| Summary: | Students enrolled for the Network Systems III module at the Vaal University of
Technology are experiencing problems with passing this module. Many of them fail
due to the fact that they do not understand the subnet masking part of it. In an
attempt to increase the students' pass rate, this study will make additional study
material available to them, complying with their learning style preferences. This
material will be available as elearning
material on the Internet.
The usage and success of elearning
material implies a holistic approach towards
learning styles. Learning styles consist of different interrelated learning elements.
This study will make use of an action research approach comprising four phases.
In the first phase, different learning styles are diagnosed by means of a literature
study. The information obtained is applied to compile an interpretive questionnaire
for completion by students. This questionnaire will enable the researcher to do an
empirical study with regard to their learning preferences. The data obtained from
the questionnaires will be analysed and information obtained will be applied to
make additional module related elearning
material available on the Internet.
During the second phase, results obtained from the empirical investigation will be
used to develop elearning
material on subnetting, while also addressing the
identified learning styles of participants. The elearning
material is provided on the
Moodle learning management system, enabling students to use it according to their
own preferences.
In the third phase, the success of the intervention on the elearning
material is
investigated. In this phase, the activities of students using the elearning
material
are analysed and tests and examination results processed to determine whether
there is any correlation between time spent on elearning
material and these
results. The usage of elearning
material is tested by means of an interpretive
questionnaire to the students. The last part of the action research approach deals with the question of whether
the research was conducted successfully. A second iteration of the process proved
the results to be satisfactory.
The elearning
material was positively received by students participating in the
research, while a growing interest in this material was noticed from the last
semester in 2007 to the first semester in 2008. === Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.
|
|---|
