Lastedit 12102010 Written Report 310143 2

H1 Proj ect Work
Wri tten Report

Prepared by
Chen He
Le Duc Anh
Wang Jun Lem
Wong Zhi Yuan
11S06A
RJ111
Teacher-in-charge
Ms Harminder Kaur d/o Amarjit Singh
1
Tabl e of Contents
Introduction 3
Choice of Task and Topic 3
Rationale for Choice 3
Aim and Objectives 3
Scope of Project 4
Target Group
Research Methodology
Case Study: e-Learning in Canada 5
Rationale for Choice 5
Overview 5
Information and Communication Technology in Canada
Approaches Used in Ontario 6
(1) Enhance content delivery
(2) Encourage student participation
(3) Employ e-Tool documentation
e-Learning in Singapore 10
Evaluating the Current e-Learning System in Singapore 10
Applying Canadas approaches 11
Action Plan 12
(1) Enhance content delivery 13
Create online assessment
Upload enrichment materials
Adopt interactive games
i
Evaluation
(2) Encourage student participation 16
Produce videos for SPA and tutorials
Initiate portals/forums for sharing and discussion
Facilitate collaboration through video conferencing
Evaluation
(3) Employ e-Tool documentation 19
Record individual progress in e-Portfolio
Evaluation
Evaluation: E-ffective Learning 20
Conclusion 21
Future Evaluation of Success (Benchmarks) 21
Strengths of Our Action Plan 21
Feasibility
Motivation among students
Innovation in interactive learning
Long term and large scale sustainability
Future development/direction of project
References 23
Appendix 27
Appendix A: Transcript of Interview with Mr Jerome Lo
Appendix B: Transcript of Interview with Prof Chng Huang Hoon
Appendix C: Proposal for Pilot Project
Appendix D: Blank Form of First Survey For Junior College Students
Appendix E: Results of First Survey
Appendix F: Blank Form of Second Survey for Pilot Project Participants
Appendix G: Results of Second Survey
Appendix H: Blank Form of Third Survey for Pilot Project Student Volunteers
Appendix I: Results of Third Survey
ii
I ntroducti on
Choice of Task and Topic
We have chosen the task Alternatives and will be discussing the application of e-Learning strategies
as an alternative learning method in Singapore Junior Colleges (JCs).
1
Rationale for Choice
e-Learning, the integration of technology into education, is important in enabling the repackaging of
content to suit the needs of different learners. Through the use of audio and visual appeal, it adds
value to the delivery of content. Yet, e-Learning is still underutilized and very much detached from the
teaching curriculum in Singapore.
We intend to further integrate e-Learning into Singapore's education system as a complement, but
have focused on JCs to adopt a more streamlined approach. JC students are more responsible and
accustomed to self-directed learning, two prerequisites for a successful application of e-Learning.
Furthermore, all Singapore JCs are already equipped with e-Learning platforms, which should be built
on to realize the aforementioned potential benets.
Aim and Objectives
Our project aims to promote greater use of e-Learning in JCs to complement classroom teaching to
better engage students and enrich their learning experience, using similar approaches from e-
Learning in Canada.
Other specic objectives are:
To encourage the greater utilization of e-Learning portals in school through online delivery of
content relevant to the curriculum.
To engage students in e-Learning and empower them to take ownership of their learning.
To enrich students learning process through the use of interactive media and tools.
Introduction
3
1
e-Learning: The use of new multimedia technologies (e.g. blogging, online video/audio streaming) and the Internet to
improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services as well as remote exchange (e.g. le sharing,
video conferencing) and collaboration (EC, 2001).
Scope of Project
Target Group
Our main target group is JC students, generally aged 17-19. College students are more mature and
more capable of independent learning than younger students. Furthermore, the education system in
JCs is similar to universities, where a large part of teaching is lecture-based. Developing a strong and
comprehensive e-Learning culture in JCs will help students adapt better in universities, where the e-
Learning system is more complex.
In order to test out our approaches and strategies, we initiated a pilot project targeting a J1 class of
26 students in our school since we have insufcient manpower to carry out the project on a larger
scale. Furthermore, the pilot project is restricted to Physics only to ensure that we can test out more
strategies within the short duration of our pilot project.
Research Methodology
We have researched on e-Learning practices in Canada and the usefulness of e-Learning to the
learning process based on relevant secondary sources, mainly online journal articles.
We also interviewed Mr. Jerome Lo, Head of Education Technology Department in Rafes Institution
to learn about the e-Learning curriculum in our school,
2
and to negotiate our pilot project. We were
privileged to be given four content-editor accounts by the Education Technology Department to carry
out our pilot project.
Furthermore, we interviewed Assoc Prof Chng Huang Hoon, Director of NUS CDTL (Centre for
Development of Teaching and Learning), for information on the situation of e-Learning in universities.
We consulted our Physics tutor Mr. Timothy Song frequently on the e-Learning resources used in our
pilot project.
We surveyed 154 students in our school to gather their opinions on the usefulness of the current e-
Learning system.
Finally, we surveyed all 22 students involved in our pilot to gather their feedback on the effectiveness
of our strategies and to assess their interests in the continuation of the project.
3
Introduction
4
2
Mr Jerome Lo oversees e-Learning in the school and has also given talks to other schools on the subject
3
The four members of the group are also part of the class and are excluded from the survey to reduce bias.
Case Study:
e-Learni ng i n Canada
Rationale for Choice
In recent years, Canada has placed greater emphasis on the use of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) in its education system to allow for increased exibility of learning for students, as
well as to equip individuals with the necessary skills to participate fully in the digital economy. Canada
has one of the most highly educated populations in the world,
4
and such a success can be attributed
to their effective education models which we can draw many lessons from, and for our purpose,
specically the widespread use of e-Learning in schools.
Overview
Information and Communication Technology in Canada
Canadas effort in integrating technology into education can be traced back to as early as 1993, when
Canadas Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE) was set up as an Internet
backbone, mainly for education and research purposes (CANARIE, 2010). In 1998, Schoolnet was
established to provide data-driven education software (Schoolnet, Inc., 2008).
Although evidence gathered in 2003 suggests that Canada is trailing behind the efforts of countries
like France and South Korea in integrating e-Learning into the education system (CCL, 2009), lately
Canada was ranked second in e-Learning readiness,
5
suggesting that Canadas e-Learning has
made signicant progress. In fact, it had been predicted that Canada will provide the most stable
adoption rates for e-Learning in the world (Nleva, 2009). Since 2004, Internet is available in all
Canadian schools. Intranets were set up for content sharing purposes. Video-conferencing was also
introduced into some schools in 2003/2004 (Plante & Beattie, 2004).
Benets of e-Learning seen in Canada are multifold. Most notably, students can use technology to
enhance their learning process, develop problem-solving skills, and absorb knowledge the way they
learn best (Milton, n.d.). Also, e-Learning enhances teacher-student or student-student collaboration
in content building processes (CCL, 2009).
Case Study: e-Learning in Canada
5
4
Canada has 99.0% adult literacy rate which is an indicator of the success of their education system (UNICEF, 2008).
5
The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Canada second (behind Sweden) in e-Learning readiness out of a total of 17
countries. (Consulting, 2005)
Approaches Used in Ontario
Ontario, Canada has carried out several alternative strategies to integrate information and
communication technologies (ICTs) fully into education.
6
This is summarized in the gure below.
Figure 1: Strategies applied by Ontario Ministry of Education.
6
6
ICTs in education have become a priority for governments, educators and businesses in order to equip students with the
skills necessary to succeed... (Ertl & Plante, 2004)
Enhance content delivery
uploading teaching materials for teachers
access online resource bank

1
Encourage student participation
use communication tools for online course
adopt online consultation on e-Platform

2
Employ e-Tool documentation
create personalized showcase in e-Portfolio

3
Ontario Ministry of Education has introduced and developed Ontario Educational Resource Bank,
7

which contains digital resources through Grade 12. Teachers of state schools can share and upload
various forms of materials using the Resource Bank. Materials in the Resource Bank include lesson
plans, activity guides and interactive learning games.
Advantages
Figure 2: Ontario Educational Resource Bank.
Source: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/pdf/5067_OERBhandout_04.pdf
Online portals provide students with more exible and accessible lesson packages (Kruse, 2002). The
use of visual and audio effects makes online lessons more interesting. With the system in place,
teachers can provide students with optional materials delivered to students with vested interest.
8

Moreover, materials uploaded can be differently pitched and delivered to students of different abilities.
9
Figure 3: Login page of the Ontario e-Learning system.
Source: http://courses.elearningontario.ca/
7
7
Samples from Ontario Educational Resource Bank can be retrieved at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/bank.html
8
A computer can present such material on an individualized basis, allowing students to proceed at their own pace and
freeing up class time for more activities. (Warschauer, 1996)
9
increased retention, reduced learning time, and other aforementioned benets to students for slow or quick
learners reduces stress and increases satisfaction. ...that refresher or quick reference materials (Kruse, 2002)
Disadvantages
A minority of students who have limited access to the Internet do not benet (Plante & Beattie, 2004).
Also, there is reduced human interaction, as preferred by some students. This may hinder teachers
from ensuring that objectives of content provided are met and some students from being engaged in
lessons (Notess, 2008).
The Ontario Provincial Learning Management System provides communication tools, such as chat,
electronic whiteboard and forums to facilitate online courses. Furthermore, Homework Help is also
provided as a platform for students to consult their teachers online (Ontario Ministry of Education,
2009). This project was started in 2007 and currently involves about 150,000 math students in grade
7-10.
Advantages
Online discussion platforms enable students to improve critical and analytical thinking skills through
evaluating others responses (Williams & Jacobs, 2004), thus learning to view issues from different
perspectives. Moreover, it allows students to approach their teachers and peers anytime anywhere
(Warschauer, Turbee & Roberts, 1996). Communication tools also assist students in harnessing
communication skills and developing personal learning styles. Students are exposed to different
delivery methods and allowed to choose according to their learning pace and preference (McLoughlin
& Lee, 2007). Additionally, teachers are able to identify students strengths and weaknesses by
assessing students knowledge and opinions through their blog posts or forum threads (Garrison &
Anderson, 2003).
Disadvantages
Face-to-face discussion is still preferred by some students (Anderson & Elloumi, 2004), hence it is
difcult to engage these students in online discussion. Informal nature of blogs and forums poses a
problem on the learning outcome as students tend not to put in much effort if they are not graded
(Mason & Rennie, 2008).
8
e-Portfolio is dened as the electronic showcase of a persons learning progress (Barrett, 2010). A few
technology providers allow students to archive their submitted assignments and projects in digital
format. Students are also able to personalize their showcase and invite others to give feedback.
10

Figure 4: The creation of an e-Portfolio from the website Chalk&Wire.
Source: http://www.chalkandwire.com/eportfolio/index.php?p=demo
Advantages
Digital portfolios, compared to conventional showcases, allow quicker feedback from students and
teachers (Awouters, Bongaerts & Schrooten, 2006). Little physical space is required as all
assignments and projects are archived online (Abrenica, 1997). Students can use different multimedia
tools to personalize and enhance the quality of the showcase, effectively reecting students
personality and creativity (Gomes, 2008). Moreover, the versatile nature of e-Portfolios allows for easy
restructuring to t different purposes (Banks, 2004).
Disadvantages
Digital portfolios require high level of commitment from students as they have to continually update
their portfolios on top of academic workload (Harms, 2010). Furthermore, security measures should
be taken to prevent plagiarism and illegal access (Barry & Wesolowski, 2001).
9
10
These information on e-Portfolio features provided by Chalk and Wire can be viewed at
http://www.chalkandwire.com/pdf/CW-Booklet-March2009.pdf
e-Learni ng i n Si ngapore
Evaluating the Current e-Learning System in Singapore
Since the launch of the 1st ICT Masterplan in 1997, schools in Singapore are equipped with ICT
equipment, such as computer laboratories and essential learning software packages, and teachers
are trained to handle the available infrastructure (Ng, 2008). The recent launch of the 3rd ICT
Masterplan in 2008 reveals ambitious goals to transform the learning environment of students with
technology. Yet, the goals outlined in the Masterplan are very broad, with the details and
specications yet to be released on the website nor to schools, leading to poor enforcement and
ineffectiveness of the Masterplan in raising ICT standards in schools.
Even with existing e-Learning portals, e-Learning in schools are mostly conned to sharing lesson
materials between teachers and students, barely capitalizing on the main benet of e-Learning to
customize lesson materials according to the needs of different students with different learning styles.
11

Apart from e-Learning days in schools, students are not regularly accessing the e-Learning portals as
reected in our survey (see Figure 5). The lack of participation from students underlines the
ineffectiveness of current e-Learning systems and underutilization of e-Learning in mainstream
teaching.
e-Learning in Singapore
10
11
Interviewee Mr Jerome Lo: So for that one topic, I could have a visual learner, this and that, under the same topic. And
that is truly e-Learning. e-Learning is not throwing it into a PDF le and pass on the printing costs to students.
2. How often do you access the school portal?
Figure 5: Survey question on the general response of students towards e-Learning.
Source: RJ111
Applying Canadas approaches
Canada has come a long way in implementing a comprehensive nationwide e-Learning system. Given
Canadas head start in adopting e-Learning strategies back in the 1990s, Canadas successful
framework can serve as a guiding compass for Singapore to better integrate e-Learning across all
schools teaching curriculums.
Like Canada, Singapore is investing in e-Learning platforms. This is important because input like
internet access and online portals are essential for e-Learning. Singapore has developed its e-
Learning infrastructure signicantly under the ICT Masterplan for Education released by the Ministry of
Education. Though underutilized in many schools, the existing e-Learning platforms in Singapore
allow room for more comprehensive e-Learning with approaches employed in Canada, closing the
gaps in Singapore schools e-Learning situation.
In addressing these problems and gaps, our project is an alternative for Singapore because:
1) our strategies are derived from Canadas approaches but have been modied to suit the local
context.
2) we are proposing novel ways of maximizing the potential of e-Learning in schools, which have been
tested out in our pilot project.
Thrice a week
11.7%
Once a day
1.3%
Less than once a week
46.1%
Never
4.5%
Once a week
36.4%
e-Learning in Singapore
11
Acti on Pl an
Our action plan consists of three main approaches (shown in Figure 6) inspired by the Canadian
model to promote greater utilization of e-Learning portals in schools, and consequently add value
towards teaching in JCs.
Figure 6: Approaches applied to Singapore to promote greater utilization of e-Learning portals.
Approaches marked with an asterisk (*) are already implemented in our pilot project.
We have employed this framework in our pilot project in RI(JC) to evaluate the feasibility of each
approach. Based on feedback received, we then propose to implement our action plan on the
national level with necessary modications to ensure a successful outcome.
Action Plan
12
Enhance content delivery
create online assessment*
upload enrichment materials*
adopt interactive games
Encourage student participation
produce videos for SPA and tutorials*
initiate forums/portals for discussion and sharing*
facilitate collaboration through video conferencing

Employ e-Tool documentation
record individual progress in e-Portfolio
1
2
3
We propose for greater variety of materials to be made available online. Interestingly, many students
have indicated their preference for PowerPoint slides and videos to be uploaded (See Figure 7).
Figure 7: Graph depicting the various materials students would like to be uploaded (Sample size: 154)
Source: RJ111
Create online assessment
Assessments should be carried out frequently on e-Learning portals. Simple MCQ quizzes will help
students gauge their understanding of previous topics regularly and practice questions under time
constraints.
For our pilot project, we initiated a Physics Online MCQ test. Students were very receptive because it
was not time consuming (see Figure 8). Hence we propose to have topic-by-topic MCQ tests for
relevant subjects regularly.
Lecture notes
Tutorial questions
Class worksheets
Assignments
Enrichment notes
PowerPoint slides
Relevant videos
Past year papers/questions
Relevant websites
0 25 50 75 100 125 150
52
60
87
112
37
43
49
87
92
Action Plan
13
10. How would you rate the usefulness of the quiz uploaded?
Figure 8: Survey question on the effectiveness of online assessments for participants of the pilot
project. (Sample size: 22)
Source: RJ111
Upload enrichment materials
We recommend for more enrichment materials to be uploaded for faster learners. Weekly/monthly
questions can be posted on enrichment topics, while prizes (in the form of stationery or vouchers) can
be awarded to best responses to motivate students to read beyond the syllabus.
For our pilot project, we uploaded Physics Olympiad materials for students keen in participating. Yet
many students were unaware of their availability online. Hence, we would propose for notications
when enrichment materials or quizzes (as opposed to just syllabus-related materials) are uploaded to
garner more responses from students.
Adopt interactive games
Beyond the static course content online,
12
we encourage the use of interactive media to better
engage students in the learning process.
13
Interactive tools such as 3D web-simulation modeling,
though may require expensive purchase of software,
14
will denitely trigger positive responses among
media-savvy students.
No
[5]
Yes
[17]
Action Plan
14
12
Interview with NUS Prof Chng: Just loading les rather than interactive media
13
interactivity offers more authentic learning experiences, and empowers learners http://ilearning.ning.com/group/
whatisinteractivemedia
14
E.g. Use of Second Life in corporate training. http://secondlife.com/
Evaluation
To mitigate possible drawbacks, we intend for online content delivery to complement the system of
classroom teaching in schools to help students refresh concepts taught in class. Weaker students
who are unable to comprehend uploaded materials are then encouraged to consult their teachers.
This way, the level of human interaction is not compromised as e-Learning takes place outside
curriculum time.
ENHANCE CONTENT DELIVERY
Action Plan
15
Problems identied/Feedback received
Students generally willing to take MCQ tests because it
reinforces their understanding.
Modications when implementing at the national level
Integrate tests with subject curriculum closely by having
MCQ tests on every topic of the subject and by having such
tests on a regular basis.
Due to its non-compulsory nature of materials, the access of
these materials is largely dependent on the interest of
students.
Put up more notications to publicize the enrichment
materials in order to receive optimum response.
CREATE ONLINE ASSESSMENTS
UPLOAD ENRICHMENT MATERIALS
... reduced human interaction, preferred by some students ...
Instead of purely teachers uploading materials, we aim to empower students to take charge of their
own learning through the use of e-Learning portals to facilitate peer-teaching.
Produce videos for SPA and tutorials
Figure 9: Still frame of one of the videos of tutorial solutions.
Source: RJ111
We propose to encourage students to present their solutions to difcult tutorial questions in the form
of videos. Such solutions are visually and aurally more engaging compared to printed solutions.
Moreover, students can consolidate their knowledge when participating in video-production.
Figure 10 & 11: Still frames of the SPA videos done by classmates Nguyen Thi Hoai Thanh (left) and
Jia Haolin (right)
Source: RJ111
Action Plan
16
The videos we created were well received by our classmates and teachers (see Figure 12). Our
subject teacher, Mr. Song, mentioned of how this can relieve teachers the trouble of re-explaining
taught concepts and better concentrate on the weaker students.
6. How would you rate the usefulness of videos on solutions for tutorials uploaded?
Figure 12: Survey question on the usefulness of videos uploaded for participants of the pilot project.
(Sample size: 22)
Source: RJ111
Since only 5 students volunteered, we do foresee a problem of lack of volunteers. Thus, we suggest
to make the creation of such videos as class assignments across the level so that more students will
be willing to contribute as a class effort.
Initiate portals/forums for sharing and discussion
We propose that students be allowed to share their compiled notes through the online portal. This
encourages them to adopt a proactive role in reorganizing the content they have learnt.
For our pilot project, we uploaded two topical summary notes compiled by our group members as
only we had content-editor accounts. Hence, we propose that every students account have the built-
in ability to contribute materials.
Similar to collaborative learning done in universities,
15
students can discuss teacher-allocated topics
on forums/blogs provided by the e-Learning platform. Posts may be graded to assess students
thinking. This can train students to analyze questions from different perspectives and learn from one
another.
Facilitate collaboration through video conferencing
Video conferencing allow students from different schools (locally and worldwide) to interact, promoting
sharing of knowledge and perspectives. This can be facilitated through collaboration among students
from different schools on the online forums.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Action Plan
17
15
Interview with NUS Prof Chng: its through their sharing on blogs when they do collaborative work or through their MSN
when they discuss the scenario
Evaluation
With limited curriculum time dedicated to face-to-face discussion, our strategy not only provides
additional avenues to facilitate discussion, but also garner better responses from students who are
shy of speaking up in class, giving teachers more opportunities to assess them. Having teachers
moderating blogs/forums will ensure students put careful thoughts in comments for more fruitful
discussion.
ENCOURAGE STUDENT PARTICIPATION
Action Plan
18
Students accounts have restricted access to the e-Learning
portal, and thus their ability to contribute content to the
portal is limited and must be done through a content
modier or teacher.
Equip every student's portal account with the ability to
upload and contribute materials onto e-Learning portals.
INITIATE FORUMS/PORTALS FOR DISCUSSION & SHARING
There is a lack of volunteers and consequently limited
benets for the general student population.
Make the production of such videos as class assignments
across the level, or integrate it into a co-curricular activity to
better involve every student.
PRODUCE VIDEOS FOR SPA & TUTORIALS
Face-to-face discussion is still preferred by some students ... students tend not to
put much of their effort into the tasks if they are not graded.
Record individual progress in e-Portfolio
We propose for the introduction of e-Portfolio in all JCs to capture every students progress and allow
students to identify areas for improvements. e-Portfolios include not only academic results, but also
co-curricular achievements and participation in external activities.
Therefore, we would recommend students to share their post-trip/competition reections and
experiences with fellow schoolmates through the e-Learning portal.
16
Schools can facilitate this by
setting a minimum quota of online reections and credit good ones. Students can even create
podcasts or compile videos documenting their experiences in a lively form, thus instilling in them
qualities of a condent communicator.
17
Evaluation
While time-consuming and commitment-heavy, a personal portfolio is essential for JC students to

distinguish themselves during university applications. Thus, JC students are naturally motivated to
keep an e-Portfolio, which serves to help them better archive their achievements and document their
learning progress using new forms of media.
Action Plan
19
16
Usually only done for National Education domain.
17
Interview with Mr Jerome Lo: Effective communication. How to market yourself. Your PW. Imagine if you were to
immortalize and put it into a video podcast. And use it as a scholarship material or even for admission to your Ivy Leagues.
... require high level of commitment from students ...
Evaluation: E-ffective Learning
Strategy 1 and 2 reinforces each other. Content delivery in Strategy 1 enables students to attain
mastery of content knowledge so as to actively contribute to the learning environment described in
Strategy 2. At the same time, a positive attitude and proactive role towards learning as encouraged in
Strategy 2 facilitate the acquirement of content knowledge in Strategy 1. Our third strategy helps
students to document and reect on their learning progress, thus allowing them to constantly improve
on their learning style in Strategy 2 in order to achieve the optimum learning outcome of content
knowledge in Strategy 1. This way, the use of e-Learning helps students to achieve effective learning.
Action Plan
20
Concl usi on
Future Evaluation of Success (Benchmarks)
In following closely with the e-Learning practices in Canada, we have identied three key indicators of
a successful e-Learning system:
1. High degree of e-Learning utilization/integration in teaching curriculum
2. Students active participation
3. Increased interactivity in e-Learning
Strengths of Our Action Plan
Feasibility
In pushing for greater utilization of e-Learning, our devised strategies are multi-pronged and a more
comprehensive whole; not just focusing on schools to beef up content delivery, but also encouraging
students participation. From inputs provided by interviewees, we have improved on our strategies to
tailor to the wants of the students without overtaxing the teachers.
Motivation among students
Students may lack concrete motivation to actively contribute to the system of peer-teaching, thus we
propose for schools to initiate the project as class assignments across the level. Students will also be
motivated to participate once they realize it helps them learn better and become a more condent
presenter.
18
In further incentivizing students to commit, we are looking to obtain recognition from
schools to active contributors.
19
Innovation in interactive learning
e-Learnings potential to enhance both teaching and learning experience in schools has yet to be
realized, even with the increasing affordability of technology. We have therefore proposed the
incorporation of interactive media in online content delivery. Our plan to involve students in peer-
Conclusion
21
18
Interview with Prof Chng: You convince yourself as you talk, and you reinforce. So actually when you talked about
incentives earlier, that should be its only incentive. That you can only get better from teaching others.
19
Recognition in the form of testimonials, certicates or awards that document their contributions. Ideally, these forms of
recognition should place more emphasis on the process more than the outcome, e.g. Rafes Diploma of RI(JC)
teaching and self-initiated discussion does not conict with or burden the role of tutors, instead
creating more opportunities for tutors to engage students on content unrestrictive of the syllabus.
Long term and large scale sustainability
Due to the limited scale and duration of our pilot project, there lie many possible complications that
might arise if the project is expanded. Apart from motivation of students as addressed, the quality of
student-uploaded content will generally be compromised as more students participate. Inaccurate
explanations will only serve to confuse weaker students.
We do recommend tutors to take turns to validate the content. While this is time-consuming, there
lies greater benets as there will be lesser need for consultations with a whole range of content
available for revision online.
Future development/direction of project
With the conclusion of our pilot project, we will be submitting the feedback we have gathered to the
Education Technology Department and request for the project to be further implemented in a step-by-
step fashion by rst involving the entire Physics cohort and if successful, proceed to the other
subjects.
We will also correspond with Education Technology Department to use our strategies to popularize e-
Portfolio through talks/showcase to students on building personal e-Portfolios and their usefulness to
university applications.
We hope to pioneer a system of e-Learning in our school where teachers and students can fully utilize
the e-Learning portal to enrich and document the learning process. We envision our school as a
successful e-Learning model for other JCs and the Ministry of Education to review the ICT Masterplan
for Education in using multimedia to empower students to be in control of their own learning.
20

Conclusion
22
20
Main strategy in current ICT Masterplan for Education: To strengthen integration of ICT into curriculum, pedagogy and
assessment to enhance learning and develop competencies for the 21st century
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26
Appendi x
Appendix A:Transcript of Interview with Mr Jerome Lo
Appendix B:Transcript of Interview with Prof Chng Huang Hoon
Appendix C:Proposal for Pilot Project
Appendix D:Blank Form of First Survey For Junior College Students
Appendix E: Results of First Survey
Appendix F: Blank Form of Second Survey for Pilot Project Participants
Appendix G:Results of Second Survey
Appendix H:Blank Form of Third Survey for Pilot Project Student Volunteers
Appendix I: Results of Third Survey
27
Appendix A
Interview Transcript
Mr Jerome Lo
Head
Education Technology Department
Raffles Institution
DATE: 6th July 2010
TIME: 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
VENUE: Education Technology Department, RI (JC)
- introductions, salutations, greetings -
- error in recording -
Zhi Yuan: ... e-Learning has worked for us cause in studying for CTs we did go to
Blackboard quite often to access the online notes. But we found out that
all these are actually only limited to the Sciences and all of us are Sciences
and we all take Geography. So one problem we found was that in other
subjects such as Geography there was totally nothing on Blackboard. It
might not be actually due to the fault of the e-Learning system but rather
we think it is the lack of utilisation by maybe the staff. So we would like to
introduce a pilot project with some changes. For example, within this next
month where students will be missing classes we will require teachers to
upload all notes and slides that are gone through during the lectures and
tutorials online. Which is actually very possible since some departments
such as the Physics department are already doing it. Another thing is for all
assignments to be posted online. It can serve both as a reminder as well
as enable the students to complete and submit via online submission in
case of late submission or the inability to turn up for classes.
On the part of students, we have also decided to initiate to see if class
representatives can note down what teachers are saying and give a brief
summary of probably the week tutorials online. Because we went to
Blackboard and there were blogs and journal entries available. Recently it
was utilized by the CCAL camp for them to share but apart from that Ive
never seen it being used again. It is a possible avenue for students to
update their classmates as well as share some of their views of course
right now if we were to implement it it may not be as successful because
its not really in our culture to go onto e-Learning every day. Basically we
conducted a survey among our classmates also and the trend is that most
students only log on to Blackboard once a week or less than that. Last of
all is what Julian just mentioned about the use of Mobile Learn.
Jun Lem: Which is not going to be implemented, am I correct?
Mr Lo: You have to understand why first. So I want you to ask the right questions.
I have all the answers for you and Im very objective with technology, and I
serve the need of two stakeholders - students and teachers. And in a very
powerful approach. (?) Um, so, what is it that you want to know?
Jun Lem: Firstly Id like to ask questions about Mobile Learn, since weve already
touched on that. As far as I know Mobile Learn is actually a free module.
Mr Lo: No its not. Its extremely expensive that the school has to pay for. We are
on Blackboard version 9.0. Not the newer version.
Zhi Yuan: Basically we wanted to conduct an interview also to ask more about the
state of e-Learning in our school.
Chen He: When teachers want to upload materials on it, do they come to you or do
they do it themselves?
Mr Lo: Its a hybrid strategy. Some feel that they can do it themselves. Theyve
gone through training at the beginning of the year for every single
department. So some of them need extra help because there are some
complex tasks, so in that case we help them upload.
Chen He: So the training for teachers will be conducted once a year?
Mr Lo: Yeah, but a lot of times its 1-to-1. They call us and then they come down
and then we show them. But in terms of every single of teacher in RI, they
have come for it. Of course, theres the few - maybe 10% - that didnt
attend due to some reason, but whenever that happens in the training has
been recorded, and theres actually a subject for teachers to learn
Blackboard, so they can arm themselves. Similar to your YOG strategy.
Zhi Yuan: But there isnt a certain number of requirements for teachers to utilize it,
its only an additional resource, am I right?
Mr Lo: Yeah, thats like forcing every single teacher to use visualizers. You have to
understand that e-Learning serves to support and enhance your classroom
instruction. Its to extend the four walls because once you are in the
classroom, you do what you need to do with the teacher. But after the
classroom, this is where Blackboard can complement.
Chen He: Other than Blackboard, does the school partner with external
organizations?
Mr Lo: For what reason?
Chen He: Just to develop the e-Learning system, like software companies.
Mr Lo: No, because much of it actually we do it ourselves. Later on I will show
you how we will do it. To make you understand the content that we have
created is quite a bit, but you may not have been exposed to it yet
because you are in J1. And maybe you havent reached the topic.
Not every single topic needs to be so-called in that e-Learning format. If
your teacher chooses not to have it, we only as a department support what
they want. We could recommend technologies to enhance it, but we dont
lead their instructional practices. Its almost like we are the e-Learning
instructional designers. So a teacher comes in and says hey, this topic
needs some enhancement, gives me the syllabus; we take the notes and
we enhance it. And later on I will show you how we enhance it.
Zhi Yuan: So you are experienced in engaging these teachers. Are there some
inconveniences that the teachers may face in using the e-Learning such
that they choose rather to not adopt the e-Learning system?
Jun Lem: Or rather they are more intimidated by the e-Learning system?
Mr Lo: I wouldnt say the word intimidated, I dont think they have much time to
really think things through. In any textbook, theres always what you call
the 80-20 rule, where 80% of them are on one side, 20% are usually the
leaders, the innovators and so on. So within that one group of
stakeholders (teachers) theres also the 80-20 rule. 20% of them will lead
and want to do new things. The other 80% will say no, well, its not like Im
against it. Maybe some do, but very little. But wheres the time? I have
enough work with the students in the classroom, and by the way, teachers
are hard to teach. They are not hired to be multimedia producers.
Chen He: So are there any plans to further develop the e-Learning platforms in our
school?
Mr Lo: How do you define e-Learning platforms? Is Blackboard that e-Learning
platform? You want multiple learning management systems? So its like a
house. The foundation is the internet infrastructure: the concrete
foundation. Your structure of your house is the learning management
system such as Blackboard. So what, you have a house with bare walls.
Your content is your interior designing: how you put up the pictures to
make your environment livable or conducive for learning. So it is up to the
interior designers.
Chen He: So youre saying that there needs to be more content?
Mr Lo: Yes, but you are facing the A-Level curriculum, which is extremely rigid
and so-called dry. If a teacher were to conduct an online test, do you think
the students would really take it seriously when it doesnt count? Im not
saying it does or it doesnt, its a question for you to think about. When it
comes to the promo, why should I ask you to write a blog, when, at the
end, its the four hours in your A-Level examination that counts?
So youre looking at an action-reaction: youre facing A-Level certification,
which does not provide enough avenues for e-Learning to be penetrated in
a very aggressive way. You have do it extremely subtlely. You have to add
value to the learning and teaching experience without having your
stakeholders think that it will always come to better grades.
e-Learning in my personal opinion and also the departments opinion does
not make anyone smarter. It only increases your productivity to learn.
Because one student, for example, may read something once and they
understand. And another student, for example, may need to read it five
times. But when you both take the test, you can get the same grades. So
what Im trying to do with e-Learning is to have content that caters to
them, one-off person, one time so called learner, or the five time learner.
So you could review over and over again and hopefully with visual
learning, someone can understand a concept faster than reading a
textbook or notes. So in that case, it makes your time more efficient. You
save time, and when you save time you have more time to do other things.
So Im truncating and compressing time. That transcends any strategy of
saying increase the grades or whatever the case is. And now were slowly
aligning to what youre trying to say, which is students missing classes.
That is only a very small problem, but overall speaking teaching, a lot of
times, is one strategy. And you assume every single student should learn
within that 50 minutes. You are discriminating, in fact, if you think that way.
And if someone doesnt catch up (and this is part of the whole education
system) he is deemed to be slow or he is not as smart. Look at Einstein:
very slow learner, has dyslexia. Even Lee Kuan Yew has visual dyslexia.
But theyre brilliant. So the rate of learning does not equate to how well
you apply and how well you solve the problem. I wont even call it e-
Learning because it intimidates teachers. So with Education Technology,
you can enhance the delivery of your teaching, and make learning
experience more productive. And once you truncate/compress time, you
have more time to sleep and more time to play.
And students now dont play enough. Kids dont have fun. Not as much as
you should. Everythings about review, homework. And I also believe this,
that our learning/studying behaviors are dictated by our certifications. Are
we learning to apply or are we studying to score? You see the big
difference? Well, do the 10 year series, you know, you gotta know that.
Wait till youre in the university and abroad, they could chew you up,
because everythings about application and critical thinking. Its not a
regurgitation system, and its quite scary. And I have the privilege to be
raised abroad, and you should know how stifling the education system in
here is. Youve been through it.
And when I was a kid (which was hopefully not so long ago), there was no
homework. I played. I was in Toronto, Canada, thats where I was raised. I
played and played until I got bored. I used to sit on trees and count cars
on the highways, recognize which brand of cars, get chased by police,
because I was too bored. And when homework came, and its the best
thing on earth. You do it, then you erase it. You do it in pencil first, and
then you erased it. Do it again, do it again, and the last time, Okay, fine, I
think this will be fine, and then I do it in pen. You go to the teacher, and
you ask can I have more?.
The motivation and absorption rate is the other extreme. So imagine that
now I see my son, going through PSLE, I dont know what to get frustrated
at. I cannot instill my values and experiences on my son who sometimes
come back different from the way he leaves home. And its heart-
wrenching. And its one of the reasons why I am here. Its to augment your
learning experience. Learning, not studying.
Chen He: So is there any possibility that Blackboard will create places like forums for
students to share?
Mr Lo: Can. Of course theres space. Definitely, theres space. You need the
correct curriculum to provide the environment. I can understand
Geography. I love Geography. Tectonic plates, you know. How do you find
the magnetic north? It has been changing over time just by exploring the
different blocks around different regions. Its fascinating. Ive seen some
other subjects in Sciences, and jaws drop. Its like okay... but as soon as
you see some animations and videos it put things in perspective. Then you
start understanding, ah, thats how things connect. I dont want to read a
textbook and make myself to feel connected by memorizing.
Chen He: So what good ways to enhance...
Mr Lo: I have to show you the examples because its hard for me to tell you,
because if I could tell you, there would be no need for Education
Technology.
Zhi Yuan: So do you think that our current state of Education Technology can be
improved?
Mr Lo: Yeah. We are an independent school, and we are extremely privileged to
have our own independence, and we have our so-called Education
Technology Department, which serves full time to produce content for the
teachers. It leaves the teachers to remain as teachers - the core business.
In other government schools, you cannot have that. They put IT people as
the same as content providers/producers. Sometimes they think, I fix
computers, I can but I pretend I dont know how.
Probably before you even come to me, you were talking about asking for
the IT department. You see? Who owns and manages Blackboard? Id like
to talk to that IT guy. I dont know anything about you until I got this in my
pigeon hole, which is a very nice touch. Thats the way to do things. Ive
been a teacher for 15 years, and I was sick of teaching the same old way,
not because I was bored, but because you guys have changed. Digital
natives learn differently. They have 29.8 hours a day from the last time I
saw an article. You can be on MSN, and youre reading something, youre
listening to the radio or the iPod, and at the same time youre watching
Youtube. When you stack all of those tasks together, and you have to
sleep 12 hours a day, you have about 29 hours a day. How do you teach
these random kids when they dont even watch TV anymore?
Youve got to get a hold of them, rather than wait for them to come to you.
So its totally different. You have your social problems, which is very
different now, and I just feel that NIE produces teachers of really good
caliber, but they need to catch up to whats the best way for students to
learn. And to me, if youre in a class, my class, I would first profile you. Are
you a visual learner? A traditionalist? Or do you like to read a lot of works?
Are you a nerd? Are you... whatever. Then I would cater teachers with the
core skill to connect that with rather than through the topic. And you think
technology is the only way to connect to the second layer. First layer is
your expertise. Your expertise in your subject.
Your second level is how you engage your students when they are not
homogenous anymore. And you should not expect them to. You have
multi-segmented--- you have to mass customize. I can cater to the mass
but I can individually customize. So for that one topic, I could have a visual
learner, this and that, under the same topic. And that is truly e-Learning. e-
Learning is not throwing it into a PDF file and pass on the printing costs to
students. And that makes me extremely angry although there are teachers
in here that doesnt. But they have last say in what they want to do in
class. And its convenient. So its fine. But if you call that e-Learning, I
choose not to call that. So what you see in Blackboard does not mean the
true representation of what we want here. But it takes time. Blackboard
just started this year. Just two years ago there was no learning
management system. You had to use Raffles Connect to upload things. So
it takes time.
Jun Lem: We understand there was AsknLearn but it was only for the secondary
side.
Mr Lo: Correct. AsknLearn is a very functional home. Its fast and so on, but what
Blackboard brings is a lot of social networking technology. Theyre trying
to reach to the younger audience through technology that youre used to -
social networks: blogs and so on. Theres a lot of things: talking about
security and so on, streaming of videos, so we chose Blackboard because
its an enterprise system. So its being used in Year 1-6, and who knows,
RGS has been rumored to cross the road soon, and we have to all
integrate even more.
So AsknLearn was not the right platform. AsknLearn is just fast, but it
seems like its a fast, very functional system. Its a glorified Windows
manager. It serves the function very well. In Blackboard what we can
actually do is if you take a simple quiz and you dont pass with at least
70%, you cannot go to the next level. We can set a lot of conditions. But
the teachers dont have time to digest all of these technologies yet.
Zhi Yuan: So Blackboard is implemented from Year 1-4 as well?
Mr Lo: Yeah.
Zhi Yuan: Are there any differences between the two sides of the school?
Mr Lo: Were using the same system, same server.
Zhi Yuan: Do they have more quizzes or in general greater utilization?
Mr Lo: Ah, thats a very good question. Because their continual assessment is
very different from JC level. They could do whatever they want. If I ask a
student in Sec 3, hey you better take the online quiz now, why should I?
Because if not Im going to take 5% off. Then you do it. In JC, what are
you going to do? Are you going to give me a pink slip? It doesnt add up.
Jun Lem: I know the Physics department actually had quizzes.
Mr Lo: Yeah. 10%. Thats good. We actually... do you know Mr Lim Boon Siong?
He was actually attached to our department for 6 months. He learned
everything from ground-up. Now hes the e-Instructional Designer for
Physics. So hes carrying on the good stuff.
Zhi Yuan: I think the Physics teachers are all very good at IT stuff.
Mr Lo: Yeah, its because we have nurtured the sciences first.
Jun Lem: I have to say that Physics has a great head start compared to the other
two subjects.
Mr Lo: Biology is creeping up. Same as Chemistry. You just havent seen their
stuff yet. Its probably already at J2 level, which I will show you a bit later,
which were still doing. But its quite exciting. Its something that I really
envision what Education Technology is. The assessment criteria is so
fluent, so dynamic that it allows technology to be fully leveraged.
You see guys, all you care about is the promos, the common tests. These
are the big flags. and make sure you behave in class and do your work.
And then the big exam comes - 4 hours of your life is your entire future.
Thats not the way to assess someone. Its the most institutionalized way.
If you have a bad day, you have a bad life. There is no room for mistake or
bei ng si ck, t o have a bad day because of some ext er nal
macroenvironmental problems. Its like saying I hire you, you make one
mistake, Im going to condemn you and make sure you dont work in the
country again. Its not right. But thats the system.
Zhi Yuan: So from the secondary school side to our side, the e-Learning system has
actually diminished?
Mr Lo: They do a lot of communication. Communication and the fact that a lot of
e-mailing to the students, handing up assignments and so on. What we do
is a lot on teaching content. On that side, theres no Education Technology.
So the teachers create them. On our side, we create for the teachers.
Because theres so little time that the teachers have here, and A-Levels is
so structured that its hard to have free time to develop content. To worry
more about speaking to you, nurturing you, carving that good teacher-
student relationship, mentoring and so on.
Zhi Yuan: But at the same time we think that the Year 5 and 6 students are more
independent.
Mr Lo: Of course, because theyre older.
Zhi Yuan: Would motivation be a problem? Because youve mentioned that because
theyre not graded, therefore students are not exactly enticed.
Mr Lo: No, youre driven by your A-Level certification. And even a lot of parents
are driven by that. So in a way, would your parents rather you be at the
computer or reading a textbook or some paper? There. Youre seeing two
generations. These are the social demographic factors, cultural factors.
Parents may not have had very good education or proper education. So
my parents always said when you grow up, have as much school as
possible. Work hard, everything will come to you. Work hard, be a good
boy, make sure you get your A, and thats all I expect you to be. And a lot
of them lack the concept of what is education.
The world is so different now. All they want to do is read more books. Eat
books. I dont care. And when you get to the job a long way from now, its
all about street-smart. How to connect with people. A lot of people can
make a right out of a wrong. Because their communication skills are so
good. The art of persuasion.
Zhi Yuan: So e-Learning would also help in the sense that it provides our students IT
skills to use in the future.
Mr Lo: Of course! Were starting that. Were actually conducting workshops. Video
production skills. Effective communication. How to market yourself. Your
PW. Imagine if you were to immortalize and put it into a video podcast.
And use it as a scholarship material or even for admission to your Ivy
Leagues. Youre no longer an A student. Berkeley would see you as a
human being. You dont have to be the best piano player, but if you say I
love playing the piano, and this is something that I have written for myself,
and it sounds like this, you might not sound like Beethoven. However, I
wrote this song on a day that I was very motivated to do so, because I
know I have to be better. My dog got hit by a car, I lost my wallet.
You talk about your emotions. You dont buy mineral water because youre
thirsty. You buy Evian water because its status. You dont go to coffee
shops and say Evian on the rocks, please. Or you dont go to Raffles
Hotel and say mineral waterrr! Right? So, a lot of things that we buy, its
all heart, not rationale. So in a way, dont position yourself as being I have
full As and Im from RI, so here. Take me. You gotta go beyond that. So
were conducting student enrichment programmes that brings up the
creative expression in digital form.
So if you want to build an e-Portfolio yourself, you can. If you want to write
poetry, but now you could also deliver it and put background music or put
a slideshow, and you package it and put it as your own learning journey,
experience or whatever it is, you have just stood out although your work
may not be the best art. So were helping out that way.
Zhi Yuan: Speaking about e-Portfolios, it was in one of our strategies.
Mr Lo: Its already in Blackboard.
Jun Lem: Its more of like, its not really implemented that much because of the
rigidity of the A-Level system?
Mr Lo: No its not. In fact with the Raffles Diploma, it is the perfect platform.
Because RD is to capture and measure your participation anything beyond
academic work. So tell me, through e-Portfolio, how would you have
engineered yourself to be a thinker, leader, pioneer? Show evidence.
Zhi Yuan: So e-Portfolios mainly include reflections?
Mr Lo: Reflections. Your evidence of who you are beyond school. Why should I
give you a $150,000 scholarship when you both have 5As? How do you
differentiate yourself? What is your competitive advantage? Its not just
between you two, were talking about other JCs.
Zhi Yuan: So you mentioned about podcasts and uploading videos. Are these more
futuristic or...?
Mr Lo: No, a lot of you saw the TV screens. We had a video production workshop,
it was oversubscribed. Some of the things that they did were amazing.
One day we taught them how to shoot videos, write storyboards, use
lighting. All that is actually for your PW subject. Were having an e-Portfolio
workshop, and maybe if youre interested do sign up. Its to help you start
out with your portfolio. We wanna do beyond the grades because we know
we cannot make a difference in grades, nor e-Learning makes a difference
in grades. Using Blackboard and e-Portfolio, what it does is that it creates
value. Individual and personal value.
Zhi Yuan: You mentioned a lot about mindsets of students and parents which are
hindering---
Mr Lo: Im not saying hindering. They are factors.
Zhi Yuan: Are there other factors on the schools side that may have contributed to
problems?
Mr Lo: Copyrights. In JC, theres no textbooks specifically for JCs. If its
university, unless youre taking H3. If youre not, then its not relevant.
Secondary schools are too simple. So we have to basically publish our
own. Thats why we have a content editor in here where we read the
teachers notes. She will cite and know it came from 4 different sources.
And she will rewrite all the notes and bleach it and become our own in-
house writing style. And now it becomes the schools property. So no other
JC can take. If they do, we can sue them.
Thats how we are Raffles, thats why. And thats one of the reasons why I
love the local polytechnics here, because to support the brand and to do
things that are truly beyond the limits of all schools here in Singapore, you
should be proud to be here now because you may get your scholarship.
This is really as good as it gets. In terms of your experience and education.
Duc Anh: So, will the current e-Learning system be able to substitute tutorial and
lecture based learning in case of, for example, outbreaks?
Mr Lo: It cannot. Are you talking about every single student in Singapore being at
home?
Group: Yeah.
Mr Lo: Cannot. The infrastructure cannot support it. StarHub and mio will
explode. So, even if you can record every single lecture for two years,
which weve done for Biology by the way, we have it, its all in the library.
And we open it up, and youll be lucky to even download a 1MB file word
document.
Zhi Yuan: Ive noticed over at secondary side they have e-Learning days where they
dont attend classes.
Mr Lo: No comment. Because even from the way you say it, I dont think there
was much value right? I can just see it in your face and the way you say it.
I would do things differently and I dont believe in e-Learning weeks.
Nothing will prepare us when it really happens. Well, we do have
strategies. We are actually prepared for immediate action. We will hire a
company to burn CDs and mail it to you.
Jun Lem: So its a just in case kind of thing?
Mr Lo: The other strategy that Ive come up with but is much more costly is to put
everything on CD and hand it to you. Or even download it from Discovery.
When it is time, whichever topic I will give you the password on the
website and you will open it for that topic for that week offline. Its the only
way. Weve thought of all of these things. And Im glad you have
mentioned about it.
But instead, you talk about YOG. You talk about international
competitions. You talk about people getting sick. Were starting to build
that database of videos in the library. Why library? I wanna create an
inconvenience that if you miss something, itd better be for a good reason.
And I dont wanna put all the lectures on the net because if you do, youll
fall asleep in the lecture. So in a way, if you really wanna catch up and you
take your education seriously, go to the library. Everything is there, you
wont miss out. Weve got two years of Biology and Physics up there.
Jun Lem: Are we allowed to take the content out in the form of renting DVDs?
Mr Lo: No, its locked. USB ports are disabled, offline, no network. Just view it
there. Because if that stuff, our stuff, gets out of hand and its on the
internet, uh uh uh, no good.
Zhi Yuan: So will there be new inputs to the system for just this upcoming month?
Mr Lo: Yes. Well Ive just finished evaluation. What we have is called automated
lecture capturing system, ALCS. In all five LTs, the nerve centre is here, we
can control all of the recordings in the LT, and it stores it into video format,
and I could do editing right from my desk. And every single lecture can be
recorded and streamed with our video streaming server.
So I am preparing for those YOG. But they wont be out until September.
But Im already talking to HODs on how to prepare these two or three
hundred students that are missing. I think well be quite busy by then. Do
go to the library and one of the PCs, and look at the Biology ones. Youll
see every single lecture there. Every single topic.
Jun Lem: Other than Biology I heard there was a mention of Physics?
Mr Lo: Yeah, weve started doing Physics. Wait till you see some stuff we do.
Have you gone through Circular Motion? Mr Kadir did those videos.
Instead of reading a textbook, now everything in 6 minutes, right away you
understand it better instead of reading it, you could visualize it. For those
who missed, well, heres it. For those who attended class and still not fully
understand, can be reinforced with those videos. Thats on the net. Im the
one who uploaded it.
Jun Lem: Is the Education Technology Department coming up with other ways to
supplement learning? Like you talked about having different types of
learner-oriented programmes?
Mr Lo: Thats a long term programme. Were at something that I cannot say,
because its still being strategised. But the thing is within three years, we
are exceeding what the government requires. And we came from zero
technology 3 years ago. Nearly zero. If you talk about absolute progress
and then you compare it to high schools, junior colleges, or even colleges
in the states in Europe, we may be slightly behind. But in terms of
infrastructure and the quality of content that we are creating and
publishing on our own, weve exceeded national standards. But we dont
to say so much. As soon as we say a lot, then people we catch up. Gotta
make sure we got a few more steps ahead of them, so we create that cost
barrier and expertise and skills barrier, and no one will ever catch up.
So your pilot project, can I comment on it?
Jun Lem: Sure. Were actually quite happy, because from the interview weve just
had for the past hour or so, I think our general approach is already
incorrect, because if you do a simple Google search, therere very little e-
Learning or Education Technology statistics that are available. So we dont
know exactly what schools are doing except the fact that they have e-
Learning week, they are using LMSes now.
Mr Lo: Just remember that the LMS, Blackboard is only the home. What makes a
place livable and learnable is your interior designing, or your content.
So my comment is, you can apply some push strategy to your teachers.
But thats like telling your parents how they should spend their money. You
have to position it differently. What is more viable, you dont have to get
every single CT class. Get a few to pilot this and have control groups.
Have a very cohesive, everyone on the same page, let the students
contribute. If you have a class of 25 and 6 of them are in YOG, let the other
19 support this. Peer teaching.
Peer learning is one of the more motivating methods to learn. You learn
from each other, youre more interesting, you have more views. And when
you teach someone something, you automatically learn faster, because
youre being pressured to understand the concept. So why cant you have
the rest of the class contribute your own material. I would even give certain
leaders in that class your own subject to manage, meaning I would give
you a pilot content creator account. That would be more interesting, and
that would send a very strong signal to teachers that the availability of
content and how useful it is for students learning can be done. Its to
signal to them Education Technology has its place in learning.
If it works and you understand the process, what are your pros and cons,
what are your hardships, do more of the right things, do less of the wrong
things, why cant you implement and cookie-cut this concept for every
single CT class, and then you actually start building your own CCA club.
Active Learners. Then, we could really start working together. I will provide
whatever infrastructure you need.
Jun Lem: Do we have to get the schools approval first?
Mr Lo: I own that platform. I am the administrator and also not trying to pull my
weight but Im Head of Education Technology. So any pilot programmes
are greatly encouraged. Im looking for student initiated programmes such
as this. How you want to do, Im not going to manage it, but if you ask me
questions, I will comment. Should you do as a class, or should you get a
whole group of students in Physics. Only do for one subject. And serve the
YOG students that are taking Physics. And use that as a pilot.
You set your goals too broadly, and you want to do every single subject,
you will kill yourself in terms of logistics nightmares. And number two is
you have to spread your efforts too thin. Focus on one subject and focus
on a particular target audience, your YOG. But whats different is that
were not teachers. We are collating content for sharing different views. If
you have say 20 students and theyre writing notes in class, therell be an
editor which collates everything and put it into a good learning format.
The learning format is your exploration on what Education Technology
should be used. How it should be communicated. What is great
Instructional design. And we need help in that media aspect. Anything to
do with media and infrastructure, I can 99% say yes. Ill be here in school
earlier than you. Because you also need support. and I will support that.
3 and a half years ago, I wrote a proposal to RI. And I said, by hook or by
crook. It was a 3 year plan. First year will be a pilot. And subsequently, if
adopted, I would stay. If not, I would leave. And I will have to say its one of
the most exciting schools to be in to do e-Learning. I still cannot wait to
come to work everyday. Having that big flashy title, its a byproduct. I dont
care about the title. I just love doing this. Imagine getting paid for doing
something that you love. Its the best.
- thanks, end of interview -
Appendix B
Interview Transcript
Associate Professor Chng Huang Hoon
Director
Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL)
National University of Singapore (NUS)
DATE: 24th August 2010
TIME: 3:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
VENUE: CDTL, NUS
- introductions, salutations, greetings -
Prof Chng: Tell me about your project.
Zhi Yuan: So basically were trying to explore... At first we set out to propose the
greater utilization of e-Learning in our school. We think e-Learnings
underutilized.
Prof Chng: Is that your own perception or the schools perception?
Zhi Yuan: It was our perception. So we met up with the Education Technology
Department, and they gave us some insights on the state of e-Learning in
our school. So then we realized that actually we have a lot of facilities. Its
just that because of the rigorous curriculum, the content heavy nature of
our curriculum, its quite hard to make use of e-Learning effectively. And so
we tried to see if we could get students to initiate instead of just being a
recipient of content on e-Learning, we tried to see if we could get students
to create content and share with their fellow peers without too much
involvement from teachers, cause we dont want to add workload to the
teachers. So we started a pilot project with our class. So what we did so
far was we have students recording solutions to questions and posting
them online, also because we have our A-Level SPA just recently.
Prof Chng: A-Level what?
Jun Lem: SPA. Science Practical Assessment.
Prof Chng: Okay.
Zhi Yuan: So what we did was before our SPA - we actually filmed down what to do
and what not to do for SPA, like how to draw graphs. So we filmed
everything down to the details. And then it was uploaded. Then, we also
uploaded summary of--
Prof Chng: So wait, in other words you detected a bit of a problem or issue with your
IT usage in your school? So your group launched on a kind of a project,
correct?
Jun Lem: Its not really that much of a problem. Its more of an improvement thing.
Prof Chng: I know, its some issue that you want to explore. Then this group of four of
you launched into this thing. Why are you doing this? I mean, are you
meeting some course requirement? Is this a group project that your
teacher asked you to do, or?
Jun Lem: This is basically under our Project Work. Under the A-Level syllabus. But
our group is quite interested in this in the first place, so we thought we
would launch a pilot project.
Prof Chng: So basically you all couldve done any project?
Jun Lem: Not any project.
Prof Chng: This is a project that you identified?
Jun Lem: Yes.
Prof Chng: So, this will meet some project requirement?
Jun Lem: Yeah.
Prof Chng: Okay. Thats what I mean by context. Then, when you say underutilization,
can you elaborate a little bit of that? What does underutilization mean?
What is the current usage pattern like?
Jun Lem: As personal users of the system itself, we realized that there is very little
content uploaded on to the system, which is based on Blackboard.
Prof Chng: Who is uploading these content?
Jun Lem: In our secondary school our teachers used to do it.
Prof Chng: What level are you in?
Jun Lem: We are in JC1.
Prof Chng: JC1. Okay. So towards the end of JC1?
Jun Lem: Yeah.
Prof Chng: Okay. So during secondary school your teachers were loading course
content online?
Jun Lem: That was also partially because we were on the Raffles Programme, which
had a less rigorous programme compared to the O-Level syllabus. So we
had changes in syllabus et cetera so that theres more freedom.
Prof Chng: You have more room to do other creative things?
Jun Lem: Yep.
Prof Chng: Okay. And, youre saying that compared to the course content uploaded
online, what youre experiencing right now in A-Levels, your teachers are
doing less of that compared to your secondary school teachers.
Jun Lem: Yes.
Prof Chng: But thats because it is this so-called flexibility in your curriculum in your
A-Levels. Is this... its actually less right? Your curriculum right now in your
A-Levels is more rigid compared to what you had in the secondary school
Raffles Programme.
Jun Lem: Yes.
Prof Chng: Okay.
Jun Lem: Generally its also because teachers are more focused on moving out
content. So they normally dont have the time to do this. They would rather
spend more time on planning the syllabus and helping students. So not
only is it underutilized, it has become a place where teachers actually fear
using, if I may use the term.
Prof Chng: Are your teachers aware of these sorts of sentiments? I assume that you
are in some way representative of your peers in the schools, that generally
your friends also feel that there could have been more utilization in online
learning.
Jun Lem: We did a survey of sample size of 150 people. A lot of them said that they
would rather have more utilization of this as well as different kinds of
content other than just uploading PDFs or slides.
Prof Chng: What is the reason for wanting more online stuff? Isnt face-to-face better
than online stuff?
Jun Lem: Face-to-face is better than online stuff. But we cannot be face-to-face with
someone 24/7. And sometimes--
Prof Chng: Why do you need 24/7? Dont you want some rest time?
Jun Lem: Generally its because students learn at different paces, and they learn
differently as well. Like some people are visual learners, some people are
very to-the-book kind of person. So what e-Learning does is that we do
not expect it to replace what teachers do, but rather to complement the
system. And for other students who cannot understand what the teachers
are trying to explain, we will put it in a different perspective.
Prof Chng: So right now what your teachers are doing even in limited ways is basically
static course content online. Just loading files rather than interactive
media. So its Word documents or PowerPoint slides, that sort of thing. So
you want a range of that sort of material. Okay. So why me? How did you
find me?
Jun Lem: Well, we searched quite a bit because we realized that what some of my
seniors who are in universities are saying is that its slightly different from
what it is in junior colleges or secondary schools. But...
Prof Chng: Are your seniors here in NUS?
Jun Lem: All three universities. NUS, NTU and SMU.
Prof Chng: So what is it that they are saying? That we do more online stuff?
Jun Lem: They generally cant explain how its different, its just that they know that
its not... because universities dont employ participatory learning, thats
what they said.
Prof Chng: What does participatory learning mean?
Jun Lem: Students coming in to contribute as well. So they were wondering, cause
you are more qualified to speak...
Prof Chng: Dont know about that! Ill try to answer your questions the best I can.
Jun Lem: I mean, for instance what are the main differences between the e-Learning
system in the university compared to JC as what weve just explained a
bit?
Prof Chng: I am not in touch with JC because its been more than many many decades
since I was in JC. Where we dont even expect, in fact, we have no e-
Learning whatsoever when I was a student. But thats too long ago. So Im
just basing it on what you have told me, as an accurate picture of whats
happening in your school, for example. Maybe we shouldnt even
generalize as JCs because we dont know.
Hwa Chong for example I know does a lot. I visited Hwa Chong very
recently. As one of the future schools, they do a lot of online stuff. So
maybe we shouldnt say JCs in general. lets stick to just your school. Erm.
Any student coming into NUS for the first time - and I cant speak for the
other universities either - one of the first encounters that they have is
something called the Integrated Virtual Learning Environment, IVLE for
short. The name is quite transparent. Its like your webCT, your
Blackboard. Basically its a course online management system. For
lecturers to load their course content so that every course or module has
its own course page. So its already created for us. As a lecturer, I go in
there and fill in my aims in school. My assessment mode. Everything about
my course. Lesson plans. So it has so many features on it, and in fact it
keeps expanding every year. Its entirely up to individual lecturers to use up
every single feature. So if Im that kind of tech-savvy lecturer who feels the
need to use up every single feature, I can go from A to Z, basically.
But like many colleagues, we tend to use a small subset, the very basic
necessary features, the stuff where we put in, we want a discussion forum
to discuss issues with our students outside classroom. But its
asynchronous. We want to post our lecture notes, so we put it in the work
bin. We want to email our students to make mass announcements, we
access the email roster. Or we put it on the notice board or announcement
board on this virtual space. Instead of telling students to go to the library
to look up a book, we can turn that chapter into an e-Resource, digitalize
the chapter and link it with the library. So students can download the
readings directly. So we can do as many things as we want to do but these
are some of the very basic things. I can go beyond that and do MSN chat
with my students on this platform, so its synchronous. I can do online
community things. I can link it up with all kinds of things that I want to link
it up with, whether its a blog or a fuller course website elsewhere. So its
entirely up to me, how adventurous I am, how tech savvy I am, and
whether I see the need for these things.
So you get our lecturers who are extremely tech savvy, they have
everything. Students can get in touch with them multiple ways. Do any
form of engagement that is comfortable for them. So you have a whole
range of things. Its there, not everybody uses it, but those who use it to
the fullest extent can engage in all kinds of learning. So everything all that
is under one platform called the IVLE. We dont really need to go beyond
that, but there are lecturers who do. They create Facebook links with their
students. They have their own course blogs and wikis to collaborate with
their students in terms of lecture notes, that sort of things, or develop an
issue or a discussion from the subject. All this is very individual taste and
inclination. So I think maybe this is different in that... when you come into a
system like that, you already have an online course management system
that basically everybody uses.
Were in the age where... when it was first introduced, I think somewhere in
the mid 1990s. Because I still remember. Ive been here forever. I still
remember the time when I go to class with transparencies and OHP stuff.
Overhead projectors. I even use the whiteboard. But now when we go to
class we just bring our thumbdrive, plug everything in, and access things
from there to give a lecture. So those were the days when there was no
IVLE. We bring stacks and stacks of handouts to class. So when you teach
a class of 400, you can get 3 clerical assistants or students to help you
bring 4 stacks or 400 copies. But now we just go... at one point with a
floppy disk, now with a thumbdrive. So things have really moved on.
So in many ways, the default has been raised in a climate like that. A
lecturer who comes in and who does not use IVLE at all is a rarity. In fact
almost zero, maybe the 1% if theres such a creature. Most people have a
basic page. Even if their basic page contains not much. Its already created
anyway, because the computer centre creates these things for us. Its
there. Its a question of how much info you have. In fact a lot of people
have so much info that students may not actually read everything. Just the
other day, because NUS has just started term. This is our week 3, I think.
So about two weeks ago I overheard a conversation on the bus, quite
obviously a first-year undergraduate student, still trying to get used to the
climate. And she was complaining bitterly about IVLE. You know like,
what is this thing man?! never heard of it. cannot find anything. So she
was going on and on, and a friend is basically trying to tell her to calm
down, that it is extremely user friendly, and before you know it it will be
second nature. And it is very user friendly. Its just that she didnt know
where to find the notes.
So I guess the long and short of it is that the climate already sets the
indicator at this level. Everybody comes in, its a default that youll have to
learn and youll have to know. Luckily, its a very failsafe, almost zero
learning curve kind of system. If I can use it, anybody can, because Im not
tech-savvy. So thats how I know its quite zero learning curve. But in any
case, my centre is in charge of giving workshops to students and staff
about introductory to IVLE. And there are people who come to these
workshops, although you dont get hundreds of people coming because
just learning from a peer or a manual, youll know how to get it set up quite
right and easily.
So maybe thats the difference. We already have that culture thats already
built into the system. If your teachers are not using it, its perhaps because
you dont have a system that is sort of mandated across your school to
be used. Its not really mandated, its just that its an operating system that
we all have. Its like the way we are equipped with PCs. So, everybody has
to use it, so we use it. So I think that might be the difference that your
friend is alluding to. Do you understand what Im trying to say? So our
starting point is already different.
Chen He: So do you think e-Learning at the JC level will prepare them for the system
in the university?
Prof Chng: Definitely. Recently I went to visit the future schools. As you know, theres
about half a dozen of future schools. Basically a few schools in Singapore
at the primary, secondary and JC level were identified to be future schools.
Basically IT equipped, driven kind of schools. And the reason why I went
to visit is because I want to know what is happening at your level in order
to know how to advance at our level. My biggest fear is that you are very
tech savvy. We all work with the assumption that todays young people like
you are all tech savvy. You all have your Facebook, your blogs, your
iPhones and whatnot. Our joke among us is that all we have to do is to
give our children our handphone and say Program it for me. Cause you
all seem to know how to programme it without instruction manuals
whereas even when I read the manual I still dont know what its about. So
youre tech savvy in that sense.
So our concern is that if youre raised in schools that already use all these
things, or you already know all these things as part of your social
networking - you work on Wikis and blogs - then when you come to a
university like us, and were on chalk and blackboard, then its like you
walk back in time. So we need to know what you already know, so that we
can stay 3 steps ahead of you, or at least stay at your level. So that was
the reason for our wanting to know, and thats what my hidden agenda for
wanting to talk to you. To find out what RI does.
So anyway, whatever you learn at your level, when you come out, hopefully
it will be much more in sync. If you dont learn and then you come in, and
then you get hit by Wikis and blogs, you might feel a bit uncomfortable for
a short time, but you will adapt quite easily, because I know these things
are all not so difficult, right. But if youre already savvy, and then you come
in, and you may meet a lecturer like me who doesnt use either, then you
may be feeling either how refreshing, I get to learn things in the most
basic way after all, which appeals to some people. There are people who
are bored with yet another PowerPoint presentation. Or you may say that
oh my goodness, how old fashioned. This doesnt wake me up. So
sometimes some of us engage in a lot of slides and colorful sound effects
and whatnot, in part because we felt that as part of student engagement
we have to make the lesson more than lively. And more than lively usually
translates into good use of IT.
Although we have colleagues who beg to differ, that sometimes the way to
engage students is through a really good conversation. But unfortunately,
that doesnt always appeal to all students. Some students dont know a
good conversation when they hear it. So, at the end of the day from a
teaching-learning point of view, what we have to do is to match learning
styles to teaching styles. And one of the first things weve got to do is to
determine that for every class that comes to us as lecturers, we have to
figure out a general temperature of this class. What sorts of students are
we getting. In every sense of those terms, as much as its relevant to our
teaching. Everything from your competence level in the area to your IT
preferences to your learning styles - are you visual learners or are you
verbal types? Theres a common assumption that you are all visual. I am
not convinced that you are all necessarily visual just because you belong
to Gen Y. Im not convinced that you are all tech savvy just because we
have a lot of equipment and gadgets around us.
I think that one thing many of us are fairly agreed about is that even if
youre tech savvy, you know how to operate on all these platforms
available, you may not know how to use them for learning purposes. You
know how to use them for gaming, but not for learning. So in our
responsibility in using these IT platforms is to use it for learning. So I think
in answer to your question, the more in sync we are, the better it is for you
in your transition into the next level. And also for us to teach you back and
to engage you as a learner. And on the other hand, its also something to
do with learning styles. I think this sort of common assumption that you
are all one kind of learner, visual, tech savvy, is also incorrect. Because we
have encountered students through our feedback system that there are
students who say that I hope its not yet another PowerPoint. So, the world
is a lot more mixed than we always assume it to be.
Zhi Yuan: You mentioned that one class is 400 students.
Prof Chng: Those are lectures.
Zhi Yuan: So do you have tutorials?
Prof Chng: Again, we have various systems. There are still many courses that operate
on a lecture-tutorial system. So you may have usually one lecture a week
or two for that particular course, and usually one tutorial a week. There are
variations to that. The one-tutorial-a-week tend to be the one hour tutorial
slot. But there are people who nowadays have a tutorial that lasts for two
hours. And then there are people who say that instead of having two hour
tutorial sessions once a week, let me have a two hour tutorial session once
every two weeks.
So there are various variations to this lecture-tutorial system depending on
whatever the lecturer wants to do about the course. They have that
flexibility. I have done tutorials, of course, but not for my own courses. We
dont just teach our own courses, we also help to teach other colleagues
courses. So for example when I was in the Department of English
Language and Literature, I taught three full courses of my own. That
means I created those courses and I taught them all by myself.
Occasionally Id co-teach it with a colleague, share half time or whatever it
is. And then on semesters when I have a light teaching load, where I can
afford to take more other things, I would help other colleagues who need
tutors to give tutorial. That means I dont give any of the lectures in that
course but Im able to teach small group teaching through the tutorial
system. So that means Im a tutor, not a lecturer for that course. Like an
extra pair of hands you know, for the mass lectures.
And then I personally have never liked the lecture-tutorial system because
I find that its very constraining in its format, I dont find effective teaching.
What Ive always done is requested my department to give me these three-
hour slots like 11 to 2 or 4 to 7 or whatever it is, where I do everything with
my class within that three hours, everything from mini lecturers, to on-the-
spot assignments, tutorials, chats and whatnot. So I improvise. I have the
whole group within that classroom for three hours and I do everything with
them and I meet them just once a week instead of the one-tutorial-one-
lecture sort of thing. And I find that to be much more useful. So various
kinds of things. And it really depends on lecturer, on the module, questions
and so forth.
But your question about IT is really not dependent on any of these formats.
Whether to use IT or not to use IT, can be employed or not be employed in
any of these lectures, tutorials and seminars. The only possible
complication is seminars. The very idea, if you tell people when youre
conducting a seminar, I think the first thought is that its supposed to be
interactive. Its supposed to be a dialogue. Were here to discuss, not to
disseminate monologic lectures. I tell you this and you copy. Were
supposed to discuss an issue and debate about it, and so forth. Theres
more active learning going on in a seminar. Which then means that if that is
true, if youre faithful to the idea of a seminar, many people find it difficult
to employ e-Learning, because it tends to take away that interactivity,
particularly if you employ the asynchronous platform. So if you use a
discussion board, where I post a question and answer, and I may not take
hours or days before I answer back that kind of thing, then that
interactivity is kind of lost. The conversation can die from not sustaining it
immediately. So there are people who find it hard to do e-Learning.
But then, these days with MSN chats and different kinds of chatrooms,
different kinds of webcam, audios that you can add to your static slides, in
some ways theres no excuse that you cant introduce interactivity even in
a seminar through e-Learning platform. But it requires much more
ingenious planning and what not. Because like it or not, your remark about
teachers not using it to the fullest, just sort of pasting static notes for
example. Theres a reason for that right? Its easy. Its easy to use the e-
Learning platform that way. To write my notes at my leisure and then just
load. But its much harder for me to plan my lecture in a way that can be
delivered through Camtasia or any of those more sophisticated software
that actually talks to you in way that its engaging. Because it means I
need to go to a lab, and record it in a way that is hearable and add the
right elements, the video augmentation, to make everything go in sync...
that takes a lot of time and effort and planning.
Jun Lem: So far Ive heard that from what youve said, students dont really have
much of a part in the e-Learning platform of the university?
Prof Chng: Well, like I said, it really depends on the style of the lecturer. And it
depends on what platform they use. If I were to just write up my lecture
notes, put it into a PowerPoint slide presentation or just leave it in a Word
document, I can easily just attach it as a file on the workbin and store it,
and disseminate it. But if Im the kind of lecturer who actually wants a
discussion out of it, who wants something beyond this basic thing, then
either I would change the platform that I use. I would say, let me pose you
a question, give you some time to think about it, and lets get on MSN chat
and start discussing at 8pm and talk for the next two hours about this
issue. I can achieve the same thing that my loaded file hopefully could
have achieved, but I do it on a slightly different platform, and I do it in a
very different format.
So that really depends on the style of the lecturer, the lecturers inclination
towards IT, and also philosophy. Because any of us, we must believe that
this is a better way of delivering a lesson before we want to invest time
and energy in doing it. If theres no necessity for me to go that way, why
would I want to do it, because it requires a lot more time and effort, and
those are things we dont have all over. Were all extremely busy like your
teachers. So the only people who will do it is people who are forced to do
it for whatever reasons, institutional reasons, or they have to do it, or they
actually want to do it. So it really depends. Its not something that you can
say one-size-fits-all. Its really purpose and skills and inclination and what
our views are about IT.
Chen He: We believe that when students participate actively in the e-Learning
system, itll make the system more effective. So are there any ways to
encourage their participation?
Prof Chng: Maybe you answer my question first. Why would you assume... lets sort of
examine this assumption a little bit. Why does it necessarily follow that just
because you participate in this course development that therefore we will
be more effective?
Chen He: I think they are more involved and they will be more interested.
Prof Chng: Sure. Those are the good reasons and in some ways those are exactly the
sorts of reasons that will motivate some of us to go in that direction. But
that can depend on the level of the students and motivation of students. In
any class theres always... the bigger the class the more varied the
motivation level, the more varied the competence level. So when youre
dealing with classes that are quite big which depends on your tolerance
level, we do have classes that go up to 400 or more. There are always very
strong students, very weak students, and many in between. And many in
between are just sort of moving along. Not highest in motivation, but can
cope. Not particularly wanting to actively learn but they can do if you give
them a test. So, whenever you have these sorts of mixed scenarios, that
sort of assumption doesnt always hold, because engagement is always a
two-way affair, and you can only engage if youre willing and youre
competent at some level.
So there are students who kind of need a bit more spoonfeeding before
they can get up their motivation to be engaged. Therere students who are
already naturally engaging. There are those who, if you dont engage them,
you will lose them, because theyre such great students and theyre on
their own path. So you have to look at what youre looking at in terms of
what level your students are.
So sometimes our so-called level 1000 courses. We go by the thousands.
Level 1000 is basically your introductories all the way up to level 6000
which is your PhD. So if Im teaching a 1000 level introduction to Biology,
in some ways I can assume some primary knowledge. After all, youre
straight out of A-Levels. You all would have taken Biology. How much
depth, thats debatable. How much you have retained of your A-Level
education in Biology, that is another thing to be seen, but whatever it is,
we assume that you know what all these basic glossary terms are.
Herbivores and whatnot, that sort of thing. So we can kind of start giving a
lecture about something without having to back to square one as it were,
but we need to feed enough content before you can engage in
conversation about some debate in Biology that we are concerned about
at this level.
So, if we are at week 1 or week 2, at a level 1000 class like this, the
engagement level may not be the best way to start with on your part. But
by the time they get to week 10, or by the time you are a level 2000
student, or you are an elective in Biology - elective would be the advanced
modules - you can imagine that the format should change. I should not
assume basic knowledge anymore. I should be able to engage you in an
intelligent conversation. You may not know everything, but you know
enough to be able to find the answers if you need to, somewhere. In text
or through a journal paper or whatnot, you already have enough skills. So
it depends on levels. This again of course is simplistic, because just
because youre level 1000 doesnt mean that you know zero. You know
something, and sometimes its the ingenuity of the lecturer to bring out
what you know.
So to that extent I totally agree with you that even at the basic level we can
do what you propose, to make you a co-facilitator in this conversation, so
that you co-create this course with me. That requires a lot of skill from me
to bring you out as it were. And if I can successfully do that, it can
successfully trigger a lot of very positive things. But I wonder how many of
this kind we have in the class of 400. Because in a class of 400 you
basically get your normal distribution. The 20% A, the 20% F, and the 60%
in between, you know? Its almost like a human nature kind of thing, you
know? Its not like as a teacher I want to pass two people, and fail two
people, and promote the rest. But people have a way of distributing
themselves in that way.
I always tell my students I dont have to fail you, you have to fail yourself,
because basically youre all capable of passing what Im going to teach
you. Its a question of whether you are wanting to learn it and find a way to
articulate it in a way thats passable. I guess in answer to that question
about co-teaching and co-learning, therere so many factors to take into
consideration. The level of the course, which may or may not always
match with the level of the learner, that can be a key factor. Its a bit of a
proxy for the level of competence of the learner. While its not always true
that level 1000 means zero knowledge from the learners part, for the most
parts it probably is. How much co we can do, really depends on how
many of A students that we have. Its possible that in a very strong cohort
- my good luck is that the brightest of the bright sign up for this course
and theyre all highly motivated - I dont have to do a lot of work to even
motivate them - they would all just want to learn and theyre all curious so I
just have to throw a lot of things at them and they will learn. And they will
find out.
But like I said, in a big class, usually you get your fair share of people who
are just going to sit there, relax, and say you tell me. So getting them to
do any co is an uphill task. In fact theyre sitting there saying Youre the
teacher. You ought to tell me what to do. Why are you asking me to
contribute to the course? So attitude is another thing. Aptitude is also
another thing. Its not so simple as to say that why I dont let you teach
half of it? There are many reasons why I should let you teach half of it or
contribute half of it, or some portion of it, but theres also a lot of obstacles
as to why even when given the chance you may not be able to do so, or
they may be also other reasons where I as a lecturer do not feel inclined to
do so. Because everything we are dealing with peoples attitude towards
teaching and their philosophy.
So there are teachers who believe, who love the sound of their own voice -
on and on and on - they dont want anyone else to interrupt them. There
are so many things that they think are wonderful and they just want to talk.
But there are teachers who refuse to talk and be totally socratic as it were.
Ill ask a question and you all just keep on going. So, that can be very
hard-going for some students. What does he want us to do? He just sits
there and waits for us. So, there are so many things on both sides of the
fence that we have to deal with before we can truly call it co.
I have done some amount of these collaborative teaching and learning with
my students. The reason why I do that is because of my own philosophy.
Im basically a feminist scholar. And feminist pedagogy is very much into
democratic classroom management. A central tenet is to share power and
demolish power structures as much as its humanly possible. And the
teacher-student thing is very much one of these power structures that are
institutionally defined. Teachers have the powers, students generally dont.
And so, within a feminist framework, we want to try and equalize that as
much as its possible. And one way to do that is to do co-teaching and
learning, and not sort of say the teacher knows it all and the student is
nothing.
So what I do is that because my class has to start from day 1 we had to
introduce something to get this class going, so I have to start at least week
1 and week 2. But what I do is I always present my class with a short list of
possible topics and I would say that 6-8 topics for that particular subject.
And out of these eight, they have to choose 5, whatever the number is. I
organize my semesters differently each time I teach to keep myself from
being bored. On most semesters I will organize it topically because in any
subject you can have many different things to look at. And theres not
enough time to introduce everything. And theres no need. You just need to
introduce the central principles. I tell myself that I have 10 weeks in the
semester. 10 good weeks to play with in terms of introducing content. Let
me give my students the choice of at least 4 to 5 of those weeks, what
content they want to learn.
So, I would choose 5 myself, assuming one week one topic. Ill put the first
three topics upfront are mine, the last two topics are mine, in between I
have 5 weeks that are blank. I give them a list of 6 or 8 or whatever it is
and let them choose 5 and itll be lined up into these blank weeks. So they
vote. Majority wins. This fulfills many purposes. When students define their
own learning in these terms, the topic of their choice, they are self-
motivated to learn. Because they chose the topics. So if you choose it, you
must be interested in some way. I dont have to tell you why theyre
exciting. So I win already when you chose it. Im already ready to teach it
because when I present you with the short list, Im prepared to teach
anything from it. And that list will align with my curriculum objectives
anyway, so whatever you choose cannot be wrong. So students are happy,
and Im happy, because I meet my course aims, you get your freedom to
choose at least half the time.
So I do that in my courses all the time, and its always been a very
successful formula because you dont feel that you are imposing on
people what they should learn, and they get at least the illusion that they
are choosing, which they are and they are not. They are choosing within
constraints. But at least they still get a choice of 5 weeks of the time, and
they get to learn what they want to learn and I get to fulfill my aims. So
everyone is happy. But that is because I believe in what I just said. And
thats why I take this approach.
Now some lecturers do not feel that students know enough to be able to
choose the right things. Well I beg to differ. Not that I think students know
that much, but if you constrain their choices, they cant choose wrongly.
Its when you tell them choose anything, then they choose really off-the-
wall things that dont fit. But if you give them a short list to choose from,
anything you choose will be right because Ive already constrained it. This
is what we call scaffolding. The lecturer does his/her job to scaffold
correctly. Then students cant quite go wrong. Guided choices.
Some lecturers just feel that their curriculum is so structured that they
cannot vary the topic. Now, that, I reserve judgment because we all teach
different things. In the hard sciences, for example - are you all science
students or arts students?
Group: Science students.
Prof Chng: So Science for example, like Chemistry, Ive been told that at the university
level for your Chemistry training you will need to learn how to produce
these sorts of crystals, you need to learn how to do this, how to do that...
basically all kinds of lab procedures and whatnot that you all have to
master. So by the time you graduate as a Chemistry major, you cant say
you dont know how to titrate, or what crystal that is, or how to turn that
into something else. All this that they have showed you week after week.
Which means that the number of weeks that they have with you in a
semester, they have to devote to teaching all these processes.
They say they cant change. I dont know, because Im not a Chemistry
person. So I dont know why there are only these things. I guess if we take
the more extreme and obvious example of Medicine, you need to learn
these procedures. Theres no variation to these procedures. Taking
temperature is taking temperature. Taking blood pressure is taking blood
pressure. I cant vary those topics, and say oh, lets not learn how to take
blood pressure. Lets just do something else more elective and more
exciting. And then you graduate as a medical student and you never
know how to handle that machine. This is what we call a structured
curriculum. There are 10 things you need to learn as this sort of student
before you graduate. Then maybe they cant vary.
Im a Humanities person. I do text analysis. Whether we analyze this text
or that text is really irrelevant as far as Im concerned. Whats important is
that you know how to approach the text. Thats all. So then I let you
choose the text. You want to choose a Harry Potter book, so be it if thats
your interest. You want to choose manga comic, so be it. A text is a text.
Ill teach you the principles on how to analyze them. I dont care whether
its hydrochloric or sulfuric acid, its the same to me, but its obviously not
the same to the Chemistry syllabus, because they will produce different
things. So, these are constraints that perhaps why they cant allow such
freedom of co-teaching and learning.
What Im trying to say to you is that whatever your questions are, you have
to keep on defining what the constraints are, and what some of the pros
and cons because theres no straight answer, really, to any of these. And
its not just because were university lecturers and were fond of giving
these grey answers kind of approach. Because this is reality. Its no longer
the answer is A. The answer is A because, and only because, or if and
only if B applies. Thats what Im saying in all these responses Ive been
giving so far.
Jun Lem: The syllabus for certain subjects like Sciences are very content heavy and
they are very rigid. So if lets say we put it back to the JC level, how to do
we strike a balance between what e-Learning can do and what the
pedagogy is?
Prof Chng: Do you know our Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School? Its a Duke
University and NUS collaboration. Their campus is NGH general hospital
grounds. Its a graduate medical school. Because as you know medical
school in Singapore is an undergraduate programme unlike the US and so
we have already undergraduate programme - Yong Loo Lin School of
Medicine. They have their graduate education for medical students or non-
medical students wanting to pursue a GMS. I mentioned it because they
do a form of pedagogy that they call team lead. Basically it will answer this
question that you have just posed.
Its not just Duke-NUS. Some people call it problem-based learning, PBL.
Like Republic Polytechnic. Entirely PBL. Thats what they mark themselves
up to be. Basically its not true that just because you have a rigid
structured curriculum that you cannot introduce flexibility or other forms of
teaching. The way to do it is this, and the rest of us are copying it sooner
or later, I think - it actually makes a lot of sense in tomorrows world in
particular. We recognize that we are already into the 21st century. And the
21st century means a lot of things. You might have heard people saying on
and on about 21st century learner. What it means is that we assume that
you guys are all facing the world where the economy - not just in economic
terms but in global economy terms - its an uncertain world.
So basically when you pursue a course or study in a university, whether its
in Chemistry or in some subject in the Arts... at one point in time back
when I was a student we are trained to do a particular job. So you go into
engineering and you graduate as an engineer student. Youre expecting to
go into the engineering field. If I do English, one of the expectations is that
one day I might teach English. So our job and our education is pretty much
aligned, but its no longer the case for quite a number of decades now and
particularly will not be the case tomorrow. Because by the time you
graduate with whatever degree, basically your content knowledge will be
outdated. Because information moves extremely fast in the 21st century.
Things change all the time, and many things that you are prepared for will
not exist when you graduate.
So then, for the so-called 21st century learner, how should we equip you
with flexible skills such that whatever kind of economy you graduate into, it
will work for you. So if its an uncertain economy, we have to give you skills
that will be true for a lifetime. So, what kind of skills are those? They are
skills where you are articulate. No matter how the world changes, if you
are a good speaker or writer, it will work. No uncertain world or certain
world will want to have a bad speaker or writer. If you are a good thinker, it
will also work. If you are a good analyst, it will work. So that sort of so-
called soft skills, life skills that we are talking about, not content
knowledge. So content knowledge is the baseline, you need to know just
because if you want to work anything thats related with the industry, if you
dont know the basics, you cant even start. If you dont know what a
hammer is, you cant do carpentry. Its that kind of thing.
But beyond that its not useful, but I have no ifs. Beyond that its important
that youre a good speaker, writer, thinker, analyst and all that stuff. This
method that were talking about then is that we should get away from
knowledge transmission. Good classroom time is too valuable for
knowledge transmission because basically if I give you a textbook, and
you are a smart learner, and I teach you how to learn, you can find the
answers in the textbook yourself or Googling all the wonderful websites
that I link you up with. Not just anywhere but the good websites. So if I
teach you information literacy, which I know some of your schools are
already teaching you - to learn how to harness information, to look for
information and to know how to collate that information, process it - I
would have given you a very valuable skill that I dont need to spend time
teaching you in the classroom.
What we can do then is that - what Duke-NUS does is for the medical
students and their graduate education - they would preassign very
targeted chapter or chapters, either the week before or the days before.
Before the lesson itself. And say, as homework, read these two sections or
read this one chapter, focus on XYZ. So the students must already do their
homework, so this is where your active learning comes in. You cant just sit
back and wait for the teacher. Youve got to do some amount of work. So
your homework is to get this done. When you come into class, instead of
me lecturing about this chapter that you have read, if youve not read it, if
Im a science teacher and Im going to teach you about Parkinsons
disease, well have to start from day one on what its about before I get
into the symptoms or proposed treatment patterns, that sort of thing. But if
I just let you read the standard text of this you would have known all this
information already. Then I save classroom time, I dont go into a lecture
about this, I just go into a problem and say, I have this patient whos
exhibiting all these symptoms. What are we going to do about it?
So this is what classroom time is used for. Instead of disseminating that
baseline info that youve already done your homework on, I go into the
analysis of a problem. And then what they do is that they do different
things. They present this scenario. Sometimes what they did is, let me tell
you exactly what I actually saw them do. They assign this topic on
Parkinsons and then they have this expert standing in front of the class for
about 15 minutes to give a lecture on it. Within that 15 minutes its really
highlighting some of the essentials of Parkinsons. And then they throw in a
worksheet, they say there are three questions on this worksheet on one
scenario about this patient. As a group, you all brainstorm, and then you
put down your answers, 1A, 2B, 3C. Then well give you clickers and as a
group or as individuals you click in your answers. So first you can do your
own work. I give you four clickers, click in your answers. Its registered on
my screen later, how the whole class voted, like those voting games that
you see on TV. No. 1, 49% voted A. 59% voted B, that kind of thing. And
then after youve done that as a group you can discuss and you resolve
your own disagreements. She thought it was 1A, but all of you thought it
was 1B. Either she has to convince you that its 1A, or youll have to agree
as a group that its 1B.
So this is peer learning. That was independent learning. You knew it from
the books, you knew it from the lecture. But now you have peer learning
where either you convince them or they convince you, and then we all
debate about it. And the content expert will come and arbitrate. The
answer is really 1A. Those who say its 1B, explain why you thought it was.
So now youve to articulate your reasons for choosing 1B. And that
requires analysis skills and articulation skill.
So this is what a classroom is used for - to develop all this reasoning,
articulation, listening and thinking skills, and not to give you a lecture and
to copy copy copy. e-Learning comes into it when they use platforms to
do all these things, whether its through their sharing on blogs when they
do collaborative work or through their MSN when they discuss the
scenario. So they can use it to do more. And it has already been done in
many other faculties. So its possible. Its really up to the facilitator, the
lecturer to organize the class that in a way is inviting. I think this is in part
what Hwa Chong is doing. Teachers are doing things on Wiki in particular,
and their students are coming in. Recently Ive heard from Ngee Ann
Secondary School - another school very known for being IT driven - their
principal was introducing us to school initiatives - and I thought it was
quite interesting. They had something called Resurrecting Newton.
Basically the Physics teacher is using MSN chatrooms to engage Physics
students about Physics. Students will ask Physics questions and the
teacher will answer in the name of Newton. Answer it in the way that
Newton would have answered, lets put it that way. So when you ask a
question about gravity, instead of giving the textbook answer or whatever
the answer is, it would give a Newtonian reasoning about it. So this is their
project called Resurrecting Newton through MSN. And they do the same
for literature, whether its Resurrecting Shakespeare. A lot of the answer is
historicized. Like saying, well you know this is the 16th century, and in my
day this irritating individual who is always arguing against me and tells me
the world is not like that... I dont know. Those debates with Galileo and so
on. They would give that sort of answer and say well I firmly believe that
this is the right formula. Which makes it fun for students, because they
understand a little bit about the scientific history, the reasoning that
culminates in a particular discovery or even results in a mistake that made
changes in some way.
So you get the history of science thoroughly apart from understanding the
physical principles. I thought it was a very interesting way of engaging
students and also getting them to learn beyond static, sterile formula. So I
think, sorry for long answers to short questions, but basically the whole
idea is that its really up to the creativity of all of us as teachers and
learners. And how much time and energy we are keen about investing in all
these platforms.
But I think one caveat is that e-Learning is not for everyone. Neither for
every teacher nor for every student. Again it depends on me as a teacher
and you as a learner. e-Learning is not for every time. When we say e-
Learning, we dont mean that lesson 1-12 all must employ some form of e-
Learning all the time. Were saying employ it when it is useful or when it
makes sense. Maybe lesson 1 and 2 I dont need any e-Learning at all.
Straight talk with my students to get to know them, set things going, and
whatnot. Lesson 3 I may be on conference and so I let you do certain
things while I go away so you dont need that physical presence. Since I
am on conference and Im on iPad, iPhone, iWhatever, I can still get in
touch when I want to. So youre not left totally alone, but I dont have to
show up in class. Or you can do some peer learning during the week. And
week 4 Im back I can resume whatever I want to resume. And then in
between, if you believe there ought to be more than 12 hours of learning a
day, then somewhere in the evening, if we have evening activities, we can
all engage in an audio conference online. To augment whatever it is, to
extend the classroom conversation.
And thats what I use my discussion forum for even though its static. I tell
my class that even when we meet three hours, theres not enough time to
talk about everything that excites us when something comes up. So for
those things that are a little bit off-tangent or we run out of time for and we
need to move on to the next topic, lets put it up on a discussion forum.
For those of us who are excited on it we can just keep on talking about it
until it dies. But at least we get it talked about without intruding into
curriculum time where we need to move on to the next topic, right. So
thats where students ask that questions, clarify and attempt answers and
get corrected. Discuss issues and show each other further links to things
that are found as interesting, that relates to the class and so forth. So it
can be used in those forms also.
I think its an important caveat that it need not mean everytime everywhere
for everybody. Whatever we do with e-Learning as with everything weve
got to be motivated. And the motivation must be sound. Because
increasingly sometimes - I dont know about you - but sometimes I go to a
lecture and people use fancy PowerPoints, I keep wondering whether
theyre just trying to pull the wool over my eyes with it. Then I go away
feeling WOW, this is so funny or those are nice pictures. When I walk out I
go, what was that about? I forgot. Because youre so enthralled by all the
visuals and clips and whatnot, you walk away and you go, what was that
lesson about? Because the lecturer didnt pull you back to the basic issues
that were being discussed. We were just going through slide after slide of
fascinating stuff. So it has to be used right also. If not it becomes a
distraction.
Keep in mind that I dont think that you should take my view as the
universitys view or anybodys or any groups view, though. In the end its
just one persons view about how I view these things. I think some of it is
supported by literature that we read about e-Learning. Some of it is
supported by experience that we have accumulated as teachers in the
classroom. Some of it is experienced from chatting with other colleagues
who have encountered e-Learning as a problem or a good thing. From all
these collective experience, we form our own ideas about what it means.
Right now everything I say, I more or less believe in it, that I think e-
Learning is not for everyone, and I dont see that as being contentious. e-
Learning is not necessarily all the time. I think that is quite logical. There
are people who do 100% online teaching. I was just introduced to that by
one colleague from Copenhagen. 100%, you know? Theres a reason for
that, though. Because theyre reaching out to students in 59 countries.
Thats why they do it fully online. And theyve done an extremely good job.
So good for them. Since my students are not in 59 countries, though, I
dont need to do it to that kind of extent.
Zhi Yuan: You mentioned the collaboration with your Duke University. So Duke also
actively, in that sense, try to source for or keep in touch with what other
universities probably in other countries are doing as well, to stay
competitive in that sense?
Prof Chng: I think we all stay in touch with everybody else within and outside the
country, the university and so forth. The primary motivation is that we all
want to learn from each other as much as its possible rather than to
reinvent the wheel. Benefiting from conversations with other people
outside the university or within the universities when they talk about their
experiences is the way for us to extend our own understanding of these
things. So I think thats No. 1. That were just trying to learn from one
another, trying to get best practices, trying to extend our own horizon.
As to staying competitive, I guess every individual, every institution in
todays world has to stay competitive. Whether its through this means of
being the most IT savvy or the most whatever, that is debatable. Because
in the end competition is only effective in our context if we deliver good
education. So even if I learn one more software that you are using, if I
dont know how to deliver it effectively and suit it to my own context, its
quite useless also. Ill probably make a mess out of it rather than be
competitive. Those of us who try to add things in superficial ways, one
day, sooner or later, well be found out that it is just window dressing. And
I think most of us do not like to have window dressing because we have
invested too many years and too much time in doing what we believe in to
want to just wash it over with nice looks. So I dont think that the
competition thing is necessarily a good point that is on anybodys minds,
really.
Zhi Yuan: In a more positive outlook, through Duke University you learn about this
new style of teaching...?
Prof Chng: I mean that therere many reasons for any kind of... I am not able to tell
you exactly what is the reason behind the, lets say, the Duke-NUS tie-up.
But certainly in many of the tie-ups that anybody to do, we seek
complementary skills that would help each other in some way. So tie-ups
are usually generated by several reasons. One could be that you are very
reputable in something and Im lacking in something you could get for me,
and in return I have a good name in something else and you want that, so
we tie-up. Its always a win-win situation when we tie-up. Or we tie-up
because through this we enable opportunities for both our students on
both sides. Your students can access my expertise and vice versa.
So therere all these sorts of reasons for tying up. And sometimes its just
two good reputations are better than one. So I know that I already have a
good reputation, but adding your name to me and vice versa, hopefully,
would do both of us good. So you can claim an Asian connection, I can
claim an American connection. So therere several reasons for these sorts
of things, and exactly which ones would fit into Duke-NUS, I dont know,
because Im not part of that sort of thing. But I can imagine that its each
one of us enhancing our own image. You can be sure that the wins are on
both sides because nobody would tie-up with me or with you if you cant
give back in return. Why should they do that? Im sure your school is one
of those good examples. You only seek good partners, right? If not youre
wasting your time by doing too much charity work to lesser partners.
So tie-ups usually work in that way. But let me ask you... I dont know if
you have time, but let me just ask you quickly. What are you going to do at
the end of this? What are you getting out of this project? What sort of
product are you generating out of this?
Jun Lem: Our product is that what were doing in the pilot project can be further
implemented in the school itself. So for now its only limited to our class
because of time constraints. The four of us cannot oversee the project
more than what we can already do. Because like what we said, the content
for A-Level is heavy and the system is very rigid. So, we cant afford to
spend too much time on this as well. But the Education Technology
Department has given us the green light to run this pilot project because
they thought it was interesting, and that it might be feasible to have it in
the future in the whole school, where they who work full time as members
of the department will actually oversee this instead of students overseeing
it.
Prof Chng: So remind me again in a nutshell your pilot consists of doing what?
Jun Lem: Our pilot consists of uploading our own content including solutions to
questions...
Prof Chng: Student driven content for your own class only?
Jun Lem: Yeah, temporarily. So we have graph drawing, skills in the Science
Practical Assessment et cetera et cetera.
Prof Chng: Give me an example, if you can, like graph drawing. How do you want to
collaborate as it were as students in a class to benefit the rest of the
class?
- video is being loaded -
Chen He: The thing is that when they participate in the project itself, and then we get
to discuss and...
Prof Chng: Are you breaking your class into groups? How big is your class?
Group: 26, and no.
Prof Chng: So all 26 of you in one group?
Zhi Yuan: Its entirely voluntary.
Prof Chng: Are you getting it from all 26?
Zhi Yuan: Definitely not. Its the normal distribution thing!
Jun Lem: The main thing is that we are also limiting it to only one subject, which is
Physics. Because the Education Technology Department also advised us
not to overload ourselves.
Prof Chng: I think thats wise. I think its good to start small and targeted that way.
Jun Lem: So I dont think we can get the whole class to participate in this because
therere bound to be students who are weaker in Physics.
Prof Chng: Well, its not necessary. As a pilot, as long as you get enough synergy
going to show the rest of them that this is going to be very useful for you,
they will all clamor to it. So what sorts of graphs do you draw in Physics?
Zhi Yuan: We are always drawing straight line graphs.
Prof Chng: So how collaborative can that be?
Zhi Yuan: There are many details that the markers look out for, and they are very
particular about this details. And it can still get your marks deducted. So
we actually tried to point out all these details like the significant figures,
how you must draw your line, what lines are to be plotted, until we arrive at
the perfect graph.
Prof Chng: I guess you can do this with even your notes. You can have teacher
generated notes that at the moment cannot collaborate with, but usually
even with teachers generated notes students still write out their own
notes. Do their own annotating.
Duc Anh: We do upload our own summary notes.
Prof Chng: So you can put that even on Wiki collaboratively.
- video shown: SPA video on graph drawing -
Prof Chng: Is that your classmate? He sounds like a teacher.
Jun Lem: So basically what did was we borrowed equipment from the Physics lab,
brought it to a classroom and we started recording it.
- video end -
Prof Chng: You know, they have all they kinds of different things of things on Wikis.
Like snippets of lessons. So like 15 minutes of notes and you can just click
on any one of these snippets and you would explain, say, in your context,
whether its a concept in a Physics. So you basically put these online, and
its all interactive. As a user I go in, and if I dont understand what quantum
means, you click on the word and itll explain it to you in 2 minutes what
quantum means. Give the textbook definition and give an example with
visual support. So in two minutes I can revise that concept. So you can go
beyond these kind of purely getting marks, driven kind of project, which is
really popular, Im quite sure, and very useful at this point in your life.
Some of us understand certain concepts much better than others, able to
give examples in a way that teachers sometimes are just too stuck to the
textbook to realize. So you can always do that you know.
- video shown: circular motion question 5 -
Jun Lem: This is done with Camtasia.
- video end -
Prof Chng: Some lecturers find Camtasia difficult to learn. They say its a steep
learning curve. I dont know. My centre introduces to people different
possible e-Learning platforms to use. And Camtasia is something that a lot
of people avoid. Theyll learn the webcam, the PowerPoint, the video clips.
But Camtasia always has the lowest number of people wanting to learn.
Jun Lem: Camtasia I think does not have a steep learning curve. It just requires you
to multitask.
Zhi Yuan: Actually, one benefit that our teacher pointed out to us when we told him
about our project is that he felt that through the uploading of these videos
as well as going through the answers, most people who have a decent
grasp of the concept but probably they didnt revise, once they look
through they should understand better. So this actually enables the
teachers to really focus on the very weak ones who after even going
through the videos they really cant understand. Theyre the ones that the
teacher wants to target. What usually happens is a lot of students arrange
for consultation and actually they keep asking the teachers these kind of
common questions.
Jun Lem: Generally they just go back to square one where the teacher has to start
teaching again.
Prof Chng: I mean this is precisely that therere basic things that can be put online for
people to clarify. Even English, right? Youre thinking of putting the most
common errors online. So they dont have to keep on correcting the same
old, most fundamental errors in writing. Im sure from a GP point of view...
So that the basic is like, English 101 kind of thing. These are the top 50
mistakes that, by the time you finish a certain level, you should always
remember all these and never repeat these errors. And the rest are
conceptual or the rest require ideas. So people make simple mistakes all
the time recurringly.
Jun Lem: Ive seen some of the different posters that some people have designed
online. I havent seen anything related to Physics yet. But for English,
theres this site called The Oatmeal. It has plenty of jokes and stuff, but
sometimes they do come up with factual posts, like how to differentiate
the use of i.e. and e.g., youre and your. So that can be a long term thing
as well, but because of the short time we have, we cant come up with that
much.
Prof Chng: I mean basically each one of you can develop it to an entrepreneur project
on any of these things, you know. And itll be hours and hours of work.
Zhi Yuan: The essence of project is because its a pilot project so this time it seems
as if its mainly run by the four of us, with the videos mostly uploaded by
us. But we actually carried out this project in view that in the future its not
just these small group of students uploading, but actually a wider group.
Of course we predicted some problems like how do they even actually get
students to participate. So, there were questions of incentives which we
are still exploring. One possibility is probably to attach this to a CCA,
maybe a Science Club.
Prof Chng: You mean to create these things? For students to participate in terms of
creating these things?
Zhi Yuan: Yeah. For myself, because I uploaded the videos, we did a topic on circular
motion. So whilst going through and explaining the answers, I think Ive
learned a lot better. Because while youre presenting the answers, you
reinforce the concepts that you have mastered.
Prof Chng: Exactly. This is one of the things that came across in that Duke-NUS kind
of method. Because one of the questions we asked is that when I put the 4
of you in these peer group thing, and lets say two of you are very strong
students and two of you are very weak students. Then the question is
would the two weak students pull down the two strong students? Because
the strong students are constantly arguing over answers. Or would the
weak students be actually pulled up by the strong students? Because
when you interact with them week after week, problem after problem,
sooner or later hopefully you learn the idea on how to analyse these
problems in the first place. Sometimes our analytical minds are such that
we think in only one way. And so we learn from our peers. We might
change our tactic if were good learners.
The answer that they gave is that their stats seem to be showing that
contrary to expectations strong students dont get dragged down as you
said. Because strong students are forced to teach. Everytime you teach
you clarify your own understanding, and sometimes the problem with
passive learning is that we sit there, and we think, when you listen to the
teacher, I understand I understand okay okay boring I understand boring,
you know, then the moment you walk out, you forget what you thought you
understood, because it was passive. When you have to do homework,
suddenly its like, eh how to get to that step?, because you were just
sponging, you were not actively engaging.
So whereas if you have actively engaged, doing is a form of good
engagement. When you do, you will remember the steps. When you listen,
you cannot remember. So when you talk its also active. You convince
yourself as you talk, and you reinforce. So actually when you talked about
incentives earlier, that should be its only incentive. That you can only get
better from teaching others. To me its always sad that you have incentivise
people to do a good thing. But I guess if people have limited time and
energy, maybe added value before they want to join... yeah.
Jun Lem: In NUS, are there any systems or failsafes in place to counter problems
such as outbreak of diseases or pandemics?
Prof Chng: This is why we have e-Learning week. Its part of pandemic preparedness.
Basically ministry probably has told every school that everyone will have to
prepare for all kinds of pandemics. So our SARS experience, H1N1 for
example. These things, medical practitioners tell us, can only be more and
more frequent for reasons that are well-rehearsed already. So it is going to
become more and more urgent one day and more likely. If one day we may
be forced to shut down for x number of days or x number of weeks
because of some nationwide crisis or pandemic, when that happens, we
cannot--- even if we say shut down for two days, no big loss. But when
you say shut down for a week or two or indefinitely, after a while we need
to continue with certain functions. So we cannot just not work.
So e-Learning and embracing e-Platform is one of the solutions or one of
the proposed solutions to sort out the situation. But in order to do that, we
need to prepare our lecturers and our learners to embrace e-Learning.
That means equipping them with skills. And getting their buy-in on the
philosophy. And we also need to have a system that is able to withstand,
or has the capacity to support e-Learning on a university-wide basis. The
university is very big. Were talking about, right now we have 33000
students on campus. So if we really shut down, and if all these 33000 have
to access their lessons through remote means, thats thousands and
thousands of logins at any one time. So, asynchronous login is one thing,
but synchronous login is quite a different thing. So the computer center
has to be revved up to make sure that theres enough to help people cope
with that kind of situation.
So about a year ago, we had university-wide e-Learning. Departments
sometimes have in the past practised their own e-Learning procedures,
just to do it themselves to see what its like. But last year it was the first
time that the entire university - with few exceptions being the professional
schools, because they operate on a very different way - everybody went
on e-Learning for lecturers, not for tutorials. Then last semester the entire
Business school shut down for a whole week. For everything. Lectures,
tutorials, seminars. And it went very well. This semester, Arts faculty is
going to do that. So were going to shut down for a whole week for
everything. So we slowly want to test and go through and all that, to see
how things go, where the hiccups are, if there are hiccups what the
feedback is like.
So far the feedbacks been pretty good in general. People have their valid
and invalid grievances as usual, but on the whole its been a rather
successful experiment in that the system didnt crash, touch wood. Those
that have legitimate complaints can be dealt with. Sometimes its the audio
quality not so good, so okay, lets improve on that. Sometimes its the
headset that has a problem, so lets just replace it, that is easy enough.
Then we will see as we go along. So there are such measures in place.
Zhi Yuan: During the SARS crisis, were these measures in place already or...
Prof Chng: No, I think because the whole nation has to learn from --- SARS was our
number 1 health crisis. Actually I dont even remember when SARS was
now.
Group: 2003.
Prof Chng: But what months were they you see. Because it could have happened
during a month where we were not in session because NUS has these long
vacations. So, I dont seem to remember it being... SARS was very much
contained within clusters, because lets put it this way. When SARS
happened we had very little understanding on how it works. And by the
time we understood it as cluster by cluster, were able to say that since Im
not in that cluster, I am not likely to be infected, but I need to be vigilant,
so I need to do temperature check. So there was no need for Zone 5 to
shut down because Zone 1 was infected. So were already zoned. So that
was fine.
Zhi Yuan: For us, all the primary and secondary schools and JCs were shut down for
two weeks.
Prof Chng: Okay. Because uh, well I dont remember why now but there must have
been a good reason for it. But we were not shut down, but we were very
careful because as long as were not part of the zone. But were constantly
in touch as a department, as a university, to receive instructions on what to
do and what not to do. And luckily for us, we more or less went through
the whole process without much issues. But then H1N1 was a bit more
immediate in terms of its effects and all that, because there were actually
people who went abroad, got quarantined, come back and all that. So we
went through all kinds of things and during that time, its too bad, you
know. We just constantly have people missing in class, but we know why
theyre missing. And then help them catch up when they come back
because the quarantine period wasnt too long. It wasnt serious enough
for us to have to shut down completely. Some of these quarantine
measures were in place.
But then I think these are the lessons that then taught ministry and the
universities and institutions to do something about it. We cant just rely on
these kind of measures like temperature checking and all that. We need to
do more than that. But because were on academics, going for
conferences is quite a regular thing. Were not even talking about being on
MC, just doing business trips thats related to our research and all that. So
quite often well have to do the old fashioned thing of telling students that
in two weeks Ill be going off the conference for four days, so well be
postponing the lecture for that week. Well reschedule a Saturday lecture.
So basically you make up in class, or you say that since Im not going to
be there I cleverly schedule an online test, and you can take the test and
Ill come back and mark it, you know, whatever it is. Its not as if you dont
need me there. I just need to get a clerk to administer the online test. But
most of us just resort to make up classes even when were not here.
But now with all these e-Platforms people can actually audio record their
lectures because we know about going to a conference at least two three
months in advance. So were able to take these things at will anytime, and
say that for week 10 I wont be here, you go access the computer on this
link and itll be live for the next 48 hours. Click. So I can merrily go off to
the conference. And when I come back, I can resume it by facilitating a
discussion. So it can be used for that kind of non-emergency purposes as
well. And recently I heard from one Japanese delegate who said that - I
think it was the volcanic ash thing - he was going to go to England for a
conference, but because of the volcanic ash thing his plane didnt take off.
So he was anxious about not being able to make it to his conference slot.
But in the end the conference host linked up with his university through
video conferencing. So he delivered his lecture through video
conferencing. So he didnt have to travel and he got to deliver his paper.
This is exactly the beauty of e-Platform. It need not be just pandemic. It
can be anything. And if done right it can be just as effective. Of course its
not quite the same as the person being there, but its the next best thing to
it. And with todays video conferencing facilities you can actually entertain
your students.
Jun Lem: So you mentioned something about e-Assessments, like online tests.
Prof Chng: I think most online tests is still MCQ.
Jun Lem: How viable or how accurate is it? I mean, people at home can just phone
up a friend, or...
Prof Chng: No. Usually with online tests you are in the computer cluster. We dont let
you do it off-site. Sometimes when I say online tests, what is important is
that as a lecturer I am monitoring understanding level different times in my
class. So many lecturers, particularly in engineering, they do use stuff
where after say half an hour of lecturing, they pop a question and students
through clickers log their answers in, and you look at the graph thats
projected on the system, and see how many people got it right or wrong.
And from there you will decide whether to continue deliberating on the
concept or to move on to the next topic. Because if 97% got it right, then
the 3% can talk to your peers or you come see me, most of you
understood that concept Im gonna move on to the next one. But if more
than 50% is still not getting it, then you better repeat what you just said.
Those that are fully graded, even online exams - medical students do that
- they do scenario testing and they actually go to a lab. And the computers
are disabled in terms of all these internet access so you cant Google, you
can only do the test. And the test is administered through this virtual
environment that I tell you NUS has, the IVLE. So they have to log in to
their accounts and theyll get to the first test page. Every page has a time
limit, where you have to answer either one question or two questions
within a certain time limit, and the moment you press submit you cannot
go back. So after the time limit youve got to move on to the next page
until the test is over. I dont think they even have to mark, because its
logged in and analysed by the computer how many got it right or wrong.
So all they have to do is to check the computer is doing things right, thats
all.
So its a very paperless way of administering a test but you still have to
invigilate. And you need to hope and pray that theres no power failure.
The technical team is online to troubleshoot any problem that may happen
to their visuals or whatnot because these are medical visuals. So... quite
interesting. At least you dont have the traditional pen and paper sit in the
exam hall this kind of thing.
Zhi Yuan: So apart from MCQs are there any other kind of assessments?
Prof Chng: Well I dont know whether you consider this an online assessment thing,
but many people have already practiced online submission of essays. So
instead of hard copy submission you just load your own essay onto some
site that we ask you to load in. And then the lecturer on his end will
download the essay, mark it using Track Changes and whatnot and then
bounce it back to you as a marked essay. Theres an online grade book
feature where grades can be filled in. But I think that one you can
programme it such that only you can see your grades and nobody else, so
that privacy is ensures. So I dont know whether you call that an online
assessment system or not but I guess the grading system on IVLE does
that.
Other than that, when you teach humanities theres no way to give MCQs.
Even if I give a scenario I still need you to articulate it in a small paragraph
on what this thing means. I cant test it like the way the medical school
does, whether the diagnosis is A, B or C. I cant do that. Text analysis is
not like that. imagine if youre teaching literature, and you have to critique
a point. I cant see how that can be MCQ, unless I reduce it and filter it
down to something that is so ingenious that somehow even if you answer
it in MCQ style it still totally reflects a good critique of something. I dont
know. I will find it quite unsatisfying testing like that. Particularly with
literature, where its not just understanding, its also about writing. MCQ
removes that.
Jun Lem: Currently even in JCs and from what I hear from you about universities e-
Learning, theyre still mostly very content-based or file-sharing based. So
how do you think e-Learning in schools or universities will evolve in the
future?
Zhi Yuan: To add on to the question, I was thinking that, since there many varied use
of e-Learning like distance-based learning in Copenhagen, so were
considering that as the extreme end of the spectrum. Do you see that
maybe Singapore moving in that direction?
Prof Chng: Well in some ways we are too small to need to go in that direction. But
more importantly as Ive earlier said I wonder whether 100% is ideal.
Personally I told the university is that it looks very interesting and well
develop a very good programme for it and all that. Taking a climate change
module as the context, if I have a group of students that want to go into
this, I might want to a) let you all do this online module, but I will still
maybe want to arrange for 4 tutorials where I will meet you all in a class
face-to-face and discuss those issues that weve learnt on. Because
somehow I feel that it needs to be augmented by these face-to-face
exchanges, especially when youre all here.
Youre not in 59 countries. Why should I subject you to just learning from
home when we could speak face-to-face and really get a good discussion
or debate going? You can call it a supplement in addition. I think that
would add value to this thing. Maybe they do it 100% because they dont
have a choice. This was the way it was offered. You want to offer it to 59
countries. So that was great, because if not the other 58 countries outside
Denmark would not be able to come in. It serves that purpose. Whether it
should serve our purpose or not I think its totally undebatable.
But your question is a very good question. I think at the moment it is
content-driven. When youre still at the stage where youre struggling how
best to deliver that content, through e-Platform that would be effective and
that would not take away too much of the interactivity that we can offer in
person, that would add to the value that we can add as persons. So its
not to say that we take away the classroom teaching. We still want that.
But we want the e-Platform to supplement our classroom teaching and
add value to it. So I would like to transfer my content as much as possible
online and you learn like that, I will use classroom to interact with you and
engage you in higher debates. Because without the platform, I would be
struggling to present slide after slide of content.
So it eases the information overload within the class and uses the class to
develop those 21st century skills of analysis to give more class time to
presentations, to debates. Because a lot of times we cant do too much
presentations precisely because Im busy delivering 3 hours of lecturers.
Students dont get to sleep. So if I say, my e-Platform speak for me, now is
your time to speak. We always do tutorials. We problem solve and
brainstorm all the time and we do little projects. Or we go on field trips.
Without doing field trips in the afternoon after class, we can go now
because we can learn the stuff online. You get what I mean? So I think
through the online thing is still very much content, but its because we
want to alleviate this burden here in class. Like right now, were still
struggling how to make this creative, effective, and interactive.
Zhi Yuan: We were talking to our own Education Technology Department as well.
They said its possible for them to all the lectures and they actually have a
library of videos. Every year the same topics are being taught over and
over again. So they have already recorded past lectures. So for example if
these students are involved in e.g. YOG, and he misses two weeks of
lectures, he can listen to lectures online. But their concern was that if this
system of e-Learning is so good, and almost able to replace the lecturers,
people will probably just skip the lectures.
Prof Chng: Lets put it this way. Many NUS lecturers are now webcast. I dont know
what is the percentage but a lot. Simultaneous webcast. Its not even
delayed. So if Im giving a lecture now, theres a camera that I can switch
on and immediately everything is streamed onto the IVLE. And if you didnt
come to school for some reason or you just didnt want to come, you can
click on the IVLE at home and you can listen to the lecture. So you dont
actually have to come.
The lectures in general in NUS at the moment is really not compulsory, if
for no other reason than youre dealing with 400-odd people in the
audience, its a waste of time to take attendance. So the truth is that its
not compulsory, but we strongly encourage all students to attend because
its good for you to attend lectures. A lack of attendance is a sure sign of
slipping very soon. The wonderful thing about this is that although there
are webcast lectures and poor attendance rates, there are also a lot of
webcast lecturers with extremely good attendance rate. And the reason is
mainly the lecturer. The lecturer is or is not able to add value to that
particular class. Like with everything, even with PowerPoint slides, the
trick of a good teacher is you dont give students everything. Its like a
movie trailer. Give you enough to titillate and say ah, I wanna go to the
lecture to find out what all these things are. Or at least give you the
questions and dont give you the answers so that you have to come to the
lectures to find out the answers, or come to the lectures for the jokes, that
we deliver the punchline to all those things that youre seeing on your
slides. But with webcast lectures its different because its there but the
thing about webcasts as I understand it is that not everything is feasible on
webcast. Because the camera only goes in a certain direction. Its not a
very sophisticated arrangement where the camera is all over the room, and
every angle is caught online. So this camera is only trained in a certain way
such that you dont get everything that a live lecture would give you.
So sometimes students may say oh I cant see, dont know what you
know, when they use the visualizer. So the lecturer may be pointing at
certain things and they dont know where the lecturer is pointing because
theyre not there physically to see it. So you do lose certain things, and
some of it is unplanned. Some of it is planned. To make it enough to get
the students to want to not miss. But in the end the true value of all this is
really that you need to have enough value add to want to entice the
audience that its time well spent to come to your lecture. Again that goes
back to the skill of the teacher and how much investment the teacher
makes into the lesson.
Some teachers are so popular that students dont want to miss it. Weve
seen that in student feedback. I will not miss this for anything, because the
lecturer is such a good orator, such a good joker, or such a good
entertainer on top of it. And a lot of Biology lecturers I know here bring live
specimens to class to demonstrate whats going on. So you do literally lab
demonstrations in front of a live audience, and I think a lot of that will be
lost if you are on a webcast. So these are the strategies that a teacher can
introduce to prevent that from coming. But again, people have different
beliefs about attendance. Therere people who say that attendance is not
the point. Whats important is that youre interested and you learn. I dont
really care where youre sitting. At home or here. As long as youre a good
learner and youre an interested student, thats all I care about. Thats one
school of thought. Another school of thought is that, you must come. If
you dont come, its a poor reflection of yourself and its also a poor
reflection of me and I dont really want it. So people do anything to get you
to come. People withhold notes and whatnot, which is in the long run not
the best strategies, because you can only withhold notes for so long. After
a while youve got to release those notes.
So whether people should or should not attend class is something that is
debated about in education circles quite a lot. But we are also gathering
data. So far there seems to be some kind of anecdotal... Lets put it this
way. Good students, whether they attend or not, theyre good students.
Bad students tend not to attend, and lo and behold theyre bad students.
So are they bad students because they dont attend, or are they bad
students because theyre inherently bad? Maybe theyre already inherently
bad in some way, or they started bad in the first place. Not attending made
it worse. And if youre a good student, attending makes it even better,
particularly if I can value add. So, it really depends. Its again not a simple
scenario to say yes or no to. Whats the question again?
Zhi Yuan: Is there a danger of students not attending lectures because of whatever
reasons?
Prof Chng: Sure, but you know the onus is not just on the learners side, its also on
the teachers side. Teachers should not be boring to start with. I know
many teachers are extremely boring but were talking about good teachers,
committed educators. If were just droning and not caring how you look
like and whether youre yawning or not yawning then something is wrong
with us. Thats why sometimes people say a good educator has to be a
little bit of an entertainer. In the end its about being a good public speaker.
And a good speaker is somebody who engages with the audience all the
time. You cannot lose your audience. And this is what I tell my colleagues
from the point of view of this centre.
Sometimes people ask, why should we engage in all these technology? It
seems to be flash and nothing else. I say well, if we believe that students
of tomorrow are into technology, and technology is what engages them,
then we have to learn some of them to engage them. Even if its just to
hold your attention. If I hold your attention enough for 20 minutes and then
I can teach, thats half the battle won. Whereas if I lose you for the first 10
minutes and I try to teach anyway, Im fighting a losing battle. So, I need to
do something to hold your attention. If not my message will be lost. If
technology is it, then maybe I should equip myself with some amount of it.
Introduce an interesting video so that you sit up and be curious about it
and want to know more, then I use the lesson to answer that question. A
lot of people do that. Or, use nice pictures so that people would sit there
always expecting the next picture to be even better.
But as a facilitator you should not let them be too engrossed in the nice
pictures. You have to keep on telling them what the point of the nice
picture is, so that they learn. Things like that. Good jokes and all that
makes a point. Because many students say they remember the lesson
because they remember the joke. But there are other students who
remember the joke but dont know what the point is. Again you get
different things. If you are ever teachers one day, these are some of the
things you have to remember when you teach students. Thats why I
thought that was good, you know, that person who was explaining. Very
methodical and very clear, step-by-step. One of the qualities of good
teachers is systematic. Youve really got to be systematic. You cannot
confuse your students by saying no no no, let me go back. Thats the
worst kind of thing teachers can do. So I hope I have helped you answer
some of the questions. Looks to me like your project is already half done,
so you know what youre doing anyway.
- thanks, end of interview -
Appendix C
Proposal for e-Learning Pilot Project
Submitted to:
Education Technology Department
Raffles Institution
Proposal for e-Learning Pilot Project in RI
Why?
In line with our two main e-Learning strategies (i.e. promoting greater use of e-Learning, and
introduction of participatory learning amongst students), we are starting a pilot project to assess the
feasibility of our strategies, especially as our second strategy is relatively untested in schools. By
collecting students responses and gathering statistics after the conclusion of our pilot project, we will
then be able to obtain quantitative data to support the feasibility of our project.
Who?
We are proposing to conduct a pilot project in our CT group 11S06A with a class size of 26 students.
We are also only looking to focus on one particular subject, Physics, which the entire class takes.
Reasons: We have foreseen problems such as commitment and communication issues in working
with more than one class/subject, especially since students are not obliged to participate actively in
our pilot project. Thus given the time constraints, it would be more practical to work with our own
class to ensure the smooth running of our pilot project. If the project turns out to be successful, we
can then look to extending it to include several classes and subjects.
When?
We would like to commence our pilot project at the end of July and the project will stretch towards
the end of August. The month of August is packed with many immersion programs and events, most
notably the YOG and many students have to miss classes. Our pilot project can also assist students
missing lessons in the class during this period.
Implementation of Pilot Project
The strategies we are carrying out are largely student-initiated (i.e. peer teaching) and we will be
working closely with the Education Technology Department in the uploading of materials onto
Blackboard Learn.
In this pilot project, the scope has been narrowed down to class 11S06A and focusing on Physics
only. If response from the class is positive, the increase in number of subjects used will be considered;
however, we are not planning to expand the number of classes involved until there is evidence that it
can be done on a large scale.
Uploading videos on SPA online
Our group members or volunteers from the class will be producing a series of videos on SPA
assessment and its relevant skills. The videos will include demonstrations of the experiments,
students explanations for their calculations and presentation of data, as well as teachers comments.
Possible contents for the videos are as follows:
Content Timeline
Manipulation of equations and data presentation in table form T3W5
Plotting and analysis of graphs T3W5
Evaluation and conclusion T3W6
Demonstration of setup and procedures for Physics Mock SPA T3W7
These videos will be uploaded to Discovery@Rafes and made available for students from our class.
We hope that through these video productions, students will nd it easier to revise SPA skills and
prepare for the upcoming A Level SPA assessment.
Uploading videos on worked solutions for selected questions in tutorials
online
Our group members or volunteers from the class will be producing a series of videos on selected
questions (i.e. challenging questions) in tutorials. The process of the student solving the question as
well as his explanation will be recorded in the video. This is to facilitate the self-learning process of
students missing classes or during revision. It also allows sharing of different methods of worked
solutions among the students. The videos will be produced according to the topic we are learning and
will only be made available online after the tutor has went through the tutorials in the class.
All 26 students of the class will be taking turns to upload these videos, going by index number.
Weekly online quizzes
With the help from our schools Education Technology department, our group members will be
creating online quizzes on a weekly basis. We will include both Multiple Choice Questions, as well as
short structured questions, which will worth a maximum of ten marks in a single quiz. Upon
completion, detailed solutions and explanations will be provided so that the students can do self-
correction. Although it is not compulsory to access the quiz, students are highly encouraged to do so
as prizes will be given to the top scorer in class.
Sharing on Physics in real life by tutors and students
We are planning to initiate a forum for discussion of Physics under the Discussion Board of 11S06A in
Discovery@Rafes. Tutors and students are encouraged to post and respond to each others post
regarding Physics problems in real life (e.g. Mr. Songs method for drying strawberries). We hope that
such discussions will consolidate the contents we learnt in school and will further stimulate their
interest for Physics.
Mr. Song will be managing this for the pilot project.
Tentative Timeline
Timeline What to be done Remarks
24/07/2010 Creation of content-editor accounts Test and familiarize
26/07/2010
Assigning of roles to class.
Topical practice questions to be prepared
Roles include making of videos,
and preparation of questions and
solutions
27/07/2010
Making of video on SPA skills.
Publicity of pilot project to class.
Content: Manipulation of
equations and presentation of
data in table form
28/07/2010 Online Quiz 1 Topic: Kinematics and Dynamics
29/07/2010 Physics in Real Life
Topic: How to dry strawberries
using circular motion
30/07/2010 Video solutions for challenging questions
Topic: Kinematics and Dynamics
Solutions provided by Mr. Song.
02/08/2010 Making of video on SPA skills.
Content: Plotting and analysis of
graph
03/08/2010 Online Quiz 2 Topic: Forces and WEP
06/08/2010
Video solutions for challenging questions
Reach Cambridge participants leave
Topic: Forces and WEP
11/08/2010 Making of video on SPA skills.
Content: Evaluation and
conclusion
12/08/2010 Online Quiz 3 Topic: Thermal Physics
16/08/2010 Video solutions for challenging questions Topic: Thermal Physics
18/08/2010 Online Quiz 4 Topic: Circular Motion
23/08/2010
Video solutions for challenging questions
Reach Cambridge participants return
Topic: Circular Motion
25/08/2010 Online Quiz 5 Topic: Gravitation
30/08/2010 Making of video on SPA skills. Content: SPA 1 debrief
Appendix D
Blank Form of First Survey
TARGET AUDIENCE: Junior college students
RESPONSES COLLECTED: 154
PW Survey
We are Wong Zhi Yuan, Chen He, Wang Jun Lem, Le Duc Anh from class 11S06A.
Our project aims to increase the use of e-Learning portals junior colleges in Singapore. We are
planning a pilot project to be carried out in Rafes Institution (Junior College) to assist students
missing lessons due to their commitment in Youth Olympic Games in August 2010. After this project,
we will be collecting response and evaluate the impacts of the project to aid our nal report.)
We would like to gather your views on the relevance of the current school e-Learning portal and how
the school can further utilize it as a platform to enhance teaching and e-Learning.
* Required
1. Do you have access to the Internet at home? *
Yes
No
2. How often do you access the school e-Learning portal? *
Once a day
Thrice a week
Once a week
Never
3. Do you prefer e-Learning or class/lecture-based learning? *
e-Learning
Classroom/lecture-based learning
Combination of both
4. Which feature of e-Learning do you think is most useful and relevant?
(Rank the choice from 1 to 3, with 1 as the most useful and relevant feature.)
a. Content sharing
Teachers to upload lecture notes and worksheets on e-Learning portal so that students can have
access to the soft copy
1 2 3
b. Online discussion
Students to initiate forum/online discussion using e-Learning portal
1 2 3
c. Online assessment
Tests or assignments to be completed at home and submitted online
1 2 3
5. In your opinion, e-Learning is relevant to: *
(Rate the groups of subjects from 1 to 5, with 1 as least relevant and 5 as most relevant)
1 2 3 4 5
Knowledge Skills
(GP/KI/PW)

Mathematics

Sciences

Arts

6. If you are not able to attend lessons, how will you catch up with classes?
(You can choose more than 1 answer)
Arrange consultations with teachers
Individual research
Approach your classmates
Study the content on e-Learning portal
Nothing. Catching up along the way
7. If lesson content is uploaded on e-Learning portal, how likely are you going to access
and download it?
(Rate from 1 to 6, with 1 being least likely and 6 being most likely).
1 2 3 4 5 6

8. If you are not able to attend lessons in the period of August due to your commitment in
Youth Olympic Games/immersion programmes, what contents do you want your subject
teachers to upload online?
(You can choose more than 1 answer)
Lecture notes
Tutorial questions/solutions
Class worksheets
Assignments
Enrichment materials
Powerpoint slides
Relevant videos
Past year papers or question for specic topics
Relevant websites containing materials related to topics being discussed
Other:
Thank you for helping us complete this survey!
Appendix E
Results of First Survey
TARGET AUDIENCE: Junior college students
SAMPLE SIZE: 154
1. Do you have access to the Internet at home?
No
[1]
Yes
[153]
2. How often do you access the school e-Learning portal?
Once a week
36%
Thrice a week
12%
Never
5%
46%
Once a day
1%
3. Do you prefer e-Learning or class/lecture-based learning?
Classroom/lecture-based learning
18%
Combination of both
73%
e-Learning
9%
(1: most useful and relevant)
a. Content sharing
3
13%
2
16%
1
71%
(1: most useful/relevant)
b. Online discussion
3
27%
2
52%
1
21%
(1: most useful/relevant)
c. Online assessment
3
51%
2
34%
1
15%
5. In your opinion, e-Learning is relevant to:
(5: most relevant)
a. Knowledge Skills (GP/KI/PW)
1
2
3
4
5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
33
31
40
29
21
(5: most relevant)
b. Mathematics
1
2
3
4
5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
12
41
40
44
17
(5: most relevant)
c. Sciences
1
2
3
4
5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
74
42
19
6
13
(5: most relevant)
d. Arts
1
2
3
4
5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
59
47
20
12
16
6. If you are not able to attend lessons, how will you catch up with
classes?
Arrange consultations with teachers
Individual research
Approach your classmates
Study the content on e-Learning portal
Nothing. Catching up along the way
0 15 30 45 60 75 90
72
54
83
82
63
7. If lesson content is uploaded on e-Learning portal, how likely are you
going to access and download it?
(6: Most likely)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1 2 3 4 5 6
22
51
21
24
21
15
8. If you are not able to attend lessons in the period of August due to
your commitment in Youth Olympic Games/immersion programmes,
what contents do you want your subject teachers to upload online?
Lecture notes
Tutorial questions
Class worksheets
Assignments
Enrichment notes
PowerPoint slides
Relevant videos
Past year papers/questions
Relevant websites
0 25 50 75 100 125 150
52
60
87
112
37
43
49
87
92
Appendix F
Blank Form of Second Survey
TARGET AUDIENCE: Pilot project participants
Feedback on e-Learning Pilot Project - Phase 1
Please attempt this survey so that we could improve on our e-Learning pilot project!
* Required
1. Have you accessed and checked out our material in Discovery@Rafes? *
Yes
No - not interested
No - not aware
Other:
2. Do you think it is necessary to notify you when we upload materials? *
Yes
No
3. Do you think the current notications are enough? *
Announcement on Discovery portal + Email + SMS
Yes
No
4. Do you feel more condent in the lecture test after accessing the materials? *
Yes - more practice
Yes - more understanding
No
5. What do you think of the timing of the uploading of materials? *
We uploaded the summaries on Tuesday, the videos on solutions for tutorial questions on
Wednesday, and the lecture test was on Thursday.
Should be uploaded earlier
Just nice
6. How would you rate the usefulness of videos on solutions for tutorials uploaded? *
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
least
useful

most
useful
7. What do you think can be improved for the videos uploaded? *
8. How would you rate the usefulness of the summaries uploaded? *
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
least
useful

most
useful
9. What do you think can be improved for the summaries uploaded? *
10. How would you rate the usefulness of the quizzes uploaded? *
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
least
useful

most
useful
11. We are planning to upload more materials to prepare you for the upcoming SPA. What
kind of materials do you think can prepare you better for the assessment? *
Videos on experimental setup? Videos on presenting readings (drawing tables, graphs)? Summary?
12. Are you interested to be part of this e-Learning pilot project? *
Be our volunteers and learn to explain your solutions to everyone in the class!
Yes, I see it benecial for both the content contributor and the content receiver
Yes, because it is a new experience for me and I would like to try out
No, because I don't think it will be helpful for me
No, I don't think I can commit to it.
Other:
Appendix G
Results of Second Survey
TARGET AUDIENCE: Pilot project participants
SAMPLE SIZE: 22
1. Have you accessed and checked out our material in
Discovery@Rafes?
2
1
2
17
Yes No - not interested No - not aware Other
2. Do you think it is necessary to notify you when we upload materials?
No
[3]
Yes
[19]
3. Do you think the current notications are enough?
No
32%
Yes
68%
4. Do you feel more condent in the lecture test after accessing the
materials?
Not really
23%
Yes - better understanding
41%
Yes - more practice
36%
5. What do you think of the timing of the uploading of materials?
Just nice
73%
Should be uploaded earlier
27%
6. How would you rate the usefulness of videos on solutions for tutorials
uploaded?
(10: most useful)
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2
1
3
4
5
4
1
2
0 0
7. What do you think can be improved for the videos uploaded?
need to speak louder and clearer
more questions please
its better if we can see the person presenting
livelier! presenter sounds like he just woke up
good enough - keep it up
write out on paper, not tablet
more discussion instead of presenter just talking and talking
enunciate properly laaaaaaa
need more questions on more topics
more questions
Nicely done. Jiayou!
8. How would you rate the usefulness of the summaries uploaded?
(10: most useful)
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1
3
4
2
5
3
2 2
0 0
9. What do you think can be improved for the summaries uploaded?
write clearly
make it video format like the tutorial answers!
need to be more comprehensive - some details in lecture notes not found in
summary
good enough for revision. thanks!
incomplete information
write properly can? or ask someone with better handwriting to write.
some concepts made into video cause verbal explanations are better
Very good. Keep it up! Do for every topic please :p
let someone proofread and spot mistakes
nothing. very good
bring in examples of application as well
10. How would you rate the usefulness of the quizzes uploaded?
(10: most useful)
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1
3
1
5
4
2
3
2
1 1
11. We are planning to upload more materials to prepare you for the
upcoming SPA. What kind of materials do you think can prepare you
better for the assessment?
all of the above
Summary
videos on presenting readings
videos on presenting the readings taken - all the dp/sf stuff are quite confusing
videos on experimental setup, and a summary of the common errors
Presentation skills
Notes about common mistakes
everything
summary of skills
12. Are you interested to be part of this e-Learning pilot project?
18%
14%
41%
27%
Yes, I see it benecial for both the content contributor and the content receiver.
Yes, because it is a new experience for me and I would like to try it out.
No, because I don't think it will be helpful for me
No, I don't think I can commit to it.
Appendix H
Blank Form of Third Survey
TARGET AUDIENCE: Pilot project student volunteers
Feedback on e-Learning Pilot Project - Phase 2 (for
student volunteers)
This survey is for all those who have helped us in the pilot project! Do attempt all the questions and
suggest ways of improvement.
* Required
1. How many times have you been involved as a volunteer in the e-Learning pilot project? *
one
two
three
four or more
2. After participating in the pilot project, do you nd the experience enriching? *
Yes
No
3. In what aspects do you think the participation of students in e-Learning could be helpful?
*
Greater understanding of content
More opportunities to practice
Learn different perspectives from classmates
Better relationships with friends
Not helpful
4. How do you think the pilot project could be improved? *
Shorter duration
Greater efciency
Increase volunteering opportunities
More volunteers
No suggestions
Other:
5. Do you wish to be recognized for your participation in the pilot project? *
(e.g. to be recorded in Rafes Diploma)
Yes, it motivates me
No, it obscures the aim of encouraging voluntary student initiation
It does not matter
6. Do you wish to continue to be involved in the project? *
Yes
No
7. Do you think it is possible to incorporate the pilot project into our curriculum? *
(e.g. to have e-Learning as part of the curriculum and to have activities in our pilot project regularly)
Yes
No
Appendix I
Results of Third Survey
TARGET AUDIENCE: Pilot project student volunteers
SAMPLE SIZE: 5
1. How many times have you been involved as a volunteer in the e-
Learning pilot project?
two
[2]
one
[3]
2. After participating in the pilot project, do you nd the experience
enriching?
Yes
100%
3. In what aspects do you think the participation of students in e-
Learning could be helpful?
Greater understanding of content
More opportunities to practice
Learn different perspectives of classmates
Better relationships with friends
Not helpful
0 1 2 3 4 5
0
2
2
4
3
4. How do you think the pilot project could be improved?
Shorter duration
Greater efficiency
Increase volunteering opportunities
More volunteers
No suggestions
Other
0 1 2 3 4 5
0
1
2
2
3
0
5. Do you wish to be recognized for your participation in the pilot
project?
It does not matter
[3]
Yes, it motivates me
[2]
6. Do you wish to continue to be involved in the project?
No
[1]
Yes
[4]
7. Do you think it is possible to incorporate the pilot project into our
curriculum?
No
[2]
Yes
[3]

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uploading teaching materials for teachers

access online resource bank

use communication tools for online course

adopt online consultation on e-Platform

create personalized showcase in e-Portfolio

produce videos for SPA and tutorials*

initiate forums/portals for discussion and sharing*

facilitate collaboration through video conferencing

While time-consuming and commitment-heavy, a personal portfolio is essential for JC students to

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