E-learning in Higher Education Institutions Comparing Students Satisfaction at Virtual University of...

4th International Future-Learning Conference on Innovations in Learning for the Future 2012: e-Learning Future-Learning 2012, Nov. 14-16, İstanbul PAPERS

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E-learning in Higher Education Institutions Comparing Students Satisfaction at Virtual University of Pakistan and King Khalid University, Kingdom of

Saudi Arabia

Sarah IQBAL*, Muhammad IQBAL**, Fatih GÜRSUL** *Depeartment of Information Systems, King Khalid University , Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia

** Department of Informatics Istanbul University, Beyazit, Istanbul 34452, Turkey

Abstract: The Internet and communication technologies has changed the way we lived and study, the access to information and the learning experience has been transformed completely, moreover traditional models of higher education particularly the delivery mechanisms, interaction with teacher and within course material and other resources. For developing countries low literacy rate and poor quality of education is a life-sized hurdle to gear up them to join elite group of developed countries, furthermore providing high quality and transparent education to masses is a huge challenge. Full time availability of experienced highly qualified incredible teachers is very difficult in developing countries. Superior teacher are limited to big cities only, while the vast percentage of population lived in small cities and villages. Getting high quality education form good teachers is not the right of only few, who can afford to enroll in top local institutions or even able to travel foreign countries. So E-learning is considered by the governments of developing countries as a very effective and powerful instrument leading to a possible solution for providing high quality and transparent education to masses. E-Learning has enabled the universities to fully utilize the knowledge and experience of limited number of inspiring teachers. Course material created by these astounding teachers can be used for long period of time and they can provide support and guidance even living in some other city or country by the use of internet and communication technologies. In this research we will try to study E-learning initiatives taken by two universities of different countries. These universities are different in nature i.e. Virtual University of Pakistan (VU) is total E-learning enabled university equipped with state of the art IT infrastructure including four satellite TV channels also having private sector participants providing laboratory and examination center facilities. King Khalid University (KKU), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is using E-learning technologies in parallel with conventional face to face teaching offering blended courses and monitoring through learning management system. We will try to analyze these higher education institutions’ success in providing higher education with reference to student satisfaction. A paper based questioner will be used to collect data from students of each university; collected data will be analyzed by the use of SPSS software package. This statistical software will help us to ascertain conclusions about student’s satisfaction at above mentioned universities. Keywords: E-Learning, Distance Learning, Higher Education institutions, Student Satisfaction Introduction The trend of distance education got some popularity in 1970s when universities started

use of broadcast technologies such as radio and television. As this method of distance

4th International Future-Learning Conference on Innovations in Learning for the Future 2012: e-Learning

Future-Learning 2012, Nov. 14-16, İstanbul

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education gained acceptance, universities began to broadcast lecture at multiple times so

that participant could watch at their convenience. Since the 1990s, modern information

and communication technologies such as internet, word wide web, and satellite

television were introduce in distance education which transformed distance learning into

E-Learning. E -learning is the most recent evolution of distance learning; a learning

situation where instructors and learners are separated by distance, time, or both (Raab,

Ellis, & Abdon, 2002). E-learning uses network technologies to create, foster, deliver,

and facilitate learning, anytime and anywhere. The benefits of elearning have been

discussed in many articles (Bouhnik & Marcus, 2006; Liaw, Huang, & Chen, 2007;

Raab et al., 2002; Shotsberger, 2000). Research by Ramsden and Entwistle in Britain in

the early 1980s, with a Course Perception Questionnaire established a l ink between

students’ perception of satisfaction with their learning environment and their quality of

learning (level of engagement and learning outcomes)(Ramsden&Entwistle 1981). It is

also recognized that student satisfaction with online learning is a complex and

multidimensional construct that includes a wide range of factors (Saadé & Kira 2006).

Higher education institutions are increasingly blending their degree programs

with E-learning many are offering 100% E-Degrees programs. There are many reasons

for the development of such programs one is to fade the demographics and geographic

barriers. E-learning degree programs have actually created new challenge for students

who were once bound to local universities or colleges. However, the quality of an e-

learning program is the most important aspect so the student’s satisfaction with these

degree programs is considered highly significant in higher education. The aim of this research is to compare student satisfaction in two universities

King Khalid University Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and The Virtual University of

Pakistan. Briefly we will explain about both universities how they are incorporating E-

Learning in their degree programs. After brief introduction about working of these

universities we will present statistical analysis of student satisfaction of both

universities.


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Virtual University of Pakistan The Virtual University, Pakistan’s first University, based completely on modern

Information and Communication Technologies, was established by the Government as a

public sector, non-profit institution with a clear mission: to provide extremely affordable

world class education to aspiring students all over the country. Using free-to-air satellite

television broadcasts and the Internet, the Virtual University allows students to follow its

rigorous programs regardless of their physical locations. It thus aims at alleviating the

lack of capacity in the existing universities while simultaneously tackling the acute

shortage of qualified professors in the country. By identifying the top Professors of the

country, regardless of their institutional affiliations, and requesting them to develop and

deliver hand-crafted courses, the Virtual University aims at providing the very best

courses to not only its own students but also to students of all other universities in the

country. The Virtual University of Pakistan holds a Federal Charter, making its degrees

recognized and accepted all over the country as well as overseas (Virtual University of

Pakistan, 2012).

The University opened its virtual doors in 2002 and in a short span of time its

outreach has reached over sixty cities of the country with more than a hundred associated

institutions providing infrastructure support to the students. Pakistani students residing

overseas in several other countries of the region are also enrolled in the University's

programs.

How Virtual University of Pakistan Works The Virtual University of Pakistan delivers education through a judicious combination of

broadcast television and the Internet. VU courses are hand-crafted in meticulous detail

by acknowledged experts in the field. Lectures are then recorded in a professional studio

environment and after insertion of slides, movie clips and other material, become ready

for broadcast. Course lectures are broadcast over free-to-air television and are also made

available in the form of multimedia CDs and DVDs. They can also be made available as



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streaming media from the Virtual University’s servers. The multiple formats allows for a

high degree of flexibility for students who may view the lectures at a time of their

choosing within a 24-hour period. Additionally, students can use the lectures to review

an entire course before their examinations – a facility simply not available in the

conventional face-to-face environment.

In addition to the prescribed texts, comprehensive reading material / lecture

notes in the form of web-enabled content are provided through a comprehensive

Learning Management System (LMS) hosted on the VU Web Servers and accessible

over the Internet. The full power of hyperlinks is utilized for making the on-line

experience a truly powerful one. The LMS also provides an e-mail facility to each and

every student as well as discussion boards for interaction within the VU community.

An important feature of the LMS is a Question/Answer board where VU faculty

provides answers to questions posed by students on the subject matter covered in the

lectures. The Question/Answer board (also known as the Moderated Discussion Board)

is extremely fine grained, providing separate sessions for each lecture of each course. In

addition, read-only access is made available to previous question/answer sessions and

this constitutes an extremely useful study resource for students. VU faculty monitors this

board on a continuous basis and answers to student questions are provided within a short

space of time. Assignments are handed out through the LMS and also submitted by the

students through the same mechanism. Pop-quizzes and practice tests are also conducted

through the LMS.

Examination System VU has developed its own unique examination system using the latest technologies.

Under this system, the University's thousands of students individually create their date

sheets having first selected a city and center of their convenience. Thus, working

professionals may choose evening hours or even Sundays to take their semester exams,

while regular full-time students may choose morning sessions on weekdays. Such a


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seemingly impossible approach is made possible by the fact that each and every one of

the students gets a unique computer generated question paper to solve. No two papers

are alike. The question papers are generated from a Q uestion Bank that has been

populated for this purpose by experienced instructors and is continuously refreshed with

new questions added on a daily basis. Using this revolutionary system, Midterm and

Final term Examinations for every semester are conducted in a formal proctored

environment at exam centers carefully designated for the purpose throughout the country

while also maintaining an eye on student convenience. To ensure the sanctity of the

examination process, invigilators are appointed by the university’s examination

department. The formal examination atmosphere ensures critical quality assurance of the

student assessment system. Other than contributing to the high quality of VU education,

the most satisfying feature of the VU examination system is the convenience that it

provides to full-time students and working professionals alike.

King Khalid University The merger of Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University and King Saud University

in the Southern Region of Saudi Arabia into one entity under the new identity of 'King

Khalid University' in the year 1998. King Khalid University strives for a leading role

with regional roots, international dimensions, knowledge and research excellence and

effective community contribution through qualitative competence. King Khalid

University commits to providing relevant academic environments for high-quality

education, conducting innovative scientific research, providing constructive community

services, and maximizing the employment of knowledge techniques (King Khalid

University, 2012).

King Khalid University has a separate deanship for promoting and

implementing E-learning. The e-Learning Deanship in King Khalid University works to

contribute effectively to enable the University members to achieve their changing needs

using the tools, practices and environment provided by the e-learning system. Enabling



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the University of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of education to achieve

satisfaction of its members, involving e-learning in all educational activities of the

University.

Levels of e-Learning in the University Three levels of E-Learning are available at the University level one is Supportive e-

Learning: Students attend classes in conventional face to face mode but thy make use of

the e-learning systems, tools and environment to support and facilitate the learning

process. This type of e-learning is compulsory for all courses of the university. The level

2 is blended e-Learning: A certain percentage of face-to-face classroom attendance is

replaced by e-learning activities on the web site of the course; making use of LMS

system, tools and E-learning environment. Third level is Full e-Learning: Face-to-face

classroom attendance is replaced by e-learning activities on the web site of the course;

making use of LMS system, tools and e-learning environment. This does not include the

final exam; and whatever the instructor or the college decides about face-to-face

classroom attendance. Blended and full e-learning types are instructors’ choice. If

instructors are interested in teaching online blended or full e-learning courses they can

apply for it with to approval of head of department and dean.

LMS Explanation Black Board is being used as Learning Management System. It can be accessed from

anywhere and at any time. It is the basic system to facilitate E-learning It is being used to

upload courses and manage users and contents. As a part of LMS University is using

Elluminate Live application which allows instructors to conduct live lectures, regardless

of the place without any failure of the advantages of face-to-face lectures or meetings to

save time and resources. It enhances the interaction between instructors and students

and between students themselves through different means of participation and interaction

like clear bidirectional voice, instant messages, live video, dashboards, multimedia files


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and other applications – all within a graphical interface. Another application Tegrity

facility is also available this application enables instructors to record their audio and

video lectures. It allows the instructor to record the lecture and make it available to

students via e-learning system (Blackboard), so that they can attend at any time and from

anywhere. Students can refer to the lecture at any time and as many times they want

develop their understanding.

Data Collection A paper based questioner in English language was use for collection of data from both

countries, but for Saudi Arabia on the very paper we have to provide Arabic language

translation along with English. Though medium of instructions in King Khalid

University is English but students are not good at English. Even after providing

questionnaire in Arabic many students just take it as formality and selected one answer

for all questions “Not Satisfied” or “Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied” or “Very

Satisfied”. This behavior stated that they do not understand the question or they do not

take it seriously, we discarded such questioners which are filled like this. We collected

data from about 65 students but more than 50% of the questionnaires were discarded. On

the other hand from Virtual University of Pakistan students were considerate and not a

single questionnaire was found like this no of the questionnaire was discarded.

Statistical Analysis The instrument included questions about demographics (5variables), perceptions,

educational technologies, user, issues, satisfaction and prospects (12 variables) on 10-

point scale representing Very Satisfied =10, Satisfied = 8, Neither Satisfied or

Dissatisfied = 6, Dissatisfied =4, Very Dissatisfied =2. The data collection instrument

was analyzed by three specialist initially we made about 25 question including

demographic and students satisfaction but with detail discussion we included 17 question

5 as demographic and 12 are directly about student satisfaction. Primary data from



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questionnaire was keyed into SPSS 18.0 to create a d atabase. As a f irst step we run

Cronbach's alpha to test internal consistency/ reliability on 12 variables of questionnaire

and got the value 0.908 which suggesting that the items have relatively high internal

consistency. Therefore, the satisfaction properties of the scale were found acceptable and

can be used to student’s satisfaction toward E-learning. Data was analyzed into

descriptive tables. Furthermore, independent sample T-Test was performed on the

collected data of the both universities.

Results The problem of the study was “Is there a s tatistically significant difference between

KKU and VU student satisfaction?” We mentioned earlier that we have collected data

from 65 s tudents of KKU and 30 s tudents of VU; more than half of the questionnaire

was filled without care by KKU students so we discarded. We included 30 correctly

filled questionnaires from each university so taking 60 students as sample size. Table 1

provides the information about frequencies in collected data.

Table 1: Sample size and frequencies

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid KKU 30 50.0 50.0 50.0

VU 30 50.0 50.0 100.0 Total 60 100.0 100.0

Table 2 provides information regarding gender 23 participants were male and

37 were female from both universities.

Table 2: Gender information

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid Male 23 38.3 38.3 38.3

Female 37 61.7 61.7 100.0 Total 60 100.0 100.0


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Table 3 provides information regarding age groups of sample, group one consist

on age between 18-22 in dominating in sample 36 students belongs to this group.

Table 3: Age frequency distribution

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid 18-22 36 60.0 60.0 60.0

23-27 14 23.3 23.3 83.3

28-32 8 13.3 13.3 96.7

33+ 2 3.3 3.3 100.0

Total 60 100.0 100.0

Table 4 represents the result of independent sample t-test for both universities

in APA format. The independent sample t te st reveal that there is statistically

significance difference between the mean number of satisfaction at KKU (M =74.933, s

= 19.622) and that VU has (M = 98.993, s = 12.766), t (58) = 5.614, p = 0.000, α = 0.05.

Table 4: Independent Sample T-Test Groups N SS t Sd p

Satisfaction Score KKU 30 74.933 19.622 -5.614 58 0.000

VU 30 98.933 12.776

Discussion Results are pretty self-explanatory that the student satisfaction at VU is much higher

than the KKU. Especially in the questions about quality of facility, course content and

course outline which make the mean score to 98.933 out of 120 with standard deviation

of 12.66 while KKU’s mean score is 74.933 with standard deviation 19.622. We learnt

the reason by looking at the university faculty profiles that VU is bringing the best

teachers available in the country having teaching experience at world’s top universities ,



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some are permanent faculty at foreign universities like Oxford. Couse content is

carefully decided by specialist of the field with the participation of industry peoples.

Students get access to the course outline and content on day one when they start the

course, so no confusion about course material.

One the other hand KKU satisfaction level is low, because KKU is using E-

Learning in parallel with conventional face to face learning so students do no give it

value some time take it as burden. Determination and commitment is very necessary for

E-Learning environment. Some previous research explains our point of view.

Considering the responses of students who participated in e-learning courses, it i s

possible to better understand the reasons why students are often dissatisfied with the e-

learning experience. Bouhnik and Marcus (2006) stated that students’ e-learning

dissatisfaction was based the following disadvantages:

• Lack of a firm framework to encourage students to learn.

• A high level of self-discipline or self-direct is required.

• Absence of a learning atmosphere in e-learning systems.

As the face to face learning is also available in KKU so students prefer to take full face

to face courses, one other interesting thing found in many of KKU colleges that internet

is not available for students. Students can only use LMS at home but for online exams E-

Learning deanship ensures temporary availability of internet at college.

Conclusion Student learning differs since both their habits and the thinking process differs

depending on what the student is trying to learn. If the students learning process is

different and can vary from student to student then student satisfaction can also vary

from individual to individual. In our research statistically we conclude that Virtual

University of Pakistan student are much satisfied than King Khalid University

Kingdome of Saudi Arabia. On the base of our research we can suggest few things to

both universities. KKU need to improve many things, first thing first internet availability

at its campuses, without internet thinking about E-Learning is a daydream. Though the


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medium of instruction at KKU is English but the students English language skill is very

poor, they need to work on their English departments also. Couse outline provided to

teachers are written in Arabic but the medium of instruction is English why can’t

understand? For full E-Learning level or blended level teacher’s work is increased,

because student’s response toward E-Learning is not good they complain we do not

understand then at the end teacher also arrange face to face classes. KKU E-learning

deanship must select their good teachers for preparation of full E-learning course

materials including video lectures. For online course preparation KKU can learn from

VU’s experience. VU is going fine but need some slight changes, VU students are less

capable in practical skills but very good in theory, so VU should focus on practical

training. VU lectures are recorded in English and Urdu in mix form means teacher uses

both languages during lecture delivery. We suggest that that VU should use the 100%

English language in its video lectures; this will increase student’s language skill and also

attract international students. References 1. Raab, R. T., Ellis, W. W., & Abdon, B. R. (2002). Multisectoral partnerships in e-

learning A potential force for improved human capital development in the Asia Pacific. Internet and Higher Education, 4, 217–229.

2. Bouhnik, D., & Marcus, T. (2006). Interaction in distance-learning courses. Journal of the American Society Information Science and Technology, 57(3), 299–305.

3. Ramsden P. & Entwistle N.J. (1981) Effects of academic departments on students’ approaches to studying. British Journal of Educational Psychology 51, 368–383.

4. Saadé R.G. & Kira D. (2006) The emotional state of technology acceptance. The Journal of Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology 3, 529–539.

5. Virtual University of Pakistan (2012). ABOUT VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vu.edu.pk/. [Last Accessed 20 October 2012].

6. King Khalid University (2012). Deanship of E-Learning. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.kku.edu.sa/. [Last Accessed 20 October 2012].

http://www.vu.edu.pk/�

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