Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a picture of student experience of a collaborative e-learning module in an asynchronous e-learning environment. A distance learning module on music education worth five credit points for a bachelor online degree for primary school educating teachers was assessed using a self-evaluation questionnaire that gathered quantitative and qualitative data about student satisfaction of the collaborative e-learning activity. The quantitative part of the questionnaire consisted of 27 closed questions on a 10-point Likert scale and offered data about satisfaction with the module. The qualitative part of the questionnaire provided an insight into the participant perspective of the online collaborative experience. General open questions on satisfaction and dissatisfaction were analyzed with an inductive analysis which showed the evaluation criteria used by 92 students. Results of the analysis showed five themes of the participants’ perspectives, which were interpreted by the researcher as: teamwork, cognitive, operating, organizing, and emotive/ethic for the positive aspects and teamwork, operating, organizing, and emotive/ethic for the aspects to be improved. The aspects that were associated with satisfaction include: collaborating, comparing ideas, sharing knowledge and skills to support each other, peer learning, analyzing and integrating different points of view, the usability of the platform, group planning and workload management. Aspects of the student learning experience that should inform the improvements of e-learning include: more collaboration between students since some students engage differently; more coordination and organization, the workload management in the group activities, some technical problems such as updating modifications. The participants’ results in the module increased their didactic potential as primary school teachers. The findings are discussed in relation to their potential impact on developing collaborative activities addressed to teacher education in distance learning. Implications for future research are also considered.

Citation

Biasutti, M. (2011). The student experience of a collaborative e-learning university module. Computers & Education, 57(3), 1865-1875. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved August 7, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/50786/.

Keywords

• asynchronous communication
• Asynchronous environment
• College Instruction
• Cooperative learning
• distance education
• e-learning
• educational technology
• electronic learning
• Electronic Publishing
• Elementary School Teachers
• Evaluation Criteria
• Group Activities
• Inservice Teacher Education
• Instructional Effectiveness
• Learning Activities
• Learning Modules
• Likert Scales
• Music Education
• Online cooperative learning
• Questionnaires
• Satisfaction
• student attitudes
• student experience
• teacher education
• usability
• Web Based Instruction
• Web Sites
• wiki