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RSS feedsChatrooms are the backbone of e-learning and can combat plagiarism, experts have revealed. Speaking on an IT Week e-learning seminar , Dr Wassila Naamani Mehanna and Professor Paul Leng revealed to the IWR sister title that information professionals developing e-learning tools should integrate online chat.
“I call discussion boards the backbone of e-learning, and students identify it as a place for information exchange,” Dr Mehanna said of the results she found in her latest research, Towards Effective e-learning in UK Higher Education. Of the students surveyed, 96% liked e-learning and accessed e-learning sites provided by their courses between two and 10 times daily, with 50% spending more than an hour on the site.
The greatest benefit of using the e-learning system was the chatroom, as discussions about course work are archived online, while in the lecture theatre they are said and then forgotten. Mehanna also found that tutors found the chatroom beneficial.
“They are an effective use of their time as they don’t need to repeat advice,” she said. “E-learning students re-read material and it gives them an opportunity to think and reflect."
Professor Paul Leng, Director of e-learning at Liverpool University , agreed. “You can ensure that students are engaged in the subject and by facilitating collaboration you can reduce the feeling of isolation,” he said. Mehanna’s research found that female students and those from different ethnic groups were more confident and productive using e-learning.
“E-learning allows progress monitoring, which reduces the risks of plagiarism,” Leng said. He explained that lecturers can see how a student co nstructs an argument, so that if they then produce work that is radically different from their normal abilities academics can take action.
Leng also said e-learning puts the small group discussions back into university teaching, which is now almost impossible in the offline world.
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