proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING

Table 1 Comparison of course usefulness
M SD M SD difference
This Summer/Wintercourse offered me a lot 4.27 0.64 4.02 0.53 0.031*
The contents of the Summer/Wintercourse were inspiring 4.15 0.61 3.94 0.56 0.063 †
The format of the Summer/Wintercourse was good 4.15 0.69 4.04 0.77
The Summer/Wintercourse was well organized 4.10 0.64 4.17 0.72
The quality of the digital material was good 4.44 0.60 3.96 0.85 0.01**
The digital material motivated me to keep up with the subject matter 3.63 0.81 3.54 0.90
Learning with an E-book is not different from learning from a hard-copy book 2.78 0.89 2.85 0.99
It was fun that I could attend this Summer/Wintercourse via the internet 4.22 0.74 4.06 0.81
The goals of the Summer/Wintercourse were clear to me 4.00 0.72 4.17 0.63
It was clear to me what was expected of me this Summer/Wintercourse 3.85 0.87 4.04 0.71
The assigments/tasks stimulated me to collaborate with the other group 3.53 0.86 3.50 0.92
The assignments/tasks stimulated me to study 3.78 0.85 3.69 0.80
I am satisfied with what I learned in terms of knowledge, skills and insight 3.81 0.78 3.69 0.88
I gained enough knowledge and skills in economics to start with my study in Maastricht 3.68 0.71 3.73 0.79
I think that by attending this Summer/Wintercourse I will get better results in my future study in Maastricht 3.85 0.71 3.77 0.93
The group in which I participated functioned well 3.86 0.86 3.56 0.90 0.079 †
It was fun to collaborate with others in this Summer/Wintercourse 4.07 0.85 3.71 0.94 0.041*
Collaborating with others facilitated my understanding of the subject matter 3.78 0.72 3.65 0.79
I think I learned more in this Summer/Wintercourse through collaboration with others than I would have learned if
I had to work individually
3.34 0.96 3.25 1.12
I think I was motivated to finish this Summer/Wintercourse because I could work in my own pace 3.68 0.94 3.83 0.86
It is good that I could attend this Summer/Wintercourse independently (without interference from others) 4.37 0.61 3.92 0.87 0.02*
The use of the webvideoconference system (Breeze) was useful . . 3.79 0.87
I learned a lot from the discussions in the web videoconferences (Breeze) . . 3.48 0.92
The use of the discussion forums (SURF-groepen) was useful . . 3.90 0.93
I learned a lot from the discussions in the discussion forums . . 3.27 1.01
There were too many webvideoconferences in this summer/winter course . . 2.67 0.86
I was given the support that I needed 4.03 0.69 4.23 0.66
The Online Summercourse-team was enthousiastic in coaching our group 4.22 0.72 4.54 0.58 0.014*
The Online Summercourse team stimulated participation of all group members in the online group discussions 3.54 0.86 3.88 0.70 0.033*
The Online Summercourse team helped us to apply what we had learned on other situations than those mentioned
in the assignments/tasks
3.63 0.61 3.94 0.91 0.038*
Give an overall grade for the functioning of the Summer/Wintercourse team (1 = very bad - 10 = very good) 8.20 0.94 7.98 1.42
The instructions for making the final test were clear 4.05 0.75 3.79 0.71 0.073 †
The Weekly tests (intermediate tests) in this Summer/Wintercourse gave me a good picture of what I still had to
study
3.78 0.79 3.96 0.62
The internet application used for the tests was easy to work with 4.15 0.83 3.88 0.94
Give an overall grade for the quality of the Summer/Wintercourse (1 = very bad - 10 = very good) 8.46 1.02 7.73 1.33 0.01**
I participated actively in the online group discussions 3.19 1.15 3.25 1.10
I have made … … . Weekly (intermediate) tests 2.81 0.97 2.60 1.35
Weekly I have spent … . hours on this course 13.43 6.76 11.12 5.54 0.069 †
Independent sample T-test (2-sided) of Discussion forum (n=59) vs. Videoconference and Discussion forum (n=49).
**Coefficient is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*Coefficient is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
† Coefficient is significant at the 0.10 level (2-tailed).
Discussion Forum
Videoconference
In Table 2, the effects of the redesign on perceived usefulness of the course are listed. In contrast
to our expectations, students in cohort 2 were less satisfied with the course materials. With respect to the
course design, cohort 2 students differ from cohort 1 students but the effect is in the opposite direction to
what we expected. In other words, cohort 1 students are more satisfied about the course design than cohort
2 students. No effect has been found with respect to goals and tasks and group collaboration. We do find an
improved satisfaction of the role of the teacher in cohort 2 at a 5% significance level and a moderate size
effect (F = 0.057, t = 2.549, p-value = 0.012, d-value = 0.50). However, we do not find any difference
among the cohorts with respect to learning satisfaction. Overall, we have to conclude that students who
used the web-videoconference in addition to discussion forums are not more positive about the online
course than students who only used the discussion forums.
Conference proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING overcome barriers of Life-Long learning?” 145
t-test