e-learning readiness - Asia Pacific Region - Open University Malaysia

5.4 SummaryThe analysis showed that receivers were moderately ready for E-learning.Among the six dimensions, the learner readiness has the highest meanfollowed by financial, cultural, content, technical and environmentalreadiness. Receivers were moderately ready to commit, manage, anddiscipline themselves to E-learning. They also were willing to allocatetime to upgrade their academic or professional knowledge through E-learning. However, most receivers stated their worries regarding therecognition or quality of online education. The primary concern ofreceivers before was recognition of E-learning and could be thecontributing factor to the moderate level of learner readiness found in thestudy.As for financial readiness, it can be generalized that receivers were willingto spend on Internet access and purchase of computers for E-learning.However, from the open ended section many of the receivers voiced theirfrustrations over the high cost of Internet connection, broadband and thepurchase of computer peripherals. They also proposed that loans topurchase computer should be made more accessible and tax exemptionson the purchase of computers should be extended to them. Manyreceivers were unaware of tax exemption for computer loans.For cultural readiness, most receivers believed that the most effectivemethod of learning is face-to-face tutors E-learning is viewed as aneffective tool for disseminating information. From the qualitativeresponses many of the receivers felt that E-learning must be supportedwith more face-to-face meetings and suggested the face-to-face sessions tobe held during their holidays so that they could meet and discuss theirdifficulties and problems with their tutors. They believed that E-learningis an efficient means of information dissemination and an advanced modeof teaching and learning. In terms of content readiness, receivers appearedto be as moderately ready for E-learning. Perhaps receivers viewed thatthe content available was not up to their expectations as most of thecontent were in English medium and local content was not incorporated.On the technical and environmental readiness, again, the mean scoresshowed that the receivers were moderately ready for E-learning. Thismay be done to the fact that their institutions were in the midst ofembarking on E-learning programme and thus, the services and facilitieswere lacking. Receivers also felt that the nation needs to publicize E-learning more aggressively in the media. Facilities in the rural areas,electricity connections and broadband facilities also should be extended toall.Table 68 summarizes the levels of readiness in the six dimensionsmentioned above. It can be noted that learner and cultural readiness wereranked highest while environmental readiness was rated the lowest by thereceivers.Joint Study by MECW and OUM 91