Evaluating An Online Learning Programme from Students Perspectives

Abstract

Today, we are in an information age and the goal of education is to help teachers incorporate technology into the education curriculum This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of students’ participation in a blended first-class online programme for 40 practicing teachers and administrators in one of the colleges of the University of London with respect to sex, age and occupation. The study employed the use of a questionnaire, which was divided into four parts viz: Learning environment, Personal factors, Pedagogical strategies and Learning process. The major findings of the study showed that sex and age are the major variables that contribute to successful online learning, while participants’ occupations seem not to have any effect. Furthermore, online learning contributes more to the acquisition of the following skills with respect to age and sex: browsing and searching skills, information gathering skills, and library references searching skills. Online learning programs, however, do not generally contribute to arousing students’ interest. The implications of the findings were further discussed.