A STUDY OF BENEFICIARIES’ PERCEPTION ON E-LEARNING PLATFORMS IN BENGALURU CITY.

1. Dr. C B Venkata Krishna Prasad
Associate Professor, Dept. of Management Studies,
Dayananda Sagar College of Arts, Science & Commerce,
Bangalore- 560078, Karnataka, India.
cbvk123@gmail.com
+91 9885429867

2. Ms. Soumya G Hegde
2nd year MBA, Dayananda Sagar College of Arts, Science & Commerce,
Bangalore- 560078, Karnataka, India.
hegde.soumyahegde.soumya@gmail.com
+91 9483860828

Abstract

In this internet driven generation, many of the traditional methods of the day to day happenings are being largely influenced by internet and are changing constantly. Education being one of the fundamental rights of every citizen in India, is going through drastic changes and becoming vast and vivid. The debate, however, continues between traditional method of classroom teaching and internet learning. There are many factors contributing to this debate such as internet access, non-existence of uniformity in syllabus, hesitation in changing educational method etc. By using structured questionnaires, the firsthand stratified sample of 126 beneficiaries is collected to understand the perception. This includes parents, teachers and students varying from class eight to class twelve in Bengaluru city.

Key words: e-learning, classroom teaching, education, internet

Education is one of the prime components in everyone’s life and is being exposed to a lot of new inventions. EdTech being one of the booming industries is experimenting varieties of techniques in the educational field. In spite of all the inventions and technical advancements, the traditional classroom method of teaching is still being used largely all across the globe. The major end-user stakeholders in e-Learning platforms are students, teachers and parents. This research aims to understand and analyse the perception of these three stakeholders on e-learning platforms. When we speak about e-learning, the students are the ones who primarily comes into the picture, but the teachers and the parents also play equally important role. With new generations of parents being more cautious about the kind of schooling their children would get, the factors influencing their decision now includes the new invented EdTech. Since it is becoming a norm in most of the schools, there has been increase in concern over its effectiveness by both parents and teachers. There are polarized opinions regarding the use of technology in teaching, but it is exciting, interesting and seems like a necessary development going to the future.

The easy availability of internet access and awareness waves hitting the general public has made e-learning more appealing. As smartphones have become an integral part of most of our daily lives, a variety of services are open to access. One such service is education, where anyone can search information online, watch educational videos, use educational application and many other services.

Objectives:

1. To understand the perception of –

a. Students on E-Learning

b. Parents on E-Learning

c. Teachers on E-Learning.

2. To analyse and understand the change in effectiveness of traditional classroom teaching and E-Learning.

Research methodology

The respondents for the study were 89 students, 25 teachers and 12 parents who are residents of Bengaluru city. They were given simple, structured, physical questionnaire covering attributes of perception and effectiveness. Students vary from class eight to class twelve covering science, commerce and arts streams as well. Different subject teachers like language, science, mathematics, accountancy, history and other subjects have responded. Initially the normality test is conducted and then Chi-square test, a non-parametric test is executed to understand the association.

Data analysis

Table 1: Descriptive statistics of demographical variables

From the above table we can interpret that 55.6% of the respondents are female beneficiaries with respect to e-learning. 70.6% of the target respondents are students, 19.8% of the target respondents are teachers and 9.5% of the target respondents are parents. Age group between 15 years to 25 years comprises of 46.8% of respondents and age group below 15 years comprises of 24.6% of respondents. The remaining age groups consists of remaining 28.6% of respondents.

Test for normality

null hypothesis H0: the data is normally distributed

alternate hypothesis H1: the data is not normally distributed

Table 2: Test for normality

Kolmogorov – Smirnov test

Shapiro – Wilk test

The conclusion regarding skewness and kurtosis is that the data are negatively skewed and positively kurtotic for both male and female. Hence, we conclude the data are not normally distributed, in terms of skewness and kurtosis.

From the output of Kolmogorov – Smirnov test and Shapiro – Wilk test, it is observed that the p value is less than 0.05, null hypothesis is rejected at 5% level of significance. Hence, we conclude that the data are not normally distributed. Hence non-parametric test like chi-square test, Man-Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test can be applied for inferential analysis.

Hypothesis 1

H0: there is no association between target respondents and perception on e-learning’s understanding

H1: there is association between target respondents and perception on e-learning’s understanding

Table 3: Chi-square test for association between target respondents and perception on e-Learning’s understanding

Note 1 – the value inside the brackets (…) refers to row percentage

Interpretation

Since the p value is greater than 0.05, the null hypothesis is accepted at 5% level of significance. Hence concluded that there is no association between target respondents and perception on e-Learning’s understanding.

Hypothesis 2

H0: there is no association between target respondents and perception on e-learning platform’s enhancements

H1: there is association between target respondents and perception on e-learning platform’s enhancements

Table 4: Chi-square test for association between target respondents and perception on e-learning platform’s enhancements

Since p value is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected at 5% level of significance. Hence concluded that there is association between target respondents with regard to perception on e-learning platform’s enhancements. By comparing the mean rank, we can say teachers have higher mean rank (71.54) and therefore we can say teachers have better perception on e-learning’s enhancements than students and parents.

Table 5: Perception on e-learning with reference to various attributes

Note 1 – the value inside the brackets (…) refers to row percentage

Discussion:

When it comes to effectiveness, 75% of the parents have a perception that e-learning is not effective. Wherein, 46.1% of the students have a perception that e-learning is effective. According to Fei Li, Jingyao Qi, Guiwei Wang and Xiaofeng Wang, (2014) people found that e-learning has its own advantage on students learning outcomes. But in Bengaluru city it seems that majority of the respondents perceive that e-learning is not effective as compared to traditional classroom teaching. The differences of opinion are less amongst the students as compared to that of teachers and parents. This could be because of technology exposure to the students’ generation as compared to the previous generation.

In depth learning refers to deep learning of any subject. Here the perception of the respondents differs as compared to their perception on effectiveness. 53.9% of the students perceive that e-learning can provide in depth learning and 52% of the teachers believe that e-learning cannot provide in depth learning. Parents here do not have clear perception on e-learning as the percentage of respondents opting for both the options are equal. This probably is because of the reason that e-learning’s ability to provide in depth knowledge is very subjective in nature as it depends on individual’s ability to comprehend the teachings.

Emotional appeal is to nurture and reciprocate the emotional attributes while teaching. Drawing broadly on traditional classroom, e-learning and behavioral engagements in two kind of instructions environment, it was suggested that there is difference between engagements in different classroom conditions, (Jingyao Qi, Guiwei Wang and Xiaofeng Wang, (2014) teachers and parents, here, completely perceive that e-learning gives no emotional appeal and classroom teaching is the better option. But surprisingly 15 of the 89 students (16.9%) perceive that e-learning has better emotional appeal. According to C. J. Bailey, K. A. Card, (2009) instructors stressed the importance of fostering relationship as an effective practice for online teaching. As the technology and artificial intelligence is still not as advanced as to provide emotional assistance like teachers and friends in the classroom, we can say this opinion is formed. In the era where emotional quotient and emotional intelligence is given higher weightage, it is perceived that e-learning has no emotional appeal as compared to traditional classroom teaching.

In this fast-moving world, multitasking has become inevitable. Umpteen number of activities and its increasing scope is demanding for flexibility in everything. The students with better basic computer and internet skills prefer the online learning methods, find more accessible the distance learning platforms and consider the access to courses as being more facile (M. Tutunea, R. V. Rus, V. Toader, 2009).

In this regard 53.9% of the students perceive that e-learning is more flexible as compared to traditional classroom teaching. Even 52% of the teachers perceive that e-learning provides flexibility. The parents, however, have slightly different opinion as only 41.7% of them vote for e-learning with regard to flexibility. The inclined opinion could be due to various factors like, easy availability of internet, easy access to internet, pool of content available on the internet. These easy access and availability are usually not available in traditional classroom as it is mostly schedule based.

Satisfaction is the overall contentment the beneficiary receives after or while learning either in e-learning platforms or in traditional classroom teaching. While 52.8% of the students feel e-learning gives better satisfaction, only 20% of the teachers find e-learning to be satisfying. Even the 75% of the parents for that matter feel e-learning does not provide satisfaction in learning. As per the informal interactions, teachers have the emotional association with the profession of teaching and therefore they believe traditional method probably has better satisfaction. Maybe this is why 80% of the teachers opted ‘No’ as an answer for satisfaction in e-learning.

Overall 40.66% of the respondents opted option ‘Yes’ for attributes on e-learning and 59.34% of the respondents opted ‘No’. The major influencing component for this outcome is ’emotional appeal’ as it has very strong perception against e-learning. Other than ’emotional appeal’, all the other attributes have very close differences of opinion. In the informal interactions had with respondents, most of them opined that learning should be balanced with both traditional classroom teaching and e-learning. Students generally had inclination towards e-learning platforms as compared to other two target respondents. Students are technically more aware and informed about the e-learning. Teachers opined that the technology or internet should only act as a supporting system for the teaching and it cannot easily replace teachers. As per parents’ opinion, it varied usually based on their exposure to e-learning. They are of the opinion that initially traditional learning is essential and only when the student has the caliber to learn independently with his or her opinion, only then e-learning will be more effective. According to Anna Ya Ni, (2013) learning effectiveness is a complex concept with multiple dimension; it should be assessed with multiple measures.

Conclusion:

As learning is the ability of mind and subjective in nature, the perception varies from person to person. But by and large the society usually exhibits similar trend in accepting and adapting the technological trend. E-learning is swiftly penetrating across the globe and is expected to grow in upcoming years. Understanding the perception of beneficiaries about these e-learning platforms is very important to bring necessary changes in the evolution of e-learning platforms.

References:

1. Anna Ya Ni, (2013) Comparing the Effectiveness of Classroom and Online Learning: Teaching research Methods, Journal of Public Affairs Education, 19(2), 199-215

2. C. J. Bailey, K. A. Card, (2009) Effective pedagogical practices for online teaching: Perception of experienced instructors, Internet and Higher Education, 12, 152-155

3. Fei Li, Jingyao Qi, Guiwei Wang and Xiaofeng Wang, (2014) Traditional Classroom VS E-learning in higher education: difference between students’ behavioral engagement, iJET, 9(2), 48-51

4. M. Tutunea, R. V. Rus, V. Toader, (2009) Traditional education vs. E-learning in the vision of Romanian business students, International journal of education and technologies, 3(1), 46-55