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If e-Learning is the Answer, what was the Problem?

L. Naber. Email: larissa@naber.at
M. Köhle. Email: monika@ifs.tuwien.ac.at
Institute for Software Engineering and Interactive Systems, Vienna University of Technology, Favoritenstr. 11/188, A-1040 Vienna, Austria


Keywords

Usability, e-learning, lectures, student motivation, hypertext, authoring tools, process, study materials

Abstract

Universities trapped between rising student numbers an decreasing budget are turning to e-learning as the one-stop solution, giving little concern for student or teacher needs. In a first step to a user-centred e-learning environment we studied students motivation for not attending lectures. We found that most reasons for not attending pertained to lecturer (lack of rhetoric, pedagogic, organisational skills), but the main reason was whether enough other study material was available. In spite of the rather harsh criticism of their lecturers, the students are not bend upon replacing their lecturers by an ITS, but rather wish for a highly interactive 'question and answer' type of 'non-lecture.


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AusWeb 2002, AusWeb 2002, The Eighth Australian World Wide Web Conference, held in Twin Waters Resort, Sunshine Coast, Queensland from July 6-10, 2002. Contact: Norsearch Conference Services +61 2 66 20 3932 (from outside Australia) (02) 6620 3932 (from inside Australia) Fax (02) 6622 1954