INTRODUCTION
The traditional context of learning is experiencing a radical change. Teaching and learning are no longer restricted to traditional classroom (Wang, Wang & Shee, 2005). The use of information and internet technologies as teaching and learning tools is now rapidly expanding into education (Liaw, Huang & Chen, 2006a). Such technologies provide instructors or teachers and learners with greater flexibility that fits their time at any location. One of the systems that receives enormous attention is e-learning which has become a popular tool for teaching and learning (Pituch and Lee, 2006). E-learning system is designed to integrate instructional material and communication method. Examples of e-learning system such as WebCT, Portal and Blackboard have been developed to help instructors and learners to have a great access to education and knowledge at any time at any place. According to Chen, Lee, and Chen (2005), e-learning offers more opportunities for improving problem solving capabilities, enhancing high order thinking skills, and achieving learning effectiveness. Thus, the flexibility offered by e-learning should enhance learning, allow instructors to develop interactive behaviour through instructional online material and also allow learners to experience knowledge sharing. However, Pituch and Lee (2006) note that most of the research on e-learning has either examined outcome differences between on-line and traditional classes (Alavi, 1994; Spooner, Jordan, Algozzine, & Spooner, 1999; Storek & Sproull, 1995; Webster & Hackley, 1997) or offered anecdotal experiences of teachers or learners. In addition, Papanikolaou, Mabbott, Bull, and Grigoriadou (2006) argue that recently learning preferences have attracted considerable attention. As noted by Papanikolaou et al., (2006) different learners approach learning tasks in different ways using different styles and through the interaction with a learning environment they develop sets of behaviour that they are comfortable with (Entwistle, 1981). This justifies the reasons why some students use e-learning systems whereas others do not. Students need a good e-learning system that enables them to gratify their needs and wants in learning. Such viewpoints have led to a suggestion of tailoring the needs and wants of the learners in e-learning design especially for adult learners. This is due to adult learners’ ways of learning is one of the primary factors in ensuring the overall success of their study achievement. Designing an e-learning system that accommodates adult learner preferences will promote greater use of the system among them. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine learning preferences among adult learners. This research believed that by looking at the patterns of the needs and wants adult learner, a specific framework describing how to design e-learning system with a variety of options for learning can be developed; and thus motivate them to use the system. E-learning system E-learning encompasses Web based Learning; Internet based training, advanced distributing learning and online learning (Khan, 2000). Govindasamy (2002) states that e-learning includes instruction delivered via all electronic media such as the internet, intranets, extranets, and hypertext/hypermedia documents. Although there are debates about an exact definition of e-learning or electronic learning, the most commonly accepted meaning of e-learning refers to learning content that can be offered in different formats, such as text or video images, and electronically delivered via the internet, personal computer, personal digital assistant (PDA) or CD-ROM (Sandars &Langlois, 2005). According to Liaw, Huan and Chen (2006b), e-learning has the following benefits. First, it lowers costs. Second, its content is more timely and dependable. Third, it is a just in time learning approach. Fourth, it builds universal communities. And finally, it provides an increasingly valuable learner service (Rosenberg, 2001). Govindasamy (2002) reports that e-learning is a means for solving authentic learning and performance problem. Furthermore, e-learning also creates benefits such as reduced costs, regulatory compliance, meeting business needs, retraining employees, low recurring costs, and customer-support costs (Barron, 2002; Gordon ,2003; Harun, 2002; Ismail, 2002). Sandars and Langlois (2005) believe that the most commonly stated advantages of e-learning are the availability of up-to-date information, the speed and ease of access to a wide range of resources and the opportunity for the learner to work at their own pace. In addition, Cantoni, Cellario and Porta (2004) assert that e-learning is less expensive to deliver, self paced (e-learning courses can be taken when they are necessary), faster (learners can skip material they already know), provides consistent content (while traditional learning different teachers may teach different material about the same subject), works from anywhere and any time ( e-learners can take training sessions when they want), can be updated easily and quickly (on-line e-learning sessions are especially easy to keep up to date because the updated materials are simply uploaded to a server), can lead to an increased retention and a stronger grasp on the subject (because many elements that are combined in e-learning to reinforce the message such as video, audio, quizzes, interaction) and can be easily managed for large groups of students. Given these advantages, the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, is making substantial investments in the e-learning system. The application of the e-learning system or the e-portal has started in 2003 with the system known as IDEA (Interactive Distance Education Application) followed by MOODLES in 2005. The e-portal was designed to cater for the teaching and learning processes at the School. The purpose of the e-portal is to help students in the learning processes. This is due to the fact that most of the distance education students are adult learners who are geographically dispersed and have different careers with conflicting schedules. With the e-portal, the students are capable to access learning material, e-mail, live chat sessions, online discussions, forums, quizzes and assignment at any place and at any times. Factors in Designing E-Learning Systems E-learning is delivered to the end-user via a computer using standard internet technology. It also offers an “anywhere and anytime” learning environment. Based on the characteristics of e-learning, a user has more opportunities to be an active and self-regulatory learner. As stated by Liaw, Huang & Chen (2006a), e-learning is a learner autonomy environment based on learners’ perspectives. According to Papanikolaou, Mabbott, Bull and Grigoriadou (2006), designing interactive personalized learning environments could benefit from taking individual differences in approaches to learning into account. A system should be designed with the knowledge that students have different preferences. Heinich, Molenda, Russell and Smaldino (1996) assert that learning characteristics must be considered in order for instructional technology to be used effectively. This is because learning processes are influenced not only by the nature of the perceptual stimuli but also by the nature of individuals’ expectations, based on prior knowledge and past experience (Liaw et al., 2006b). In addition, a system designer should take into account that learners usually do not belong only to one learning style category and that learning in particular can be modifiable either at will or by a change of circumstances (Honey & Mumford, 1992). For designing effective e-learning environments, Liaw (2004) suggests three considerations; learner characteristics, instructional structure, and interaction. In fact, Liaw et al (2006a) note that in developing e-learning, it is necessary to understand targeted population. Learner characteristics such as attitudes, motivation, belief, and confidence need to be identified (Passerini& Granger, 2000) because user characteristics have been found to influence behavioral intention to use technology (Davis et al., 1989). Liaw et al (2006b) believe that an instructional structure deserves more attention because an effective one will help learners to create their own knowledge. According to Cantioni et al (2004), instructional design in e-learning must be explicit in the selection, sequencing and creation of learning experiences. Therefore, not only analytic and rational know-how are basic requirements in teacher’s methodology, but creative abilities and psychological sensitivity become essential skills to design engaging and effective e-course. Furthermore, an appropriate instructional structure can enhance learners’ knowledge construction from their short term memory to their long term memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1971). In addition, Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson and Coulson (1995) note that multimedia instruction enables learners to develop complex cognitive skills, such as understanding important elements of conceptual complexity, ability to use acquired concepts for reasoning and inferences, and competence to apply conceptual knowledge to novel situations with flexibility. In designing e-learning, designers should also be concerned about interaction. According to Vygotsky (1978), e-learning environments offer group interaction such as learners to learners, or learners to instructors. In addition, Vygotsky also mentions that group interaction is a kind of cooperative learning that helps learners to make progress through their zone proximal development by the activities in which they engage. Although Sandars et al. (2005) prove that only 10% respondents noted that e-learning provided an opportunity to interact with others, this study believes that a designer should consider interactions in their designs. This is because through interaction, learners experience knowledge sharing that is an interaction between learners and instructors; and among learners themselves. Liaw et al (2006a) note that when learners increase their interaction with instructors and learners, they in turn raise their chances of building their own knowledge because much of learning inevitably take place within social context, and the process includes the mutual construction of understanding (Bruner,1971). In short, this study believes that a designer of e-learning should put emphasis on the needs and wants of adult learners in designing e-learning system. Being unsure on how to fit in adult learners needs and wants may create disruptions on adult learners development progress in learning. By looking at the needs and wants of the adult learners, the study hopes to have a better understanding in designing an e-learning system for adult learners. METHODOLOGY The study was conducted at the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The sample consisted of 1572 students of various courses from different programs; humanities, social sciences, management and sciences. The respondents were asked to complete the questionnaires regarding their preference towards the e-portal which is a form of e-learning system, designed to portray learning development of adult learners at the school. Given the list of the e-portal 14 features as listed in Table 2, respondents were asked to choose the feature of e-learning that are most favoured as well as the least favoured by them. The most favoured feature was rated as 1, followed by the second most favoured as 2, and the least favoured as 14. The respondents were also asked to identify the type of information they needed in e-portal design. RESULTS Demographic Profile Table 1: Demographic Profile
The demographic components consist of gender, race, age, learning centre and level of education. Out of 1572 students or respondents, Table 1 indicates that 720 of them is male, 823 is female while 29 students didn’t give their identification. Most of the students can be categorized because 55.5% respondents aged between 30 to 40 years old. The sample was largely Malays (69.3%), followed by Chinese (18.4%), Indian (5.6%) and others (4.1%). Participating respondents were from various learning centre although the majority of the sample was from Pulau Pinang learning centre (28.5%). In terms of year of education, most of the respondents were from year 2 (39.4%). With regard to marital status, most respondents were married (75.3%), followed by 21.6% single and 0.7% divorced. Table 1 summarizes the respondent’s demographic profile. E-portal Features Respondents were asked to choose the most and the least favoured feature in the e-portal. Table 2 provides the mean value and standard deviation for each e-portal feature. Table 2 indicates that the highest mean value (2.62) goes to the lecture notes feature. This means that most of the adult learners choose lecture notes as the most favoured feature of the e-portal. The least favoured feature is photo gallery that carries a mean of 12.33. The adult learners also chose to prioritize the other e-portal features with video conferencing notes as the second priority, followed by past years examination paper, assignment questions, forum, video conferencing schedule, video conferencing agenda, learning technique, intensive schedule, current news, interaction with colleague, calendar events, and students recommendation. Table 2: Descriptive Statistics of the E-portal Features
This study also asked the respondents to identify the types of information they need in the e-portal design. Table 3 exhibits the types of information needed by the students in the e-portal. The result indicates that most respondents need to have assignment questions, forum and additional notes in the e-portal. Out of 1552 respondents who answered the questions, 824 respondents said “yes” to assignment questions, 1286 respondents needed to have additional notes while 636 respondents insisted that forum was important to them. Table 3: Types of Information
DISCUSSION The primary objective of this study was to explore the needs and wants of adult learners in e-learning design. Learners especially adult learners have a variety of needs especially for an adult. When individuals mature, their need and capacity to be self-directing, to use their experience in learning, to identify their own readiness to learn, and to organize their learning around life problem increase from infancy to preadolescence, and then increase rapidly during adolescence (Knowles, Holton & Swanson, 1997). Thus, adult educators need to find a way in shaping the learning process to be more conducive to adults. With the rebirth of internet revolution, adult learner inevitablely needs to learn new technologies and acquire new knowledge through internet. One solution to help adult learners in IT based learning is to design e-learning courses that accommodate their needs and wants. According to Cantoni et al. (2004), teacher plays a new different role in e-learning. While devising a course, teachers become designers of experiences, processes and contexts for the learning activity. Besides identifying the contents, they have to focus on motivations and active learning processes. Thus instructional design is critically important to e-learning. Based on the findings, this study provides evidence that learners have their own preference towards e-learning design. The result reveals that learners prefer to have lectures notes, video conferencing notes, past year examination paper, assignment questions and forum in the e-learning system. The result of this study offers a view that e-learning design is affected by instructor-led learning. In other words, adult learner needs teacher / instructor helps in order to achieve their objectives. The instructors need to provide instructional material to enhance adult learner to learn. E-learning should provide useful tools for the instructor in enhancing adult learner development. The instructors should utilize a creative teaching approach through e-learning. Apart from the lecture notes, adult learners prefer to have video conferencing notes in e-learning design. A video conferencing note is a simplified version of lecture notes. The instructor may design video conferencing notes in such a way that it can attract adult learners to learn. With the help of graphic interfaces and visual image, this study believes that a video conferencing notes will be more attractive. This study also believes that graphic and visual image will help learner to have a clearer picture and better understanding towards the lesson learnt. Furthermore, learner may engage in learning activity and stimulate his understanding towards knowledge more aggressively. This is due to the fact that people tend to learn predominantly through one of their senses; that is through auditory, visual or tactile (Cantoni et al., 2004). In addition, Cantoni et al. (2004) indicate that learning styles are characterized as sets of conditions under which learners prefer to work, and are commonly divided into these three main categories; visual (for those who learn best by seeing images or reading text), auditory (for those who prefer hearing or listening), and kinesthetic (for those who learn best by doing). Instructor should also pay attention that most respondents consider assignment question as a part of their preference. This study believes that, through e-learning, learners and instructors can exchange views regarding the assignment through live discussion. Chat room or forum among learners and instructors or live discussion through e-learning will create an atmosphere of learning. It collaborates learning among learners and instructors. This is called knowledge sharing among learners, colleague and instructors. In addition, this findings has several implications. First, e-learning should be perceived as both easy to use by adult learners. Interactive design of e-learning should provide students freedom to explore on their own in discovering additional knowledge. Second, based on the findings, this study suggests that in e-learning, instructors or teachers should be a coach that is a person who is responsible to coordinate learning activities. Besides identifying what needs to be learned by the learner, the coach should actively seeks a new approach to make learning more interactive with their students. Third, it is very helpful to the e-learning designer to know exactly the needs and wants of the learners so that the content of the multimedia instructional design can be improved. Finally, consideration should also be focused on the andragogy principles to suit with the nature of adult learner. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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