their perception in doing their homework. Researchers also used a server log to analyze the activity of students on the platform. It showed that users (students) had more participation (77%) while professors had smaller participation (21%). 

When analyzing about homework tasks, the percentage of students who did not submit their task was bigger than those who submitted their task with 56% and 44% respectively.  This condition was contrary from the e-learning group whereas most of them submitted their task through Moodle as many as 82%. Related to class attendance, the number of students who absent was bigger in traditional class than in e-learning setting. There were 17% who did not attend the class from traditional one and 2% from Moodle setting. 

Based on researchers experiences, it is good using Moodle in teaching face-to-face because it can stimulate the interest of the students to do their assignments and also good for teachers to familiar with e-learning platforms. It also resulted that students who attend the class and active during the lesson had higher activity on the platform and had higher grades than those who were not. Last but not least, the researchers suggested and encouraged to use e-learning platforms in supporting teaching activities, assignments, and evaluation process.