Enhancing Student Learning Experience and Satisfaction Using Virtual Learning Environments

Hanan Faour
Salford Business School University of Salford Salford, UK H.Faour@edu.salford.ac.uk

Mohammad Hammoudeh
School of Computing Math & DT Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester, UK M.Hammoudeh@mmu.ac.uk

Ahmed Al Ghamdi
Opportunity Training & Consultancy London, UK Ahmad@opportunity-tc.co.uk

Abstract The paper presents a project that aims to enhance students experiences and satisfaction through the use of a Virtual Learning Environment. Particularly, it aims at developing a blended learning community to support diverse student population, including students with special learning needs. This project focuses on the teaching/learning aspects of students experiences and satisfaction. Other aspects are geared towards use by student support staff and those whose main responsibility is technical or system administration support. Various methods were used to measure the success of the project and its implementation. Evaluation results show a significant increase in student satisfaction and enhanced progression rate. Keywords-component; Student experience and satisfaction, Virtual learning environment, Computer science teaching pedagogy

learning material, facilitate collaborative work, involve in discussion with peers, and take formative assessments. This project is concerned with enhancing students experiences and satisfaction through the use of VLEs. Particularly, it aims at developing a blended learning community to support diverse student population, including students with special learning needs. Consequently, the main outcomes we hope to achieve at the end of this project are: Offer students a more flexible mode that may better suit the learning style and commitments Enable key skills to be developed including communication, time management, problem solving, and critical and analytical thinking Enhance the cognitive, social, and affective dimensions of students experiences using VLEs To encourage the formation and development of accessible and inclusive learning communities III. LITERATURE REVIEW

I.

INTRODUCTION

This paper provides a description and evaluation of the implementation of a project that aims to enhance students experiences and satisfaction through the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This project supports the argument that learning should be student-centred [1]. It involves working towards identifying the aspects that enhance the quality of the learning experience. The quality of any learning experience is dependent upon complex interaction among the experiences, attitudes and characteristics of learners, and the attributes of the task environment [2]. In the following sections, the projects aim and rational is highlighted and its context is set by presenting a concise literature review. Then the implementation methodology is outlined and the results are discussed. The last section concludes the report. II. PROJECT OUTLINE AND RATIONAL

Research on student engagement with learning suggests that when students perceive that they have choices in how to learn subject matter they are more engaged and motivated to move beyond simple information acquisition to trying to gain an understanding of the subject [3]. Chou and Liu [4] also found that engagement with learning was higher when using a VLE than when using traditional models of learning. A greater sense of connectedness among students, and between staff and students, who use VLEs, leads to higher completion rates when compared with students who did not use VLEs [5]. VLE helps to adapt and develop teaching/learning provision to permit more personalisation and greater flexibility to react to the varied needs of todays students while ensuring they bring a quality service [6]. The learning and teaching activities will be designed to provide scaffolding with the teacher having the main responsibility for providing the guidance, but peers also playing a role. As VLE push learners to become more skilled in learning so that they could become more empowered when choosing how they want to learn, a suitable pedagogy such as Learner-centred pedagogy [7]

Computer Science (CS) teaching in the new millennium needs to suit the students needs and employers expectations. Many CS teachers are characterised by their adverse focus on the technology development of VLEs rather than on concepts and teaching pedagogy. To enhance the learners experiences, we tried to engage learners in self-directed and active learning by encouraging them to take responsibility for their learning. VLE-based learning encourages learners to locate their own

must be used. This pedagogy helps to deal with individual learners variations. IV. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

engaged with various VLE tools, e.g. forums and formative assessment. VI. CONCLUSION

Dale & Lane [8] warn that teachers should not assume that because they develop interactive material that students will necessarily use it. They suggest a model for encouraging students to engage with the discussion forums. This model was generalised, slightly adapted, and used to implement this project. The modified model is comprised of four actions: 1) View pedagogy as the driver and technology as the enabler [6]. Most of our teaching is based on social constructivist approaches that aim to change the role of learners and tutors [9]. 2) Formalising VLE facilitated learning: timetable students to engage in the VLE and place the VLE in the module guide. 3) Integrate online materials into traditional lecture-based sessions to help legitimise the new method. 4) Recognise students work and provide constructive feedback. 5) Map learning to assessment. Many students are markdriven and take a strategic view of what work is needed and their work can be focused closely to course requirements [10]. This blended learning approach [11] fosters effective and accessible learning communities and helps students to engage better with learning communities. This engagement has been addressed by several authors as an integral to success of VLEbased learning [9]. We decided to implement a range of online tools: discussion forums; email; animation/simulation; quizzes; podcasts; grade books; and file repository. Initially this project will be concerned with a final year undergraduate unit that is thought by the second author. We choose this unit as it attracts enough students from whom we can obtain adequate feedback to evaluate the success of this project. As part of this project we have developed WebCT area for this unit. V. RESULTS

We think that this project has generally been a success. It is crucial to be cautious about generalising from a small study but there are some lessons and conclusions that can be drawn from this experience. The students found that the VLE has opened up a range of possibilities in terms of enabling them to engage in a range of different learning processes appropriate to their personal needs and preferences. The project evolution showed that students felt more supported in their learning and helped us to identify areas where students were not engaging actively in the VLE. Generally, as teachers we need to have a greater awareness of the individual learning experiences and strategies to facilitate VLE-based learning. Moreover, there should be a balance between learning on-VLE and face-to-face learning depending on the experience of students and the discipline. Another area of success in this project was the obvious student satisfaction with the way the unit was delivered. REFERENCES
[1] Richardson J. A., Turner A., "A Large-scale local evaluation of students learning experiences using virtual learning environments," Educational Technology & Society 3(4), 2000. ISSN 1436-4522. [2] Pask, G., "Styles and Strategies of Learning," British Journal of Educational Psychology. 46, 1976, pp 128148 [3] Entwistle, N. J. and Ramsden, P. "Understanding Student Learning," London: Croom Helm, 1983. [4] Chou, S. W. and Liu, C. H., "Learning Effectiveness in a WebBased Virtual Learning Environment: a learner control perspective," Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21, 2000, pp 6576. [5] Enjelvin, G., "Investigating VAT (Value-Adding Technologies) and effectiveness in a French Department," Journal of Further and Higher Education, 29(2), 2005, pp 155-167. [6] Comrie, A., "TESEP: Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy," 2005. [7] Mayer, R. E.; R. Moreno, A Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning: Implications for Design Principles, 1998. [8] Dale, C. and Lane, A.M., "Carry on talking: developing ways to enhance students use of online discussion forums," Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, 3, 2004, pp 53-59. [9] Salmon, G., "E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online," 2nd Edition. 2004, Kogan Page: London. [10] Hall, R., "Observations on a Year of Using the Wolverhampton Online Learning Framework (WOLF)," Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education 1(2), 2002, pp 66-70. [11] Rogers, P. L., "Traditions to Transformations: The Forced Evolution of Higher Education," in Educational Technology Review, 9(1), 2001.

We used wide-reaching evaluation methods to assess the success of this project. Using a hybrid assessment criteria and research methods provides deeper-insight on how successful this project is. The project is based on the argument that learning should be student-centred, and thus any evaluation should also be student-centred. The backbone of the evaluation is a number of measuring methods: Student questionnaires to examine student learning experiences: Based on the data collected from the two questionnaires, students were highly satisfied with the way the unit was delivered in general and reported positive experiences with the VLE. Statistical analysis (from WebCT): We have collected statistical data from WebCT and compared attendance records with last year. The results were very consistent with these from the questionnaires and show that students performance in summative assessment has been significantly improved. It also shows that students have