The Natures And Impacts Of Elearning

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

This dissertation considers the role of e-learning in a typical university and its contribution to teaching and learning. The research will also identify what e-learning technologies are currently used as well as the extent that these technologies have been applied in a Higher Education (HE) institution. In addition, the appropriateness of these technologies for future use will be explored. Furthermore, this dissertation examines the effects that planning and managing resources has on staff, teachers and students within the university.

Background and Context

Topic Area

There has been a considerable development in educational processes. Traditional teaching classrooms are gradually moving to more dynamic learning environments for students under the application of information and communication technologies (ICT). The developments and infrastructures in ICT such as Internet speed, mobility and capacity of data storage now become more important in the education sector. Higher Education has also recognized the importance and benefits of these ICT resources to enhance teaching and learning.

In Vietnam, the government strongly supports ICT integration in education. The UNESCO report on Vietnam states that the country is eager to be one of the hubs for ICT development in South-East Asia (Green, 2004). According to the latest ICT Development report by the International Telecommunication Union (2011), Vietnam gained a significant achievement from 2007 to 2010, and jumped up eleven places to 81st position on a worldwide list of ICT development measurement, and became one of the top ten developing countries.

Organization

Ho Chi Minh City International University (HCMIU), a member of the Vietnam National University, was established in December 2003. This university is the first public HE institution that uses English as a medium of instruction in teaching and learning. It also follows standards set by the Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) for quality assessment and aims to become one of the top oriented-research and high-quality universities with an excellent international learning environment in Vietnam and Asia (HCMIU, 2011a).

Furthermore, HCMIU receives a lot investment from government to develop its ICT infrastructure in order to support teaching and learning in the e-learning environment. It has also made a large financial investment to upgrade all facilities to support teaching, learning and researching. HCMIU (2011b) stated that it had successfully build fourteen modern laboratories for conducting research and meet the national society and industry requirements. The excellent modern environment and sophisticated infrastructure have attracted more academic staffs to work and conduct research at HCMIU. More than 50% of HCMIU staff has obtained a doctoral degree (HCMIU, 2012). Additional policies have been created to ensure staff receiving professional training from domestic and overseas personnel in order to sustain high quality. As a result, more papers specializing in subjects such as Mathematics, Biotechnology, or Computer Science have been published in the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) journal system.

In addition, to guarantee that graduate students will have successful careers following the incorporation of international standards, HCMIU has been using the credit-based system and opening cooperative study programmes with foreign institutions. These programmes offer students more opportunities to obtain international degrees by studying the last two years abroad. At the moment, HCMIU has implemented partnerships with high prestigious universities such as the University of the West of England, the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom), the University of Auckland (New Zealand), the University of New South Wales (Australia), Rutgers University (New Jersey), Suny Binghamton University and the University of Houston (United States of America), and recently with the Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), as mentioned by HCMIU (2011c and 2011d). This important step has made a large contribution to provide a skilful workforce for society and create new innovation to Vietnamese education.

At the moment, HCMIU has used different Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) tools, including Blackboard and Edusoftweb (a customised system using features of Intranet) to support teaching, learning, and also parental supervision. In 2008, HCMIU established the Quality Management Centre (QMC) which supports teachers and students in applying new innovative technologies to improve educational quality in the e-learning environment. In the 2010 – 2015 plan of QMC, students are the centre and target of education, along with improving teaching standard according to the Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), and encouraging e-learning technologies among staff (Nguyen, 2010).

Reasons for choosing HCMIU

HCMIU is a typical institution with a strong motivation to build an e-learning environment for professional research. In addition, HCMIU is the first public university which completely uses English as a medium of instruction in teaching and learning. It also follows ABET and AACSB standards for its quality. Furthermore, HCMIU has already built a system to enhance teaching and learning in the e-learning environment.

The researcher is a student who studied in the cooperative programme between HCMIU and The University of the West of England (UWE) and has an association with HCMIU staffs for more opportunities in information access. The study experiences of the researcher could help to discover a clear insight into the organisation.

Aim, Objectives, Scope of Study, and Rationale of Research

Aim of the research

This research aims to investigate which ICT available to teachers and students at HCMIU. Then, the research can determine the extent to which those approaches support them in implementing e-learning strategies to improve the quality of education in a Higher Education environment.

Objectives

To examine models of e-learning, benefits, advantages as well as effects and changes that they bring to teaching and learning.

To investigate current issues, practices and policies from government and organization initiatives, and to what extent they affect teaching and learning processes in higher education.

To identify pedagogical approaches that are currently used and what could be applied in the future to support teaching and learning at HCMIU.

To determine the role of managers and their effectiveness in planning and managing resources towards e-learning applications to consider the required resources and development in order to support teachers and students in the e-learning environment.

The study will be guided by the above objectives to achieve the aim of the research.

Scope of Study

This research is being conducted for the Quality Management Centre together with the management of HCMIU. It will explore how teachers and students at HCMIU benefit from using e-learning technologies. It also investigates how designing strategies and managing resources supports the e-learning integration and application at HCMIU.

This study focuses on the current usage of e-learning technologies by teachers and students at HCMIU. Therefore, the context of this research is limited to HCMIU and universities that have built infrastructure of e-learning technologies. This study does not cover the universities that only use the traditional pedagogical approaches in teaching and learning or have no intention to implement or integrate e-learning into their institutions.

Rationale of the research

The contribution of this research may promote:

Acknowledgement of the natures and impacts of e-learning on HE institutions in Vietnam.

Resolution for strategies to support teachers and students to take advantage of e-learning technologies in teaching and learning

Recognition of the role of planning and managing e-learning resources to support teaching and learning.

Research Questions

What are current innovative technologies applied at HCMIU and how does this environment support teachers and students?

What are e-learning technologies preferred at the present and desired for the future by teachers and students at HCMIU?

What effect will planning and managing resources in implementation of e-learning initiatives have on teachers and students at HCMIU?

Dissertation Overview

The dissertation has been divided into the following sections:

Introduction – This section includes Background and Context of the study with a brief overview of the e-learning environment in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh International University. It also explains the Aims, Objectives, Scope of Study, and Rationale of Research, as well as the Research Questions.

Literature Review – This section focuses objectives stated in section 1.2.2 and e-learning issues relevant to this study, including historical issues, policies and strategies.

Research Methodology – This section explains the choice of methodologies, research philosophy, strategy and design. It also considers research qualities, including credibility, transferability, dependability, conformability, and ethical issues.

Findings – This section describes the findings in the form of tables and charts, summarizes and organises the results of open questions, which supports a thorough analysis and answers the research questions.

Analysis and Discussion – The section analyses and compares the findings of this research to previous works of other authors mentioned in the literature review. This will identify the actual extent to which HCMIU applies the e-learning technologies as well as possible drawbacks that can be useful for further research.

Conclusion and Recommendation – This section will draw a conclusion from the analysis and open a discussion on the findings to identify existing issues in HCMIU, then provide recommendations to the university and future research. HCMIU and other Higher Education institutions with similar conditions can obtain relevant information to promote the use of ICT to enhance teaching and learning within the e-learning environment.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature Review

Rationale for Literature Review

The main purpose of this research is to establish the rationale of applying e-learning in Higher Education institutions. The literature review section proposes a conceptual framework which becomes the guideline and foundation of the research. This theoretical framework is rather important because this research is an interpretive and descriptive qualitative case study of HCMIU. The literature review is designed into four sections following the objectives of this research. In each section, readers will have a better understanding based on the evaluated studies which are related to the research questions and main issues of the case study.

The literature review begins with a section that identifies models of e-learning, benefits, advantages as well as effects and changes that e-learning brings to teaching and learning. The second section considers current issues, practices and policies from government and organization initiatives, and the extent to which they affect teaching and learning processes in Higher Education. The third section investigates pedagogical elements such as the need of changing pedagogy in e-learning environment and factors which affect the choice of pedagogy of teachers. The final section examines roles of managers and their effectiveness in planning and managing resources towards e-learning implementation.

E-learning

Definitions

According to Andrews and Haythornthwaite (2007), E-learning is considered as a hybrid which is formed from two separate elements: "e" and "learning". And "E" stands for "electronic" which refers to a wide range of technologies. However, the definition of e-learning has not been clearly agreed on because of the complexity of "electronic" technologies.

Computer was the first applied technology in education in 1960s. It not only helps the teachers to deliver training but also helps students learn mathematics or languages more easily, especially for the people with disabilities. During this period, there was a significant evolution of Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) and Computer Assisted-Learning (CAL) in teaching and learning (Saettler, 1990). Therefore, Computer-Based Learning (CBL) was integrated into the definition of e-learning (Hackbarth, 1996).

Since then, the technology has developed rapidly with the appearance of the CD-ROM, satellite broadcast and interactive television. Therefore, More researchers define e-learning based on all the applications or processes which carry out e-learning such as online learning, digital collaboration or virtual classroom apart from CBL (Beamish et al, 2002). Engelbrecht (2005) also suggests a similar definition of e-learning which is a delivery of teaching materials via all kinds of electronic media.

Recently, an evolution in bandwidth and the Internet has made a significant contribution to the technology application for all users. In the school lab, CBL has evolved into the technology of Web-Based Training (WBT) which stores the student records, enhances teaching and learning and supports administration (Khan, 2001). Teachers and students become more familiar with using the World Wide Web to search useful information. WBT utilizes web-based communication, collaboration, knowledge transfer, and training to add value to the individuals and the organizations (Kelly and Bauer, 2004). Therefore, while it is generally accepted by most researchers that e-learning can be delivered by any electronic media other than web-based media, WBT still makes e-learning more widely accepted by academic institutions and business organizations (Pituch and Lee, 2006).

Although Web-Based Training is a new combination of Computer-Based Training (CBT), distance learning and Internet (Horton, 2001), the description of "e-learning" is still limited (Rosenberg, 2001). In 2002, Salmon demonstrated a broader, all-encompassing definition. He considers e-learning to be an approach which supports and enhances learning based on both computers and communication technologies. However, the sophistication and extent of the technologies still lead to many debates among researchers about the definition of e-learning (Sambrook, 2003).

Benefits of e-learning

According to Pegrum (2009), e-learning has provided easier access to information and knowledge. In education, many schools or universities applied e-learning because of the cost advantages (Clarke and Hermens, 2001). Alexander (2001) and Hijazi et al. (2003) demonstrates that e-learning can help the process of replicating and delivering the study materials easier at lower costs. Institutions can also have access to resources which may not be locally available (Warner, 1999) and it can serve the large number of students simultaneously based on the technologies of virtual lectures and e-libraries (Volery and Lord, 2000). Directly or indirectly, the teachers and students will be the people who most receive the advantages of e-learning in education.

For students

In comparison to the traditional learning environment, e-learning could remove the constraints of time and location and provide students with more flexibility (Arbaugh and Duray, 2002). Caudron (1999) states that students can learn at the time and pace suitable to them. In addition, e-learning also becomes appeal to the students with disabilities who want to pursue studying at home (Brown et al., 2001). Consequently, Liu and Hwang (2009) emphasize the ability to overcome the physical distance between teachers and students. E-learning also sustains the flexibility among students, which enables them to participate in group activities without being in the same place (Hartley, 2000). Furthermore, the communication and interaction between students and teachers could be enhanced through virtual classroom, chat room or forum discussion. (Holley, 2002). O’Donoghue and Singh (2001) also reiterated that there was an improvement of relationship within the online community.

Apart from "flexibility" benefit, Finlayson et al. (2006) indicate three main impacts that students experience within the e-learning environment. They are engagement, cognition and performance factors which are related to the acquisition of knowledge and skills.

Engagement factor: E-learning can encourage students to be more receptive in learning by increasing their attention, concentration and ability to remember information and knowledge. However, other researches claim that the students cannot become self-motivated because it depends on the level of interaction between teachers and students (Kershaw, 1996).

Cognition factor: Students can access the resources more easily and aids understanding because they can search through a large collection of e-books, past examination papers and easily contact mentors, experts or researchers. Therefore, students will have more opportunities to get just-in-time resources (Young, 2002). In addition, World Wide Web also plays an important role in providing international journal resources (Loveless, 2003).

Performance factor: This helps students to creates opportunities for developing new skills and achieve a better grade. The same findings was also discovered in Holley’s study (2002) that the students who use virtual lectures or bulletin boards tend to gain a better result than students in traditional learning environment do. E-learning can increase the students’ creativity (Burgess, 2009) while their problem-solving skills are also enhanced (Rashid and Venture-Medina, 2012). However, other researchers like Hawkes and Cambre (2000) suggest that students should take responsibility themselves in their learning in order to achieve good results. E-learning cannot guarantee that all students will improve their performance. In addition, Volery and Lord (2000) demonstrate that students would be more successful when they have prior experiences of using information technologies.

For Teachers

Teachers receive the same benefits of acquiring easier access to more resources like their students. According to Larson and Bruning (1996), this effect can prepare teachers to impart the knowledge more efficiently. Hence, the quality of teaching can satisfy the national curriculum and standard (McCollum, 1997). Moreover, the teachers can sustain the constant educational support for the students because e-learning technologies enable them to communicate with the students easily or to access the course materials in spite of being at different place or time (McClelland, 2001). Teare (2000) also states that the World Wide Web offers teachers up-to-date information which can help them provide the correct knowledge to students in some contemporary situations. However, in order to take advantage of e-learning completely and make it become successful in education, teachers must possess three main characteristics: teaching style, control of technology and attitude towards technology (Webster and Hackley, 1997). In 2001, Wilson also reached the same conclusion that these characteristics could control the degree of learning and affect the performance of students. However, some teachers can be reluctant to apply the new teaching methods or struggle with new innovative technologies. So, there should be technical and managerial support from a design team and managers in order to enhance the teaching (Bates, 2000).

Models of e-learning delivery

Before measuring the impact of e-learning to teachers and students, we should identify which models of e-learning have been used in universities. Various models have been examined with different purposes and they depend on the role of people who carry out the research such as practitioners, researchers or developers (Beetham, 2004). As a researcher, this literature review will focus on the theoretical model of Rashty (1999). This delivery system model categorizes e-learning into three separate types: adjunct, blended, and online.

Adjunct model: The e-learning becomes an optional choice for students beside traditional learning style in the curriculum. Exchanging information between teachers and students can take place beyond school hours based on technologies such as e-mail and Blackboard.

Blended model: E-learning is integrated directly into the curriculum and help teachers in evaluating the performance of students. This model is a combination of the face-to-face and online methods to deliver the teaching.

Online model: All interactions take place completely online through a communication network with the help of computers. The common technologies include audio and video streaming or hyperlinked course materials.

Various technologies have been used in Higher Education to make sure that the advantages of e-learning can be sustained and exploited completely. To identify what technology should be integrated, the characteristics of exchange activities between students and teachers should be considered. Crumpacker (2001) classifies the activities into three types: "local, synchronous and asynchronous":

Local: This is a traditional model where activities of students and teachers take place at the same time and in same place with the use of whiteboards.

Synchronous: Teaching and learning activities occur at the same time but in different locations. Many transmission technologies are used such as audio or video conferencing, chat conversations.

Asynchronous: Students can learn or access materials at their suitable time. All the communication will be carried out through the Internet, so this model has a strong relationship to Web-Based Learning.

The way that technology is adopted and applied in the educational institutions will influence the effects of e-learning. In addition, there is a mutual relationship between e-learning impacts and objectives and strategies of government or organizations. Therefore, Kearns suggests that e-learning can be established successfully if it is effectively supported by strategies from government and organizations (2002).

Government and Organization Initiatives

Kozma (2008) demonstrates that strategic policies can make a significant contribution to the success of applying ICT in institutions by defining the goals and visions to shape a positive direction. In the educational sector, the government must consider multifaceted elements while developing policies for ICT improvement (Kozma, 2005).

According to Lee et al. (2008), in the Asia-Pacific region, all policies about ICT improvement in education at local levels such as provincial or institutional initiatives are usually involved or under the guidance of a national or master plan. In Vietnam, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is responsible for all levels of training and education. Hayden and Khanh state that MOET is the only one that has significant capacity to affect decisions about academic standards, curriculum and its delivery, or academic work conditions in educational institutions (2010). Policies of MOET will be approved and decided by the prime minister before going to the provincial or district offices.

After the economic reconstruction, the government started to pay attention to the role of ICT and issued many policies, directives, and decisions in all fields including education sector in order to boost positive ICT direction of the country (Huong and Fry, 2004). In the educational sector, a Higher Education Renovation Agenda has been established with a reform plan of building a comprehensive modernization of higher education by the year 2020 (Ministry of Education and Training, 2005). To achieve modernization in education, MOET emphasizes the role of building and developing e-learning as one of the advanced teaching and learning developments in the essential education innovation process in the new era.

Furthermore, according to Vuth et al. (2007), many issues in geography and the workforce of the country make the government pay more attention to distance education to solve the problems. More investments on distance education are supported through the development plans and projects from the government, which is documented through many policies issued by MOET such as Decision No. 164/QD-TTg issued 4th July 2005. This policy aimed to create more learning opportunities for students who are unable to participate in traditional classes at school campus.

Building the national information network such as the Internet or telecommunication system becomes a priority for Vietnam. According to a Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Vietnam (AHK Vietnam, 2009), Vietnam made remarkable progress in implementing ICT strategies with an annual growth rate of 25 per cent in 2010. These remarkable achievements in the telecom sector have made significant contribution to ICT and e-learning development strategies of the country. For example, MOET created a Master plan to improve the ICT and it also established a clear direction for IT application and development in the education sector for the period 2001-2005. The purpose of this Master Plan is to build a strong IT infrastructure which allows all the education institutions to connect to the Internet and establish their own network in teaching and training. In 2007, MOET also co-operated with Viettel to support, set up and provide free Internet services for all educational institutions in the country. The corporation also collaborates with information technology (IT) department of MOET to develop IT infrastructures and services such as e-libraries, e-learning systems and information management systems. At the moment, EduNet is the important educational portal set up by MOET. Moreover, Decision No. 698/QD-TTg issued on 1st June 2009 approved the master development plan of IT human resources until 2015 and orientations to 2020. As a result, the application of E-learning and internet-based distance education in these programmes are employed as utilized transference of knowledge and skills across nations. These issues have actually led to the deployment of e-learning technologies in education and training at universities in Vietnam and promoted involving research.

In addition, MOET also cooperated with Lawrence S. Ting Memorial Fund to hold the "Creative Teachers" contest in order to stimulate and encourage teachers to apply IT to increase the quality of teaching since 2008. The slogan of this contest is "Each teacher builds at least one electronic lecture in each semester" and this national contest has made a large contribution to the implementation of Directive No.55. This Directive was issued on the 30th September 2008 focusing on integration of ICT in education to enhance teaching, training, and applying information technology in education for the period 2008-2012.

Pedagogical Factors

Definition of pedagogy

According to Lovat (2003), pedagogy is formed from practical skills and professional knowledge which being used by teachers through teaching activities and class management. The pedagogy not only increases the quality of learning (Dag and Grecer, 2009) but also develops the efficiency in teaching (Cavanaugh et al, 2000; Gunn, 2001). In the e-learning environment, there should be an appropriate pedagogical design for teachers to make a successful delivery of courses and lessons.

Need of changing pedagogy

Before the introduction of e-learning, teachers usually use the traditional approaches to impart knowledge to students. Under the effects of those approaches, students usually experience the "passive information transfer" while studying. However, e-learning has made a significant contribution in changing the learning style in educational institutions. Chrism (2006) demonstrates that e-learning can encourage students to become more active, social, contextual and collaborative in collecting and exchanging information with their teachers and other students. Within e-learning environment, students have more personal responsibilities and control in learning through the rehearsal or feedback (Roschelle et al, 2001).

Nevertheless, ICT keeps changing and evolving, teachers can experience some issues and tensions such as continuous changes of work pattern or reluctance in adopting new technologies (Singh et al, 2005). Therefore, teachers are required to have more commitment to the constant and changing learning curve in e-learning and keep developing new skills while using technology. Serwatka (2002) also confirms that it is difficult to transform the traditional teaching methods and make them fit into the e-learning environment. As a result, a growing body of literature has focused on the necessity of changing the pedagogy to maximize the benefits and potential of e-learning because it is an important factor which affects the outcome of teaching and learning (McFadzean, 2001 and Garrison and Anderson, 2003).

Factors influencing on pedagogy

According to Wilson (2001), in order to figure out a suitable pedagogy and help teachers control the learning process successfully, there must be a consideration of three following important factors:

- Attitude towards technology

- Control of technology

- Teaching style

Attitude towards technology

In the e-learning environment, several ICT will be used to support teachers to impart knowledge to the students. Therefore, teachers who not receive adequate training either familiarize with the innovative e-learning technologies may cause issues in the teaching and learning processes as well as the application of those technologies (Volery and Lord, 2000). However, before receiving the training to fit into the e-learning environment, teachers must change their attitudes towards the technologies. Holley (2002) emphasizes that teachers must first accept and adopt positively the technological advancements in order to maximize the potential and increase the quality of e-learning.

Various researchers confirm that teachers’ attitude towards e-learning and technologies can have influences on the performance and experiences of students (Piccoli et al., 2001 and Smeets, 2005). In addition, Sun et al. (2008) emphasize that this factor also affects the motivation as well as the participation of students. Moreover, Holley (2002) recognizes that students tend to have more interesting experiences when being taught by a teacher with positive attitudes towards e-learning. Another influence of changing attitude was examined by Kennedy and McNaught (1997) that it could also affect the teachers in choosing appropriate pedagogical approaches and educational technologies for teaching. This influence could accelerate the process of integrating ICT into educational practice (Huang and Liaw, 2005).

Control of technology

Romiszowski (2004) indicates that the role of teachers has changed when working in the e-learning environment. Teachers are not the primary source of knowledge for students anymore; they become the managers of the knowledge resources. Consequently, as the managers, teachers must pay attention to the interaction with their students because it is the key element of the learning process (Palloff and Pratt, 1999). Teachers can enhance the interaction by using various technologies such as Blackboard, chat rooms or forum discussions.

Hall and Hord (1987) demonstrate the concept of "level of use" which helps to identify to what extent the teachers deal with the innovative technologies. More confidence and skills in using technology can take teachers to a higher level of use. It is very useful if their students struggle with adopting and using new e-learning application. As technical experts, teachers can support students to recognize the enjoyment and usefulness of e-learning by using different types of content to create fun or optimize all the convenience of the application (Lee et al. 2005).

In brief, having good control of technology is very essential to teachers in making e-learning successful (Salmon, 2000). Teachers must possess different skills (Jones, 2003) and have good knowledge of technologies being used (Arabasz and Baker, 2003) to make e-learning successful. Moreover, Coldwell confirms that existing knowledge of the technologies can also affect the choice of pedagogical approach (2003).

Teaching style

To identify the suitable teaching style within the e-learning environment, teachers should change their perception towards the student’s role. Gandhi (2011) suggests that students are responsible for the learning experience within e-learning context. Therefore, the teaching style must support the learning activities which concentrate on the student rather than the teacher (Thomas, 2011). In addition, teaching style must also shift from instructivism to constructivism where the construction of knowledge must be performed by the students (Chism, 2006). According to Leidner and Jarvenpaa (1995), students are enabled to discover everything themselves at the pace which is suitable to them under constructive learning environment. This offers students an opportunity to establish the conceptual knowledge and achieve high-level thinking.

However, to have a positive attitude, good skills in using innovative e-learning technologies, both teachers and students must receive the support as well as the training from the educational organization. Therefore, the role of managers is very important especially in defining the instructional strategies to create a successful e-learning culture for institutions. The next section will answer the question "How manager can support and enhance teachers and students in the e-learning environment?"

The role of manager

Importance of manager

Universities in Vietnam are facing rapid changes in the educational environment as well as the student market. The increasing growth of economy has created more financial capabilities for students and parents. Therefore, students have higher expectation towards the standards, quality and the infrastructure of the university that they wish to enrol in. Hence, HE institutions must have a suitable strategy to cope with these challenges. The important role of strategy was mentioned in various studies such as Mintzberg (1983) or Watson (2000). It helps institutions define the mission and vision in order to sketch out the direction and related activities for achieving the goal. Senge (1990) also emphasizes that the process of visioning is as critical and important as the goal itself. This is also reiterated by the research of Bates (2000) that establishing the vision is a necessary and essential step to implement e-learning successfully. The vision will be the description and guideline of how teaching and learning should become in the future when applying the e-learning technologies and how to achieve the goal of institutions.

Therefore, the role of managers, including rectors and presidents, is very important, as they are responsible for planning strategy, vision and mission for the development of institutions. In addition, they are also responsible for managing the fund, resources and staff to achieve the efficiency as well as dealing with the challenges caused by the constant changing environment (Gleeson and Shain, 1999). As a result, Rosenberg (2001) consists that the management and leadership of managers is a critical factor in implementing the e-learning.

Importance of changing management

Bruce (1999) mentions that managers in HE institutions can struggle with a more complicated planning strategy for integrating e-learning with ICT. The implementation of e-learning affects the managers in distributing the resources and support to enhance teachers and students in new environment (Bates and Sangra, 2011). Therefore, Brown (2002) concludes that the managers have to change the process of management to sustain the efficiency of the whole organization.

This section will focus on the critical factor in changing management which contributes to the success of e-learning implementation demonstrated by Jones and Laffey (2002). According to them, the support of managers is influenced by the following factors: involvement, commitment and support.

Involvement

Ely (1999) states that top manager always have special authorities and powers in allocating resources and designing the incentive and motivation for the organization. In addition, managers are also responsible for creating a new e-learning culture and linking all educational activities to the strategy of institution. Therefore, the involvement of the manager is very crucial and should be developed in the e-learning environment (Jones and Laffey, 2002).

However, while implementing e-learning, managers tend to face challenges called lacking of knowledge about the nature which they are responsible to build, as well as the experience of using technologies which they intend to integrate. Gibbs and Gosper (2006) conclude that most of HE institutions are under the management of managers or decision-makers who are experiencing with these issues.

Those problems need to be solved because having deep understanding and wide experience of innovative technologies will help the leaders to develop the competence and sustain the consistency of the institutions (Peachey and Walshe, 2008). Consequently, Cruz (2010) suggests that the managers should have the training of using technology before being in charge of leading the institutions. This requirement provides managers with abilities to evaluate the opportunities and the challenges in supporting teachers and students to fit into the e-learning environment.

Support

To figure out why support from managers is crucial, the difficulties that teachers and students may struggle with e-learning should be identified.

Teacher

In new e-learning environment, teachers should change their normally traditional teaching practices and adopt new e-learning skills. Researchers like Hanson (2003) and Goolnik (2010) mention that teachers can face the fear that their commitment could be suffered. In addition, e-learning requires teachers to provide instant feedback and response to their students through Blackboard, e-mail, chat rooms and forum discussions, which may take place beyond the school hours. Therefore, managers must have a good workload strategies to support teachers and faculties in dealing with the additional works when integrating e-learning (Ragan and Terheggan, 2003)

Teachers also concern that their career could be influenced while adapting to the e-learning context (Martin, 1993). In the educational sectors, teachers are usually rewarded based on their teaching expertise. However, lacking of experiences and skills with innovative technologies in teaching may affect their working performance. This can hamper the teachers’ career or demotivate them in adapting. Hence, managers can design a new rewarding system to encourage and provide teachers with confidence and appreciation of their effort (Gibbs and Habeshaw, 2002).

Student

In Vietnam, students come from rural areas can experience the incapacity of using computer and this can affect the attitude towards e-learning and the results of studying. Lack of skills and experiences in using innovative technologies may lead to the frustration of students in studying (Arbaugh, 2002). In addition, Aldexander et al. (1998) also emphasize that e-learning implementation could not be carried out without technical advices and support. Therefore, managers must offer the training courses to help teachers, students and staffs improve the skills (Young, 2001).

Commitment

The level of support and involvement of managers is also a measure of their commitment to the organization. Hill (2005) suggests that offering support and being involved to the organization are not enough in sustaining the consistency and proficiency of the institutions. He demonstrates that managers might challenge themselves by pursuing a higher goal and have a wider strategy to ensure the future and success of e-learning and the institution as a whole.

Literature Review Summary

The purpose of this section was to present a theoretical framework of e-learning which can be used as the guideline and direction to find answers for the research questions. This framework was also used to explore and analyse issues relevant to this case study. It also demonstrated that not many studies have been done to investigate "How can universities support and enhance their teachers and students in implementing e-learning". Meanwhile, there are many choices of works specialized in a wider theme as mentioned in this literature review and summarized in the following section.

Section 2.2 identified several advantages that students and teachers can benefit from the e-learning environment. In addition, different models of e-learning are discussed in order to explore what is the current model of e-learning being used and integrated in HCMIU. By addressing these areas, the impact of e-learning to teachers and students will be more precise. Furthermore, this section also demonstrated different characteristics of e-learning activities whether they are local, synchronous or asynchronous. This helps to recognise the current nature of teaching and learning processes at HCMIU. The following section 2.3 analysed the important role of government and organisation initiatives through the issued policies in improving infrastructure as well as encouraging practitioners for e-learning. In addition, pedagogical factors were considered in section 2.4 where teachers are required to modify their teaching practices in order to adapt to the e-learning environment. Moreover, this section emphasized that the attitude towards technology, control of technology and teaching style can influence the teachers’ pedagogical design. These critical factors must be considered carefully in order to prepare and support teachers and students to adapt into the new learning environment. Finally, the last section 2.5 examined the role of managers and how they prepare to successfully integrate e-learning into institutions. It showed that the managers’ support, involvement and commitment would make a significant contribution in the process of building a professional e-learning environment.

The framework is used as guidelines for the investigation of this research. In addition, all the information mentioned in the literature review is considered carefully in order to determine whether the case of HCMIU working in line with the framework. This research also identifies the gap between the case and those previous studies in order to figure out the solution needed for the case.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Methodology

Rationale for choice of Methodology

Characteristic of learning environment

In order to find out the appropriate methodologies, the characteristic of the learning environment must be identified. According to Checkland (1981), learning environment can be considered as a socio-technical system where learning is the primary task. This system not only depends on the applied technologies but also on the environment and the people working within it such as managers, staff, teachers and students. Bodker (1996) also emphasizes that activities from these people will affect the reality and nature of the environment. Therefore, with the environment relevant to human activities, Checkland insists that an appropriate method should base on the data collected from different perspectives to support researchers gain an overview of the system (1981).

Research philosophy

This research aims to get a deep understanding about different perspectives of teachers, managers and students on the factors which enhance and influence the success of e-learning integration. Subsequently, an interpretive research philosophy is used in this study because it can help the researcher get closer to participants in the environment being examined (Klein and Myers, 1999). In addition, Deetz (1996) demonstrates that researchers can identify the possible influence and impact of the context by understanding the participants’ viewpoint and action towards it.

Research strategy

There is a wide selection of appropriate methodologies such as argumentative research, action research and forecasting research… (Galliers, 1991). In this research, a case study strategy was carefully considered and chosen because of the following reasons.

Yin (2009) supports that case study strategy is appropriate when there is a need to investigate the phenomenon within its natural setting. In addition, Cepeda and Martin (2005) state that this strategy is used when the experiences and the actions of the human are critical in the environment being researched. This research was designed to investigate the implementation of e-learning in a university. The e-learning implementation is the phenomena while the university is the natural setting and these two elements have a close relationship. In addition, the experiences and the actions of teachers, students and managers are very critical to the implementation of e-learning. Therefore, a case study strategy is an appropriate choice because it can meet the purposes and help answer the research questions in this study.

Mixed method approach and design

Yin (2009) emphasizes that with case study strategy, researchers can use multiple methods to collect the data in order to maintain the high validity of the study. In addition, Brookhart and Durkin (2003) suggests that research in the educational environment usually uses the mixed method approach which includes from two or more methods of quantitative and qualitative approaches for the data collection. Hence, although this study is a qualitative interpretive research, it used quantitative methods together with the qualitative ones to increase the validity

Moreover, Olsen (2004) considers that perspective of one individual can overlap with other people’ perspectives who working under the same environment and this can increases the accuracy of the data. However, if the perspectives are excessively divergent, researchers still find it useful in recognizing and interpreting the gap that may exist in the environment (Flick, 1992). In addition, using various data sources in case study allows the researcher to investigate a wider range of behavioural issues (Yin, 2009). Therefore, triangulation approach was used in this study. According to Patton (2002), there are four types of triangulation:

Data triangulation: Multiple data sources are collected to research, involving time, space and persons.

Methodological triangulation: More than one method is used to gather data, such as observations, archival records, interviews, questionnaires and documents.

Theory triangulation: More than one theoretical perspective or scheme in the interpretation of the phenomenon is assessed.

Investigator triangulation: Several different researchers are evaluated in an investigation.

In this research, data triangulation was applied with three population samples, including managers, students and teachers. Furthermore, methodological triangulation was also used which including open-end interview and survey. The interview was used with the key managers while the questionnaire was used to gather data from two large populations (teachers and students). The purpose is to collect their perspectives towards one same thing: e-learning technologies.

Interview

The interviews were conducted with key managers who are responsible for designing strategy or managing resources in relation to the e-learning integration at HCMIU. The managers’ perspectives and descriptions about the current nature of e-learning technologies in HCMIU were collected. Information about the impact of the government initiatives on national universities was also gathered. Managers also clarified what strategy and support available to enhance teachers and students in using innovative e-learning technologies. In addition, the interviews also inquired the managers to explain their future direction, plan and expectation for the e-learning environment at HCMIU. Following the suggestion of Healey (1991) and Sauder et al. (2003), these interviews were recorded in order to control the bias. The researcher can use these recordings to recheck and analyse the provided information carefully and accurately.

Questionnaire

According to Bryman (1996), the questionnaire should be established after analysing and examining the literature review. Therefore, questionnaires for teachers and students were built after analysing relevant information stated in the literature review. These questionnaires helped to identify what e-learning technologies available at HCMIU as well as which technologies could be exploited in the future based on the suggestions and preferences of teachers and students. The questionnaires also helped to evaluate the perspectives of teachers and students towards subjective factors (their attitude, productivity and skills) and objective factors (infrastructure, managers’ support and strategy).

In addition, the results enabled teachers and students to evaluate each other in relation to their efficiency and experience in using innovative technologies. The results from both questionnaires would identify the gap between the perspectives and expectation of the students towards the teachers and vice versa in the e-learning environment.

Research Design

This research used a case study approach to explore a deep insight into the e-learning area and different methods were considered and evaluated. As a result, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in order to answer the research questions. In this case study of HCMIU, a methodological triangulation and data triangulation were applied to collect data from multiple sources and through different approaches (questionnaires and interviews).

Participants

The participants of this study consist of managers, teachers and students. The group of managers includes four managers who are responsible for quality assurance in education, implementation and management of ICT innovations, facility development and project management. Due to the distant difficulty when the research was conducted, the interviews were arranged by email and carried out by phone.

Along with the interviews, 142 teachers were invited to participate in an online questionnaire for gathering data about their use of e-learning technologies and pedagogical approaches. In addition, approximately 2000 students were also invited to take part in the questionnaire for gathering data about models of e-learning, experiences of different e-learning environments and preferred technologies for future.

The group of students includes the ones studying in HCMIU at that moment (in domestic programmes and co-operative programmes) and the ones studying abroad at the partnership universities for less than one year. The sampling method applied to overseas students in cooperative programmes can help avoid the bias as well as increase the richness of information. Students in co-operative programmes who are currently abroad can demonstrate the extent of e-learning which should be concerned at HCMIU. They have relevant experiences of studying in two different environments with the application of e-learning technologies. Therefore, it may be easier for them to demonstrate which desired technologies should be exploited in the future and what possible difficulties that they struggle when moving between two different e-learning environments.

All participants in the interviews were contact by e-mail and provided with information sheets consisting of an introduction and explanation of research purpose, participants’ rights, confidential and security in order to let them make decision for participating or not. In addition, the interviewees were requested to read an interview agreement attached in the e-mail, then sign and send it back to the researcher.

Interviews

The interviews were used to determine the current available e-learning technologies, plans of development, models of e-learning and intended innovative technologies for future. In addition, they identified the effects, challenges and changes created by e-learning for teaching and learning; and these interviews also suggested pedagogical initiatives towards e-learning in HCMIU. In addition, the interviews provided an insight into features of the university, the role of management towards e-learning, the awareness of current government and organization initiatives and how these policies and initiatives may affect teachers, students in teaching and learning at HCMIU.

Semi-structured interviews (see Error: Reference source not found below) were used for this study and they enable me to follow the line of inquiry. They allowed the interviewees to provide additional information such as valuable literature or recommendation of key personnel relevant to the research topic (Wass and Wells, 1994). These interviews mainly use the open question to let manager describe the situation which they are in.

Four main managers in regard to planning, designing and implementing educational and ICT initiatives for e-learning were interviewed. The interviews took place in the beginning of March 2013. Each interviewee was contacted by e-mail and requested for an interview. After reaching their agreement, the interviewees were sent with an interview information sheet (see Error: Reference source not found below) for an explanation of the research and their rights. The interviewees were requested to read it carefully, sign and date the interview agreement of awareness and permission for recording the interview. The interviews were carried out by phone and recorded by the researcher‘s laptop. The audio files were secured with a password and disposed right after translation and transcription.

Questionnaire

Two separate questionnaires (see Error: Reference source not found and Error: Reference source not found below) for teachers and students were used to identify current available e-learning technologies in the institution and preferred innovative technologies for future, as well as to explore the fundamental knowledge and understanding of each participant about the e-learning environment. They also considered advantages in regard to the e-learning environment and revealed different models of e-learning and pedagogical factors requiring consideration as teachers dealing with various students with different abilities, skills and competencies. Moreover, the questionnaires evaluated the perspectives of teachers and students towards e-learning basing on subjective and objective factors. Furthermore, they examined the competency of participants by querying information on several factors regarding computer literacy, attitudes towards technologies, skills and experiences. Finally, the questionnaires investigated the experiences of students in different study programmes, their desired innovative technologies and the effectiveness of management in planning and managing recourses in order to support teachers and students in the e-learning environment.

SurveyExpression was used to create the online questionnaire for this study. Then a hyperlink was generated to send to teachers and students. With the support of key managers in HCMIU, all the online questionnaires were distributed directly to the e-mail address of teachers and students through Edusoftweb and Intranet without revealing the e-mail lists to the researcher.

A brief introduction and explanation of the research was represented in the first page of the questionnaire to provide participants with the awareness of this study. The survey was opened for participation in a period of five weeks from the 20th of February 2013 to the 27th of March 2013. Inviting e-mails were sent to 142 teachers and approximately 2000 students studying HCMIU programmes and co-operative programmes. However, due to staff absence and a low rate of responses, there were only a total of 536 responses (94 teachers and 442 students).

Research Quality

This research used the case study strategy to explore the phenomenon of e-learning in educational institution. As Yin (2009) suggests that four tactics can be used to evaluate the quality of a case study research, which include: construct validity, internal validity, external validity and reliability. However, this study is a qualitative interpretive research, a framework suggested by Lincoln and Guba (1985) was considered and applied instead. They suggest that researchers must concern about the credibility, transferability, conformability and dependability of the data to achieve the trustworthiness of a qualitative research.

Credibility

The credibility can be paired with the internal validity of a quantitative research because both of them make significant contribution in proposing the truth feature of a study. According to Patton (1990), case study can enhance the credibility because this strategy uses multiple data sources and this was also reiterated by Yin (2009). In this study, the data triangulation method was used to collect data from three different sources consisting of managers, teachers and students.

Moreover, methodological triangulation was adopted by applying two different instruments: interview (as qualitative approach) and questionnaire (as quantitative approach). Hirschman (1986) describes that the methodological triangulation approach can enhance the credibility of a research. Patton (1990) also reiterates that all types of triangulation help to increase the richness of the information.

Furthermore, the qualitative research describes a phenomenon through the perspectives of the participants and only these participants can judge whether the result of research is credible or not. Hence, "member checking" method was used during and after the interviews because it was considered as a critical method to achieve a credible data (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). During the interview with key managers, the researcher repeated, summarized and verified their answers at the end of each question to ensure the accuracy. In addition, all interviews were completely recorded for later confirmation and precise interpretation of the data.

Transferability

According to Lincoln and Guba (1985), transferability of a research is its ability to generalize its findings in a different setting. This is also reiterated by Yin (2009) that the findings are enabled to replicate beyond the case study. However, researcher can not completely evaluate the transferability of his research. Other researchers should be responsible for transferring these findings into other research situations. They must determine the degree of similarity between these works and judge to what extent the findings of this study are applicable and sensible to match their setting. Therefore, in order to ensure the highest possible transferability, a "thick description" about this case study, database and relevant information were provided in the interview and questionnaire protocol (see Error: Reference source not found, Error: Reference source not found and Error: Reference source not found below).

Dependability

Dependability in qualitative research is actually the criterion of reliability in quantitative research. This criterion plays a crucial role in increasing the quality of one research because it has strong relationship to the credibility. Lincoln and Guba (1985) state that research can not be credible without the dependability.

Eisenhardt (1989) emphasizes that a good case study protocol can make the dependability or reliability of research increased and this was also reiterated by Yin (2009). Therefore, the case study protocol was established and all the procedures including the stage of collecting, analysing and interpreting data were carefully documented. This case study protocol can also help other researchers repeat the process in other similar situation.

According to Parkhe (1993), establishing a database also makes significant contribution in building dependability because it enables researcher to access and track the data easier. In addition, easy tracking and access to the database can help researcher sustain the consistency of the data. In this research, the built database stored all the notes, audio files of the interviews and key documents relevant to the case. The questionnaires can also be accessed easily via Internet for analysing and interpreting the data with user account.

Conformability

Conformability of a research is the ability of the researcher in analysing and interpreting the findings in a neutral way without the intervention of subjective views (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). In 1981, Guba emphasized that to achieve the neutrality of data, researcher must collect data from at least two sources. Therefore, triangulation approach was used in this study to build the conformability. Data collected from three different sources (managers, teachers, and students) provided different information and increased the objective views of all participants towards e-learning.

Ethical consideration

In this section, the ethical consideration is also mentioned as a factor which influences the quality of research although it is not included in the framework of Lincoln and Guba (1985). This research is a qualitative interpretive research and involves the human participation in the process of collecting data. Participants in the research can be afraid of their personal information being disclosed if the ethical issue is not handled carefully. Therefore, ethical consideration is very critical in avoiding distorted or misrepresented information from participants. Consequently, the ethical consideration should be carefully noticed in all processes of the research in order to avoid the right and privacy violation to participants, as suggested by Henry (2009).

To ensure that all partakers receiving the same protection of ethical code, the informed consent for this research was provided before the interviews and questionnaires. Hudson and Bruckman (2002) emphasize that if the participants receive no consent prior data collection, they will feel that there exists a violation. Furthermore, Waskul and Douglass (1996) also demonstrate that a research without informed consent is a deceptive research because participants have no idea about the research’s purpose and their role in the research. Therefore, an informed consent consisting of the purpose of this research and contact details of the researcher was provided to solve these issues. It helped participants understand the role of their participation and research procedures. The informed consent also helped avoid putting pressure on participants by providing the duration of interview and questionnaire and demonstrated the respect to them for providing useful data to this research. According to Schwandt (1994), different people have different ideas about what was ethical. Therefore, the informed consent let the participants decide whether to agree with the included ethical consideration and continue joining the research. In case that they agree to participate in, Jokinen et al. (2002) emphasize that participants will play a collaborative role in the research by providing more reliable data, which increase quality of the research.

Moreover, Drew et al. (2008) demonstrates that researcher must also respect the right to withdraw the research without the penalty. Therefore, participants of this study always hold the right to withdraw the interviews or questionnaires at any time without obligation to provide the reason although they already signed the consent form.

Different people will have different perspectives, which can raise an ethical