St. Francis of Assisi s English Primary School Annual School Report of elearning

Transcription

1 Aims Through the implementation of elearning, we aim 1. To enhance effective learning among students 2. To facilitate learning by utilizing intranet St. Francis of Assisi s English Primary School Annual School Report of elearning Schedule of implementing elearning Year Levels Subjects P.3 Chinese and English P.3, 4 Chinese, English, Japanese and French P.3,4,5 Chinese, English, Mathematics, Japanese and French P.3, 4, 5, 6 Chinese, English, Mathematics, G.S., Science, Japanese and French Page 1

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to offer special thanks to Professor John C. K. Lee, JP, Vice President (Academic) and Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction of HKIEd who assisted in giving us comments on the development of elearning. We would like to acknowledge and thank all the parents and students who completed the questionnaire and gave us valuable feedback. Without their participation, this report would not have been possible. Data Gathering To evaluate the effectiveness of elearning, we have chosen to take two different data sources into account. Firstly, we created a web based questionnaire for all P.3, P.4 and P.5 students. Secondly, we collected feedback from parents and students by interviewing families randomly selected from each P.3, P.4 and P.5 class. (A total of 12 parents were selected to participate in a group interview and 12 students were selected to participate in interviews individually.) Their feedback gave us direct information about how parents and students perceive the effectiveness of elearning. Page 2

3 With reference to the Annual Evaluation of the Effectiveness of E-learning questionnaire results, students from P.3 to P.5 were asked four questions in order to evaluate their views about the effectiveness of elearning. Overall, 70% of them strongly agree or agree that elearning can enhance learning effectiveness. (22% of them disagree and the remaining 8% strongly disagree with this statement.) This result should be highlighted as a significant achievement for the School since most students responded positively to the use of elearning in teaching and learning. The complete results are as follows: Statements about elearning Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree 1 elearning enhances your interest in learning. 27% 51% 16% 6% 0% Inapplicable 2 elearning increases your opportunity to participate 31% 48% 15% 6% 0% in classroom activities. 3. elearning enhances your independent learning. 19% 47% 22% 8% 4% 4. elearning can enhance your learning effectiveness. 21% 49% 22% 8% 0% Enhance interest in learning: More than three quarters of the students (78%) agree or strongly agree that elearning can enhance their interest in learning. (16% disagree and the remaining 6% strongly disagree with the statement.) Increase the opportunity to participate: More than three-quarters of the students (79%) agree or strongly agree that the elearning strategies implemented in their classrooms are helpful in enhancing their opportunity of participation in classroom activities. (15% disagree and the remaining 6% strongly disagree with the statement.) Enhance independent learning: 66% of the students agree or strongly agree that elearning can enhance their ability of independent learning. (22% disagree and 8% strongly disagree with the statement. The remaining 4% choose inapplicable.) Page 3

4 12 students were invited to attend individual interviews. (Each interview took 20 minutes) The results are as follow: (1) What is elearning? Most of the students interviewed thought that elearning included the use of ipad, ebook and PowerLesson. They thought PowerLesson allowed them to have close interaction with teachers and classmates. They had more opportunity to participate in learning activities like instant online polling and online discussion on certain issues. Nearly half of the students talked about elibrary. A few of them thought of MC online. They thought MC online provided them with an effective e-learning platform where they could find learning materials ranging from Maths, English to Science (2) Which items of elearning impress you most? You can share your experience with examples. PowerLesson and Apps were the two items that impressed students most. PowerLesson facilitates discussion, expression of individual opinion and sharing of work among students. It provides convenience for revision. Apps make learning fun and give hands on learning experience. (3) Can elearning increase your opportunity to participate in classroom activities? All students interviewed agreed that there is a wide variety of activities that enable them to participate more in classroom activities. Furthermore, elearning can increase students opportunity to participate in classroom activities. (4) Can intranet satisfy your learning needs? All students interviewed thought that intranet was convenient to use. It gave them access to unlimited opportunities to learn anytime and anywhere. Students talked about the benefits of elibrary which allowed them to read books online. They also mentioned the elearning platform where they could receive and share information. (5) Others A student interviewed showed concern about the negative effect of elearning on eyesight. Another student mentioned the opportunity that classmates may send irrelevant messages during the lesson. Page 4

5 12 Parents were invited to attend a group interview. (There were 3 to 4 parents in a group and each group interview took minutes.) In addition to the four questions on elearning, parents were also given the opportunity to provide further comments, which allowed them to explain in detail what they liked about elearning and what they thought could be improved. The results are as follows: (1) What is elearning? Most of the parents interviewed thought that elearning included the use of ipad and ebook. About half the parents talked about PowerLesson and MC online. A few of them thought of elibrary and eclass. (2) Which items of elearning impress you most? You can share your experience with examples. Parents interviewed were generally impressed by the pronunciation aids and audio materials of ebooks. They thought these could assist their child to acquire more accurate pronunciation enabling better communication in target languages. (3) Can elearning enhance your child s independent learning? Parents agreed that elearning successfully increases their child s ability to search and locate information efficiently on the Internet. The development of independent learning skills could further encourage their child to pursue their own interest and personal learning goals. (4) What do you think about the implementation and progress of elearning in the School? All parents interviewed agreed with the implementation and progress of elearning. They thought that the pace and the gradual increase of elearning subjects were appropriate. (5) Others Parents showed concern about some different issues: (i) The length of time spent on elearning may affect the eyesight of their children (ii) Sometimes, their child may not use the ipad specifically for learning after school. (iii)their child may rely too much on the software devices for the thorough learning of words, especially in writing. (iv) Their child may have less opportunity to practise writing and this may lead to poor handwriting. Page 5

6 Conclusion We are very grateful to all the parents and students who participated in elearning interviews and completed the questionnaire. The resulting feedback has enabled us to produce this report and structure the elearning development. Overall, parents and students gave positive comments on the implementation of the elearning programme. In general, the collective comments from them show that parents and students believe elearning: 1) enhances students participation in classroom activities; 2) furthers collaboration for teachers and students; 3) offers a greater opportunity for self-learning. The School plans to hold health talks for students. These talks will cover different aspects of elearning health related matters, such as body posture, screen time, breaks from computer, etc. Students will also be educated on elearning attitude. Additional guidelines will be given on how to use ipad appropriately, covering issues such as use of apps, when to use ipad, time-management, etc. Essential skills such as handwriting will continue to be taught and homework will still be given for these important skills. Through a rounded approach, we believe that now and in the future, we can further integrate elearning into our school syllabus effectively. Page 6 (END)

7 The following is Professor Lee, Chi Kin John s feedback on our elearning report: I am so impressed by the arduous efforts of St. Francis of Assisi English School in making learning initiatives a success. It is notable from both survey results and interview findings that a majority of students agree or strongly agree that elearning can enhance their interest in learning and their participation in classroom activities. More could be done, however, to enhance students independent learning and alert student to the possible negative impact of elearning on their eyesight. May I offer my congratulations on your achievements in elearning, and wish St. Francis of Assisi s English Primary School further progress in future.