Framework of E-Transformation - Approach to facilitate non-technical higher educational institutes in Sri Lanka

Sumanadasa SS, Kumarawadu SP, and Shanta Fernando

Abstract - This paper presents a framework of e-Transformation, which is an approach to facilitate non technical higher education institutes in Sri Lanka. The main idea of the study is to enhance the teaching and learning process by facilitating ICT enabled teaching approach. To design the above framework, this study used quantitative and qualitative methods. The qualitative part was based on the quantitative analysis. The e-readiness of the students, lecturers, content and the infrastructure of the focused Universities was studied quantitatively. The study has identified three main areas; students, lecturers, content, to be prepared in order to e-transform the existing system by providing adequate infrastructure. The framework is proposed focusing mainly on three pillars namely teaching, learning and content development on top of an infrastructure base. Each pillar is required to meet identified objectives. Those Objectives are categorized as academic objectives, students' objectives and management objectives in the digital learning environment, and those were identified and analyzed from a pedagogical point of view in order to find out what exactly are the didactic possibilities and opportunities. Once the expected objectives are achieved it will result in an enhanced Teaching-Learning mechanism to transform existing systems with a smooth transformation without making major changes to the present structure and limited capital investment

Key words - e-readiness, ICT pedagogical, didactic

I. INTRODUCTION

OBTAINING higher education from conventional universities in Sri Lanka is very competitive []. [1] V.K.Samaranayake, "ICT enable open and distance learning" presented at National conference of open and distance learning, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2005. Information Communication Technology (ICT) can be used as a tool to enhance the Teaching and Learning processes of these higher education Institutes. Based on an empirical study about existing ICT enabled teaching and learning techniques used in other countries, and identifying didactic (designed or intended to teach in teacher oriented approach) possibilities and opportunities of applying those in the Sri Lankan context, this research presents a framework of e-transformation for non technical higher education institutes in Sri Lanka.

The study is comprised with qualitative and quantitative components. The survey focused on arts faculties in Sri Lanka. Identification of their present situation was carried out by analyzing the e-readiness (An average that takes into account the proportional relevance of each component, rather than treating each component equally) of students, lecturers, content and infrastructure in focused institutes. Based on those results the framework is designed qualitatively.

This study revealed that the e-readiness, particularly in the teaching and learning processes in focused academic institutes, is considerably less. The reasons for this can be identified as common issues valid for all institutes and some of the reasons vary from university to university.

Once the framework is introduced to the institutes, it will result in an enhanced teaching,learning mechanism to transform the existing systems with a smooth transformation without making major changes to the present structure and with limited capital investment.

II. IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF THE STUDY

Higher educational Institutes are the main beneficiaries of this research. Once the anticipated benefits are achieved by those higher education institutes, it will be reflected in the society and in turn, in the government. Different stakeholders of the higher education institutes, namely students, teaching staff, administration staff and management, are benefited by the study. Students are the most benefited. One of the major problems that the students face in their education is the lack of contact hours with the faculty members. Frequent Student-Faculty contact in and out of class is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. So these types of enhancements increase accessibility of the faculty members at many difficult time periods.

New technology can dramatically improve the teaching and learning process. Students gain real time access to their lessons which is an effective and interactive approach. Time/Pace independency is one of the major achievements that would be gained by the teachers from the enhanced teaching process. Time on tasks for students and lecturers is another outcome of the proposed framework.

The framework will facilitate the administrative functions by providing more accurate and efficient processing of data and high accessing power than earlier. Resource allocation conflicts can be drastically reduced.

One of the major concerns the management expects from such a system is to facilitate knowledge sharing among organizational members in an efficient and effective way and also they wanted to achieve competitive advantages such as increasing of use number of students. Enhancing quality of the teaching and learning process. Virtual universities can be accomplished; Schedules can be synchronized through their transformation process.

Overall benefits that can be gained by the main stakeholders within the institutes will reflect on the society by improving the higher educational system of the society. Some of the key benefits are increasing the opportunities of higher education, diverging the educational systems to the newest trends, reducing denseness of student population around the universities and reduction social and health problems caused by dense population.

The global idea of higher education in Sri Lanka is to create centers of excellence in the field of higher education. So this study is to achieve Excellencies by addressing major requirements that are lacking in Sri Lankan higher education system

III. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

As mentioned before, research is designed by both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Identifying the present situation of the e-Readiness is the quantitative part of the research and was carried out by the ranking method. Designing the framework to the transformation is the qualitative part of the research. The quantitative analysis has been divided into three main categories to identify their individual readiness in the digital learning approach. The categories are Students, Lecturers, and infrastructure. The sub categories, which come under each main category, have been taken into account as reference points to formulate the Transformational Framework. Quantitative data was collected to ensure optimal comparability between the selected Universities; the sample selected was more or less similar departments within the Universities. To make in more consistent among the samples some more factors were taken into account when selecting respondents to the survey in each University. Respondents are selected across the different academic departments representing whole faculty and subject disciplines, from different years of study, from both sexes to ensure coverage of all these relevant demographic and academic indicators.

In addition or parallel to the collection of quantitative data, a more in-depth understanding in research topics is gained through interviews. Throughout the study, the quantitative and qualitative data have been used simultaneously. Computer software has been used (Minitab, Ms Excel) to analyze the quantitative data.

A more or less similar sample size was selected for the survey. For the'student sample' in each University 30 to 35 students from different departments and different years of study were selected. When selecting the sample of lecturers, 15 per University were selected. It includes all categories like Professors, Senior lecturers, Lecturers, Lecturer Probationary etc. Table 1 shows the sample distribution of Students, and Lecturers

A questionnaire was the main method to collect quantitative data. Questionnaires were distributed among students of each University. The qualitative data was collected by conducting structured and unstructured interviews. Mostly unstructured interviews were conducted to get information about infrastructure availability within the institute. Many structured interviews were carried out with the top management such as Dean of the faculty, Deparment Heads and with Senior lecturers to get their views of the transformation.

Weighted average method (An average that takes into account the proportional relevance of each component, rather than treating each component equally) is used as a statistical model to calculate e-readiness value of each participant of the survey. To decide the methodology to suit this study, the model which was used by EIU (Economics Intelligent Unit)[] and another model that was used in Bulgaria were referred. [3] IBM institutes of Business values, The 2005 e-readiness ranking model, Economist intelligent units, 2005. The model, which is designed for checking e-readiness, was reviewed by the expertise in the field. Ranking models were defined to reflect both technological and humorous aspects that are necessary for digital based Teaching and Learning environment. Three separate e-Readiness models were prepared; first two models were to investigate readiness and preparedness of Students, Lecturers and their Teaching content respectively and the third to analyze the availability of the present Infrastructure.

IV. CONCEPTUALIZATION

In order to identify the present position of readiness and preparedness of the Teaching and Learning process it is necessary to identify readiness and preparedness of main entities of Teaching and Learning process separately. The study has identified the main entities of the Teaching and Learning process as Students, Lecturers, contents and the infrastructure.

Definitions

Preparedness and Readiness of Students

Students are one of the main stakeholders of the Teaching and Learning process. It is very important to prepare students for the transformation before the actual implementation take place. Without having satisfactory ICT knowledge, the students system will not be successful in any way. In the conventional universities, students are come from different backgrounds. It can be seen that different levels of ICT knowledge is common. So that identifying their present position of ICT knowledge is used to decide what type of program is required to take the students into a required level. This has been identified by the e-readiness of Students.

Preparedness and Readiness of Lecturers

Lecturers are the other stakeholders of the Teaching and Learning process. To transform their knowledge to the students effectively, Information Communication Technology is used in the higher educational sector. Preparing lecturers effectively to this digital environment is a critical event, as at present their ICT knowledge has to be identified clearly. This has been identified in the study as e-readiness of a lecturer.

Preparedness and Readiness of Content

Similarly another important area of this study is to identify the present position of the teaching materials to the e-transformation if there is a limitation to transform in digital form or if it has been already transformed []. To ensure those factors e-Readiness of lecturers and their materials is required to be identified.

Infrastructure Readiness

Infrastructure readiness is equally important as human preparedness and readiness for digital transformation. ICT infrastructure requirements are important not only for such process, but also for future extension in stream lining teaching-learning process []. So to invest money for developing IT Infrastructure becomes a competitive advantage to the institute. This analysis may be beneficial to such projects as well. This is analyzed by the e-readiness of infrastructure.

Management Commitment

In order to make any process a reality, management decision is essential. So, those in the initial stage getting their impressions and their limitations need to be analyzed before. Willingness to apply changing technology into present system is not an easy task but with the favorable contribution and it's the advantage to the successful ending.

V. OPERATIONALIZATION

e-Readiness of Students (RS)

Study has defined a criterion called e-readiness, which will evaluate the present competence level of ICT knowledge of the students.

This criterion consists of four categories. Each category has been weighted with a value, based on the assumption of its importance as an influencing factor to e-readiness. Then the value that has been scored by the respondent is multiplied with the correspondent weight. Finally sum of values of all four category forms the value of e-readiness to the respective student. Four categories of e-readiness of students are as follows,

RS= SPC+ SWB+ SWP+ SW

Where SPC - Competence to use a PC

SWB - Competence to use a web browser

SWP - Competence to use a word processor

SW - willingness to adapt to e-learning

e-Readiness of lecturer (RL)

e-readiness of Lecturers is assessed by their teaching ability with the help of ICT tools and also the ability to convert lecture materials to the electronic form. To identify the readiness of lecturers, the study has defined a criterion called e-readiness of the lecturer, which focuses on six categories to evaluate their present status of e-readiness.
RL = LPC + LWB + LWP + LPP + LLM + LW
Where LPC - Competence to use a PC

LWB - Competence to use a web browser

LWP - Competence to use word processor

LPP - Competence to use presentation tools such as Power Point

LLM - Competence to convert lecture materials to electronic form

LW - Willingness to facilitate e-learning

e-Readiness of Infrastructure (RIF)

e-readiness of infrastructure is assessed by the availability of infrastructure within the institute. Six categories have been identified as most influencing factors to check the readiness of infrastructure. This criterion is names as e-readiness of Infrastructure.

RIF = IFLAN + IFCMS + IFTR + IFPP + IFSA + IFEM + IFIN

Where IFLAN - Availability of a LAN with computing resources

IFCMS - Availability of a Content Management System

IFTR Availability of Competent e-learning trainers

IFPP Availability of System Administrators

IFSA Availability of e-mail connectivity to all users

IFEM Availability of internet connectivity to all users

VI. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Definitions of the Status Categories

e-Readiness values that have been measured and used in the study are defined as follows.

The e-Readiness value that is in the range of 0 to 3.99 categorized as "Very Low", values that are in the range of 4.0 to 5.99 is termed as "Fairly Low", then the values that are in the range of 6.0 to 7.99 is "Average" and finally e-Readiness values that are in very good position that is 8.0 to 10 is termed as "Satisfactorily". Table 2 given the status in the tabular format.
