Students’ Autonomy in e-Learning: The Effectiveness

Jowati binti Juhary, Mrs

[presented at the National Conference on e-Learning, June 2004, Penang, organised by USM]

Abstract

Learner Autonomy is very important to ensure success in learning as it drives students to the extra limit. In language learning, autonomy is seen as the desire to excel in language acquisition and there are many strategies employed by students. This paper attempts to discuss and explain a small group of students’ experience in using e-learning when they are in the process of learning English language. 60 first year students use e-learning to learn English language at a university in Kuala Lumpur. They are not first timers of the language; rather they are using English language as the second language. The methods of the research are twofold: survey i.e. questionnaires and observation and text analysis i.e. printed texts. The findings reveal that students are happy and positive about their own autonomy and the experience matures them. However, some technical problems arise during their attempt to learn English language. The most important finding is that e-learning has no significance over their examination result i.e. based on their final examination result and post test result there is little improvement from the pre-test result. Two possibilities can be given for this scenario – e-learning module and courseware or software are not up to the required standard or students do not know how to utilise the concept properly. Thus, these students’ experience can be a yard stick to prepare better e-learning module so that the technology can be an effective tool not only for interesting and stimulating automotive English learning but also at the end can give benefits to students in terms of examination result.