OPENING ADDRESS BY MR TAN HONG CHOON AT THE ITE
COLLEGE WEST ET CONVENTION ON FRI 11 MAR 05 AT ITE
HQ AUDITORIUM AT 2.30 P.M.
Dr Marissa Wettasinghe, our Keynote Speaker from the Centre of
IT for Education in National Institute of Education, Nanyang
Technological University
ITE Colleagues
Ladies and gentlemen
1. A very good afternoon to all of you and welcome to the 2nd ITE
College West Educational Technology (or ET) Convention. Once
a year, we gather here to look at how e-learning is going on at ITE
for both our lecturers and students, and to share and learn from
each other. This Convention also demonstrates our commitment at
ITE College West in developing e-learning as our core competency
and in making e-learning an integral part of our delivering of ITE
education.
2. At ITE, we started planning our e-learning journey in 1998 when
we formulated our first ITE IT Masterplan after pilot tested IT-
based teaching and learning at the Tampines Campus. A major
milestone in the implementation of e-learning was reached in Jan
2002 when we developed and launched the e-Tutor learning
system. Having had the experience of experimenting with e-
learning for about 2 years, ITE decided to conduct a study to
evaluate its impact and effectiveness on both our staff and
students.
3. The study was conducted independently by two SMU lecturers
in 2004 with the support of ITE. The study covered some 200
lecturers and 3,100 students and their experience with 20 selected
modules. I am pleased to take this opportunity to share with you
the conclusions.
4. The study showed that there was no conclusive evidence to
support association between ITE’s e-learning system with
student’s learning effectiveness. However, among the students
surveyed, 65% reported that they have benefited in one or more of
the following 3 areas:
- Independent learning skills
- Communication skills
- Problem solving skills
5. On the part of our Lecturers, there was significant evidence to
support a positive association between ITE’s e-learning system
and teacher’s experience. In particular, 69% of the staff surveyed
indicated the use of e-Tutor for delivery have:
- Helped in their job
- Enhanced their teaching experience; and
- Improved their career prospect
6. These findings showed the qualitative attributes on how
students and lecturers view e-learning in ITE. In particular, we
learned that while e-learning might not contribute to students
learning the contents more effectively, it, nevertheless, did help
them to acquire life-long survival skills for independent learning,
communication and problem solving.
7. indeed, it is in the context of trying to develop the independent
learning competencies of our students that prompted us to
introduce a full e-learning module for every full-time student during
their 2-year study with us starting from Jan 2005. Although we use
the phrase ‘full e-learning module’, what we actually mean is that
students will learn the knowledge content fully online through our
eTutor system with the lecturer now playing a facilitating role. Our
lecturers still meet the students face-to-face once every 2~3 weeks
to:
Introduce the module,
Brief on his/her expectation on students’ performance on
individual topics,
Conduct the class test, and
Do summary and revision before exam.
8. Fourteen such ‘full’ e-learning modules involving some 100
lecturers and 3,600 full-time students are being conducted
between Jan and Jun 2005. This is a new experience for us and a
Committee chaired by Dr. Eric Cheung is monitoring the
implementation closely. With adequate preparation of our lecturers
and students, I am confident that we will succeed in this initiative. I
look forward to receiving evaluation findings from Dr. Cheung’s
Committee and that perhaps will form our talking point when we
meet next time.
9. Today, the organizing committee has lined up 7 speakers for us.
Looking at the program, I see that we are going to cover the ‘heart’
of e-learning in making e-learning successful. I would like to thank
Dr. Marissa Wettasinghe for agreeing to deliver the keynote
address despite his busy lecturing and research schedule. I would
also like to thank our ITE colleagues for coming forward to share
their experience. Last but not the least, I would like to thank the
ETU in College West for organizing this event.
10. It is now my pleasure to declare the opening of this ET
Convention 2005. I wish all of you a fruitful afternoon and sharing
and learning.
Thank you.