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History of Architecture of HBP (e-learning)
The
In Terms of E-Learning
During the 1970's, the primitive punchcard was used in some computer programming courses offered to undergraduates. By the mid 1980's, some schools (in USM schools are almost analogous to faculties) had initiated remote access to the University mainframe computers. For instance, HBP purchased a Tektroniks Graphics Terminal which was connected by phone line from the school to the University Computer Centre but the technology was primitive. In the late 1980's, PC's began to revolutionise computing on campus with greater flexibility and power to the end users. But it took several rounds of leadership changes - both at university as well as at the schools' levels, before the use of computers in teaching & learning become close to what it looks like today.
The major milestone and turning point was 1998 when a grass root effort was initiated to propel the School into the information age. The Web-based Learning project was initiated with the primary aim of encouraging all lecturers to embrace information technology for teaching and learning. The web technology was adopted because of its universal appeal as well as its ease of use even for the technologically-challenged.
Some how the aim is not achieved totally. Many of the lecturers didn’t update their website. Many are not active in this. Students are told to get information as well as notes through HBP Resource Center rather than lecturer’s website.
Lectures should distribute their notes by locating links for information in their existing website. Updates should be made from time to time.
Every notes and information can be downloaded through the link. Students can always refer to the reading material once they switch on their computer. In fact, we can minimize the usage of papers.
Indicators and Assessment
The following conventional indicators are used as the instruments upon which the effectiveness of eLearning can be gauged :
(i) amount of traffic as reflected in disk usage, number of visitors or files served by the web server
(ii) the number of lecturers who run their own websites;
As mentioned above, many are not doing so.
(iii) the average percentage of course materials available from lecturers' websites per semester;
Course Materials are mostly found in HBP Resource Center.
(iv) the percentage of tests conducted via the websites per semester;
This is not a good indicator. So far no test is conducted through website.
Should give it a try to carry out test via websites at a fixed period following the examination schedule. Time and place consuming is no longer be the issues.
An opened-book test can not be avoided. However there are time limit.
(v) the number of assignments delivered electronically per semester;
(vi) students'/users' feedback analysis;
Since mostly of the e-learning websites are not active, students have nothing much to contribute in the feedback analysis.
Now is the time to carry out survey with the purpose to gather students' opinion on e-learning.
Communication will always be the solution to achieve one aim, one goal.
(vii) students' examination results, as reflected by the average 'Cumulative Grade Point Average' score
Traffic to the HBP website is not limited to students accessing teaching resources. In fact, a significant portion of the traffic comes from general visitors (non-HBP student) indicating the high popularity of the website. On a typical high volume day (based on web log for 5 Feb 2002), some 11,500 files (comprising images and text) are served by the HBP web server. Of this, 7% of the requests come from within the HBP IT Lab local area network (based on local IP), 37% from within USM campus (excluding HBP IT Lab) and 56% of traffic from outside the campus. An informal poll of students indicate that a large number of them access teaching resources from outside the campus through dial-up Internet. Hence, there is no doubt that the web technology has tremendously increased accessibility to teaching and learning resources for our students anytime and from anywhere.
Not all students who stayed in campus’ hostels can access to the internet service all the time. The wireless system only can be detected in certain area.
Improve the wireless system in campus.
The official HBP web server where most of the lecturers publish their materials have accummulated more than 2 gigabytes of lecture notes, papers, courseware, multimedia presentations, etc. Seminar papers and reports which would otherwise be gathering dust in the lecturers’ room are now available on the web. Out of the 56 lecturers, 20 of them (or 35%) are actively and continuously updating and uploading new materials to websites which are managed personally by them.
How true is this statement till now?
Some lecturers maintain several websites for different courses or topics. Our aim is to eventually have all the lecturers actively publish materials on the web but this can only be achieved in collaboration with the University Administration to provide more incentives especially in terms of career promotions. HBP will be working to further strengthen the structure for lecturers’ publications on the web to be reviewed by an independent panel and accorded various levels of recognition.
From the point of view of the students, written responses at the end of the semester have shown that eLearning has tremendously enhanced their learning experience (Lee and Badaruddin, 2001).
How true is this statement in courses like architecture?
All studio works are completed in hard copies. Grading is also based on the submission on paperwork. Architecture students are not exposed to e-learning at all.
E-learning especially in terms of submission of studio work will actually benefits every parties. Students can save cost for printing or buying colouring material. Besides, lecturers do not need to spare out space for keeping students' work. Everything can be done in the internet space.
In terms of performance, one studio which was conducted for a whole semester with emphasis on the integration of various information technologies into all aspects of their life projects showed very encouraging results. Out of the 28 students, 4 received perfect scores (4.0 CGPA or A) while another 8 students received distinction (A-). Of the rest, most received high Bs. The intensive use of IT was initially a burden to the students because of lack of precious exposure, but later it proved to be both a stimulant and incentive to develop their intellectual capacity.
Even though the achievement at HBP has been remarkable, the road ahead is still long and expected to be riddled with many obstacles. Nevertheless, HBP will be embarking on its next phase to further embrace the eLearning paradigm.
