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Procedía - Social and Behavioral Sciences 174 (2015) 3656 - 3662
INTE 2014
Successful and proactive e-learning environment fostered by teachers' motivation in technology use
Ivana Ogrizek Biskupic*, Stjepan Lackovic, Kresimir Jurina
College of Business and Management Baltazar Adam Krcelic, Vladimira Novaka 23, Zapresic 10290, Croatia
Abstract
This paper emphasizes the problems in e-learning environments with special focus on professors' role in providing quality of learning outcomes. Furthermore, we focus on professor level of information literacy and its role and importance in providing learnability of system and proactivity of students. In student centred learning environments we need to provide the same level of conditions needed in achieving learning outcomes. Therefore we analyse predictors that mediators in e-learning process (teachers) need to provide in order to create, evaluate, disseminate and distribute learning materials and instructions. In this paper we analyse an e-learning system with 3636 users and 238 courses on a higher education level (professional graduate and undergraduate study). Over the past nine years we have reached high level of e-learning technology use but still facing with students' dissatisfaction and lack of motivation stemmed by quantity and quality of course contents. In previous papers we have written about the conducted research on student information literacy tested on the Moodle platform in two higher educational institutions in Croatia. In these papers and other relevant research we have noticed student dissatisfaction with e-learning moderators (teachers). Moreover, in annual quality assurance questionnaires students recognized the same problem; namely, most of the teachers do not provide the expected level of information competences related to the course content needs. The students pointed out that their motivation is in correlation with teacher motivation and their contribution to the e-learning class and using technology in general. Our analyses show that more than 2/3 of teachers do not update their class with new information about the field they teach and ignore student interests in an e-learning process. In this paper we analyse predictors to problems with mediators and their perception of lifelong learning importance and their teaching approach to digital natives in the web 2.0 environments.
© 2015TheAuthors.Published by ElsevierLtd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Sakarya University
Keywords: Proactivity in e-learning environment; Teachers-mediators; Information literacy problems; Lifelong learning
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +385 99 2633128; fax: +38513355480. E-mail address: ivana. ogrizek. biskupic@bak. hr
1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Sakarya University
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1086
1.1. Introduction
Croatian College of Business and Management „Baltazar Adam Krcelic" was founded in 2001 and today, with more than 3.000 students graduated and 2.700 enrolled, is one of the biggest business schools in Croatia. The College employs more than 100 lecturers, majority of them are professionals coming from the business and public sector, and a large number of eminent external experts from the academia. In 2005 we have implemented e-learning system based on LMS platform Moodle (baltazar.vspu.hr). In past 9 years of its implementation and development we organize blended learning on 238 courses of 6 study programmes. Development of e-learning system over the past years has been mainly focused on developing organization, process of motivating teachers to use LMS, development and distribution of teaching materials (especially for part time students) and teaching support in general. At the moment more than 90% of teachers use e-learning system compared with beginning of the implementation process in 2005 when it was less than 10%. Today we are facing with obvious decline of interest and motivation for teaching in e-learning environment.
Our College annually provides teachers trainings on how to use LMS Moodle, educate and provide young assistants as teachers' support for technology usage with intent to succeed expected level of e-learning environment. In this paper, we describe problems we are facing with, present data and conclusions for further research. We have conducted an online survey and asked teachers (N:42) what do they think about the e-learning system, its capabilities, but also about their motivation factor and most importantly do they encourage students enough for active participation for learning in electronic environment. Also, we asked the students (N:405) by parallel survey what do they think about the content, quality and features in provided courses and their motivation factor for learning in e-learning environments. In order to check the veracity of statements obtained by the teachers, we conducted an analysis of e-learning system Baltazar contents on 238 e-courses. Results of this analysis show a large discrepancy and the low level of motivation and inaction on both sides. In order to reach some answers we used relevant literature and researches in order to problematize issues and possible causes for these results.
1.2. Context: education in digital age
According to Prensky, the most fundamental cause of the decline of education is that "today's students are no longer people our educational system was designed to teach" (Prensky, 2001, p. 1). The reason for this lies in the fact that today's students grow up in a digital age, i.e. they spent their lives using computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, smart phones, etc. Due to this digital environment, they "think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors" (Prensky, 2001, p. 1). This new generation of students, so called Digital Natives (as "native speakers" of the digital language), receive information really fast, prefer parallel process, multitask, random access, instant gratification, frequent rewards and they function best when networked. On the other hand, their teachers or Digital Immigrants (those who were not born in the digital world) have very often little appreciation or understanding for the way Digital Natives function and for new skills they acquired.
Therefore, the rapid diffusion of the Internet and growing importance of new information and communication technologies in educational context have essentially affected the ways people (should) teach and learn. As a result, today's students find it very hard to follow instructions of their teachers which were designed for student from some 'other time'. Since it is very unlikely that Digital Natives will go backward, Prensky concludes that today's teachers have to reconsider both their methodology and their teaching content. Basically, they have to confront new teaching and learning methods and to reconsider their traditional learning style where a teacher was the center of learning. Additionally, all indicators show that it is highly possible that e-learning will become the mainstream of learning in the future. As some studies show (Lin, Chen, & Nien, 2014), e-learning strategy is superior to the traditional learning methods with respect to students' motivation. Furthermore, technology mediated-learning environment has also advantages like study flexibility, broader accessibility, no time and space limitation, individual approach, use of multimedia, more active teaching style, etc. (Lin, Chen, & Nien, 2014). However, these potential advantages will not be actualized if teachers will not invest into their professional development regarding the usage of these new technologies.
In practice, e-learning mainly relies on few teachers who have necessary computer skills to create and perform their e-learning courses, while the rest are still hesitating and using technology capabilities in very limited scope. Hence, the main question is what are the problems that hinder teachers in performing their e-learning courses and what would be the incentives or motivating factors that will encourage HE teachers to involve in e-learning? Some recent studies show that in order to predict teachers' acceptance and usage of e-learning, it is necessary to explore teachers' beliefs, attitudes and motivation toward e-learning environment (Chien, Kao, Yeh, & Lin, 2012) (Luo, Chen, & Hsieh, 2011) (Sorebo, Halvari, Gulli, & Kristiansen, 2009).
1.3. Focus on instructional design
In the e-learning environment the focus should not be on the implementation of the delivery system, but on instructional design which would include development of instructional materials and activities, and their evaluation. Merrill lists five principles of instruction which relate to problem centered and effective instruction. According to these principles, learning is promoted when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems, when existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge, when knew knowledge is demonstrated to the learner and applied by the learner, and when new knowledge is integrated into the learner's world (Merrill, 2002). On the other hand, the aim of instructional design should also be to improve students' motivation. Hence, the most important task of the teachers is to create conceptual framework that would include both, motivational concepts and successful instructional design strategy (Barger & Byrd, 2011).
Since today's education focuses on student centered learning, teachers need to think about how to foster proactivity and motivation of students in an e-learning environment. Although motivation is personal, complex phenomena, teachers should find the ways to intervene into this sphere. With regard to students' motivation, factors that affect student's decision to pursue a goal or perform a task can be intrinsic or personal and extrinsic or nonpersonal. According to Kellers' ARCS model, motivational design refers to the process of arranging resources and procedures to bring about changes in motivation" (Keller, 2006), and it can be applied in broad variety of cases. By Keller an instructional design should not be only efficient (refers to economy in the use of instructional time, materials, and other resources), but should also be effective. The effective means that it should include strategies, principles, and processes for making instructions appealing, i.e. more intrinsically interesting (Keller, 2006). Hence, the ultimate goal of motivational design should be to foster intrinsic motivation of students. The logical question is how to make instructions more appealing by keeping the desired level of teaching outcomes? If we accept Prensky's argument that the 21st century students must be engaged in the 21st century way (Prensky, 2006), the effective solution could be the use of LMS since options it provides are more appealing to students than traditional methods of teaching.
1.4. Motivation as key factor of successfully usage of LMS
There is a great number of studies that have concentrated on students' attitudes and motivation toward e-learning, but there were comparatively fewer studies that have focused on factors which are related to motivation and attitudes of teachers. Regarding the problems of motivation in performing e-learning courses, integrated expectancy model considers both personal and institutional factors as playing an important role (Luo, Chen, & Hsieh, 2011). Personal would be internal motivation of teachers, while institutional is related to policies brought by the institution (school) that would support higher involvement in e-learning activities.
In their study, Chien, et al (2012) examines teachers' attitudes and motivation toward web-based professional development by using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). According to TAM, belief of individuals determine their attitude towards using of technology, attitude foster their intention to use it, while intention influences the decision of actual technology use (Chien, Kao, Yeh, & Lin, 2012). The main conclusion of this study is that teachers with higher motivation have more positive attitudes toward web-based professional development, i.e. motivation plays a pivotal role in creating positive attitudes of teachers towards web-based professional development (Chien, Kao, Yeh, & Lin, 2012). However, there is still a question how to increase motivation of teachers? One of the crucial factors could be personal professional development and self-fulfillment. According to Maslow, the highest
level in the hierarchy of needs belongs to self-fulfillment or self-actualization (Maslow, 1943). Applied to the sphere of work, this need will cover following aspects: challenging job, creative task demand, advancement opportunity and achievement in work. If we find plausible hypothesis which says that proficiency in using new technologies in education will become condition sine qua non of education, then this same proficiency becomes condition sine qua non of professional realization of teachers in the future. Therefore, in order to realize self-fulfillment in teachers' profession in a digital age, teachers should invest into their knowledge and skills which would enable them to actively participate in future education, which could be one of the strongest internal motivational drive.
However, motivation toward teachers' active engagement into e-learning should come from institutional level as well. One example could be some sort of training or assistance that will help teachers to become more confident and independent in using e-learning systems. As Luo et all stress out, "e-learning curricula can be successfully completed only with strong policy" (Luo, Chen, & Hsieh, 2011, p. 84), meaning that HE institutions should have a plan for e-learning seminars which will enable to their teachers to learn how to produce e-learning courses. Therefore, a successful e-learning environment demands as its precondition an e-learning friendly institutional environment. Therefore, it is necessary to build e-learning facilities and to provide training courses for both, creation and design of e-learning materials and for performance and management of e-learning classes. Faculty policy should also encourage teachers to use e-learning and to assist them in the search of best methods which will motivate students. However, taking both these factors, personal and institutional, into consideration will provide us with a broader perspective when examining motivational factors that could foster proactivity in e-learning environment.
Finally, there are teachers who belong to digital immigrants and who are not experienced and proficient in e-learning or in new technologies in general and who quite often express doubts about the effectiveness of e-learning. As some studies show, level of perceived e-learning competence is crucial for development of usefulness beliefs and of intrinsic e-learning motivation (Sorebo, Halvari, Gulli, & Kristiansen, 2009). On the other hand, there are also teachers who are motivated to use e-learning systems and who find it as a very practical tool in reaching their teaching outcomes, but who are using it in a limited scope. Basically, somebody may think that he or she is using e-learning system, but the problem is to which degree and with which effect. Namely, there is a question of work performance, students' satisfaction with it, efficiency in terms of expected and desired teaching outcomes, etc. Hence, it is necessary to stress out that there is a difference between creation and design of efficient e-learning material and the limited use of e-learning system.
As an important complementary investment to e-learning technology, several authors indicate the activation of e-learning training and support as necessary in developing e-learning competences and skills (Sorebo, Halvari, Gulli, & Kristiansen, 2009) (Lin, Chen, & Nien, 2014). Moreover, e-learning is not only efficient tool for students' learning, but also an opportunity where teachers could realize their own professional skills and work on their professional development, i.e. to use e-learning as a motivation for their self-fulfillment.
Provided results of conducted survey show seemingly satisfaction with usage, possibilities and outcomes of e-learning from both sides. On the other hand, standard deviation indicates inconsistency of respondents answers (Table 1 and 2). Our assumption is that this kind of questionnaire cannot get credible results since opinion of teachers about the efficiency and success of e-learning courses was based on their knowledge and experience in technology use. Its more about their perception that they are successful in moderating e-learning than it could be seen in analyses of course content. Content analysis of their e-courses, for which they claim that they foster creativity and proactivity of students, shows the low level of the amount of teaching material and content (see Table 3).
Table 1. Aside questions from conducted online survey on teachers
Professors responds (N:42) Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree SD
I am motivated to use an e-learning system Baltazar. 2 (5%) 4 (11%) 5 (13%) 3 (8%) 24 (63%) 1,298
E-learning class should be organized and designed to foster 5 (13%) 2 (5%) 2 (5%) 4 (10%) 26 (67%) 1,454
creativity.
In evaluation of student activities I evaluate and foster creativity 5 (12%) 3 (7%) 4 (9%) 7 (17%) 23 (55%) 1,430
The methods I use in my e-learning class encourage creation of 7 (19%) 2 (5%) 2 (5%) 10 (26%) 17 (45%) 1,536
new ideas, concepts, problem solving and facilitate new connections between existing and future knowledge.
Creativity and proactivity of students can be encouraged 4 (11%) 9 (24%) 5 (14 %) 7 (19%) 12 (32%) 1,440
through e-learning system Baltazar.
Table 2 Aside questions from conducted online survey on students
Students' responds (N:405)
Strongly Disagree disagree
Neutral Agree
Strongly SD agree
Teachers motivate us to use e-learning system Baltazar.
I consider e-learning system Baltazar as useful support for teaching and learning process.
Online courses are organized on creative and structured way and they are in accordance with learning outcomes and course syllabus.
E-learning system Baltazar has acceptable number of interactive instructions.
I am motivated to use e-learning system Baltazar.
Existing teaching materials provided by e-leaning system Baltazar contain many examples and cases that foster acquiring of new knowledge and encourage creation of new ideas.
34 (8%) 3 (1%)
24 (6%)
43 (11%) 18 (5%) 187 (46%) 15 (3%) 11 (3%) 105 (26%)
123 (30%) 1,220 271 (67%) 0,784
50 (12%) 32 (8%) 191 (48%) 105 (26%) 1,148
40 (10%) 66 (16%) 47 (12%) 172 (42%) 80 (20%) 1,251
15 (4%) 36 (9%) 47 (12%) 82 (20%)
26 (6%) 167 (41%) 60 (15%) 166 (41%)
159 (40%) 1,073 48 (12%) 1,231
Table 3 Analysis of LMS Baltazar contents on 238 e-courses Types of content in e-learning course % of e-learning courses without ANY of these elements
Links to external journals and databases 94,52 %
E-books 95,89 %
Exams results 50,00 %
Links to other sources 82,88 %
Learning text elements developed by LMS 76,03 %
Guidelines for writing seminars 79,45 %
Seminars upload for open access 95,89 %
Course assignments 87,67 %
Teaching materials (uploaded files) 59,59 %
Presentations of lecturers 69,18 %
Interactive instructions 96,58 %
Information on weekly base 58,90 %
Case studies for teamwork problem solving 98,63 %
Wikis 98,63 %
E-mail contact and office hours 63,70 %
1.5. Importance of information literacy
Today's students live in a world where the access to information is easier and faster than ever. On the other hand, they also live in a world with an overabundance of information, which demands plenty of skills that would enable
them to orientate in this informational jungle. According to Secker, "to assume that because information is available on the web, people will have the skills and knowledge to find, access and use it effectively is naïve" (Secker, 2008). Basically, the easy access to information does not imply knowledge. The main problem is that "information comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability" (The Association of College and Research Libraries, 2014). According to Breivik (2005), despite their familiarity with new information gathering tools or search engines like Google, today's students are far less pre pared to do research, to assess reliability and relevance of information and to think critically when faced with information at their disposal. This problem is characterized as the "Access Paradox" referring to a disproportion of amount of information and users' skill to find what they need (Secker, 2008). Hence, Breivik concludes that "to be prepared for the 21st century, today's student need to be information literate" (Breivik, 2005, p. 22-23).
The Association of College and Research Libraries defines an information literate individual as a person who is able to determine the extent of information needed, to access the needed information effectively and efficiently, to evaluate information and its sources critically, to incorporate selected information into one's knowledge base, to use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, and to understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally (The Association of College and Research Libraries, 2014). However, all of these skills students must be taught, meaning that the most of responsibility for developing these skills belongs to higher education. According to Breivik, in order to develop students' information literacy skills, efforts should be made at the institutional, program, and classroom levels. At the institutional level, information literacy skill should be regarded as a core competency for all graduates, and as such should be incorporated into the general education curriculum. Following curriculum, each program should determine specific skills which are required in discipline. Finally, teachers in classroom should design their classes in a way that will facilitate students' mastering of the required skills (Breivik, 2005).
However, the most of studies on information literacy is related to education of students, while much less attention is paid to professional development of teachers. According to Probert, "the principles and goals of information literacy are not widely understood, supported or practiced by the teaching profession" (Probert, 2009, p. 26). On the one hand, there is a question of teachers' understanding or awareness of the need of development of information literacy skills among their students. On the other hand, in order to effectively teach students to become information literate, teachers should also possess skills required for teaching information literacy. As Secker stresses, "crucial area must be the information literacy levels of staff who are responsible for the development and implementation of e-learning" (Secker, 2008). Hence, where needed, initiative to raise awareness about the importance of information literacy skills development should come from the institutional level. Furthermore, additional effort should be made regarding teachers' professional development in information literacy in a sense that they should have a possibility to be trained properly, which requires some sort of strategic planning from the side of schools. According to Secker, "engaging with academic staff to develop their own skills also makes them more likely to see the value of building these skills into their courses for students" (Secker, 2008).
1.6. Conclusion
Seeking for the factors of teachers and students motivation and conditions for achieving successful e-learning, we have analyzed different parameters. Two of them were online questionnaires, one for teachers and one for students. Questions were aimed to get the answers whether they find their e-courses successful, interesting and do they encourage creativity. In general, responses of both confirmed positive.
On the other hand, the standard deviation of their responses indicated inconsistency in the answers, and we started with a detailed analysis of the content of all courses in the LMS Baltazar.
The data indicate that the performance of e-courses is considered as publication of anything that has to do with the educational process, such as test results etc. moreover e-learning system has turned into nothing more than a common repository.
We conclude that LMS capabilities are not used sufficiently; qualitatively and quantitatively and neither teachers nor students are aware of that.
Authors also conclude that the impetus for higher performance of e-learning firstly should come from institutions (Institutional policy), precise requirements, mandatory training and permanent content measuring of e-courses and its performance.
Secondly, we should work to encourage internal motivation of teachers to be more active in LMS use and also develop the consciousness of their professional habilitation through teaching in electronic environments.
Professional habilitation of HE teachers should obligate investment in eight key competences for lifelong learning according to 2006 EU legislation and in particular we consider important permanently foster of information literacy skills development and awareness of its importance.
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