E-Learning Models: A Comparative Analysis of Effectiveness

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of e-learning models, focusing on the comparison between cloud-based and traditional methods. The report begins by establishing the evolution of e-learning, discussing its growing acceptance by educational institutions worldwide. It explores the research questions concerning the viability of e-learning as a primary teaching medium, the optimal infrastructure for e-learning platforms (private cloud vs. third-party contracts), and the role of e-learning during crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The literature review examines the concepts of e-learning, current trends in online education, and the role of technology in online learning. The report reviews the work of Gros & García-Peñalvo, Nash, and Alajmi, Sadiq, Kamaludin & Al-Sharafi, discussing e-learning's evolution, pedagogical approaches, and the influence of technology. It highlights the different perspectives of students and instructors regarding online learning, including the issue of cheating and the importance of social interaction. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the advantages of cloud-based e-learning, such as cost-effectiveness and scalability, and contrasts it with the challenges of traditional e-learning models. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications for the future of e-learning.

E-LEARNING
Authors Article name Author’s affiliation Author’s email address
Julie Ann Nash Future of Online
Education in Crisis:
A Call to Action
Prince Mohammad Bin
Fahd University,
Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.
[e-mail]
B.Gros and F.J.
Garcia-Penalvo
Future Trends in
the Design
Strategies and
Technological
Affordances of E-
Learning
University de Barcelona
and University de
Salamanca respectively
[e-mail] and
[e-mail]
Q. Alajmi, Mohammed
A. Al-Sharafi, Adzhar
Kamaludin
E-Learning Models:
The Effectiveness
of the Cloud-Based
E-Learning Model
over the Traditional
E-Learning Model
A’ Sharqiah University
and University Malaysia
Pahang respectively.
-
1© The Authors. Published by BCS
Learning and Development Ltd.
Proceedings of …

Paper title
Author 1 ● Author 2
E-learning is a new way of teaching and has been accepted by institutions throughout the world.
The ease with which students can get to understand their subjects better has made the system more
popular amongst everyone. It bridges the gap between students and teachers and in this platform neither
time matters nor distance. In this paper, e-learning as an alternative solution will be evaluated. The
concepts of e-learning and the way it has evolved have been discussed.
E-learning, internet, online education, crisis
1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research questions are as given below:
1. Can e-learning be considered as the main
medium of teaching?
2. Should e-learning platforms be based on private
cloud or contracts be taken from third parties?
3. How does e-learning help in situations such as
environmental crisis such as coronavirus that is
prevalent today?
These research questions pinpoint exactly
what I want to find out about e-learning and I think
these will guide me throughout my research. There
is no point discussing on what is e-learning and
other basic questions as the main point that needs
to be researched on is whether e-learning is the
perfect alternative for traditional system of learning.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Online education is emerging at a rapid rate and it
is being anticipated that in days to come it will
replace the traditional system of learning.
Researchers are of the opinion that online
education system has been able to create its
position due to the increase in use of the internet.
Almost everyone uses smartphones and internet
and thus it can be said that this is the only medium
that has paved way for online education. This has
been readily accepted by people owing to the ease
of access and anytime access. The online
platforms have brought the classes close to the
students. They can sit back at home, not worrying
about commutation and study. They can chose
from different study materials and lectures of
different professors. In this paper, different aspects
of e-learning will be considered and the main focus
will be on using the platform in situations of crisis.
In order to understand the topic better three articles
based on different authors will be reviewed.
2.1 Concept of e-learning
As per the research done by Gros & García-
Peñalvo, (2016), e-learning emphasizes on the
facts of “any time” and “any place” learning. In this
context, technology helps in mediating the process
of learning, Internet serves as the medium of
delivering the lectures and it is not required for the
students and the teachers to be at the same place
and time. There have been a lot of advances in the
practices related to e-learning with mutual influence
of different technological e-learning platforms as
well as various pedagogical models. The e-learning
platforms are evolving to include new modifications
and these are expected to support new
possibilities. The authors have reviewed the
concepts of e-learning and its definition as per
three different generations. It has been considered
as a teaching as well as learning approach. As per
the authors, first generation is depicted by the
evolution of the online learning platforms. It was
new to the people that Internet could serve as a
medium of learning and in this stage the
technological context was considered to be more
important as compared to the pedagogical issues.
The second generation on the other hand included
human factor. In this generation interaction in
between the peers and communication in between
pedagogues and students was an essential factor.
In the first generation, e-learning was just a content
publication process but in the second generation e-
learning became a medium through which students
could communicate with their teachers. This
included socialization, data interoperability facilities
as well as mobility. The last generation of e-
learning is said to have two different symbiotic
aspects. One being that e-learning has established
itself as a vital component in the technological
ecosystem and second is that e-learning has been
integrated into the educational designs or the
various learning activities in a much transparent
way. The authors of have also discussed on
different pedagogical approaches associated with
e-learning. Pedagogical approaches are developed
from learning theories providing general principles
that are made use of to design specific instructional
as well as learning strategies. These refer to the
various mechanisms that act as link in between
theory and practical domains. Instructional
strategies refer to the creation of instructional
designers that facilitate student learning. The
pedagogies of e-learning are categorized into four
different categories that are as given below:
1. Associative- This can be considered as the
traditional way of education delivery and this
emphasizes on transmission of various theoretical
units associated with e-learning.
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2. Cognitive- In this case knowledge is considered
as more dynamic as well expanding concept rather
than just being objective or static.
3. Situative- Learning is considered as a social
practice and the learner himself takes on the
responsibility for his own learning and thus this
approach is said to be as learner centric.
4. Connectivist- This approach involves learning
through the medium of networked environment.
This is not restricted to a single environment but
can be found out across the Web. Connectivist
approach requires people’s engagement.
2.2 Current trends in online education
As per the research done by Nash, (2015), the
escalating growth of online education requires that
attention be given to academic vehicle of higher
education which can be said to as slow moving
machine. In this article the authors have focused on
the current trends in case of online education. The
current trend suggests that when it comes to online
learning, perceptions of students, faculty members
and the administrators are different. As per different
studies it can be said that the students and the
faculty members have totally different or more
specifically opposite perspective. Students in
general, perceive the online classes as an easy
way to get away from their studies. The difference
in perceptions can be understood form that fact that
students think instructors should be active in their
learning experience while on the other hand
instructors feel that they are more of a guide or
facilitator in the online mode of learning. There is a
clash of thought in between the faculty and the
students as students feel that the members at
faculty should be available 24*7 and even on
weekends to attend to their doubts but instructors
feel that the students should be self motivated as
well as independent learners. Another important
aspect in case of online learning is that students
tend to cheat in online learning platforms as there
is nobody in front of them to keep a watch on them.
The varied perceptions related to online education
can be understood from the fact that students have
divided views on this. Some of the students are of
the opinion that online courses are easy for the
purpose of learning rather than going to classes
while other section feels that online learning is not
the correct way and traditional system is better.
The authors suggest that that common practice of
evaluating the faculties on the basis of student’s
evaluation is not the correct way as studies suggest
that evaluation of students are based on the
student’s motivation and the effort put in by the
same. Teachers can guide them but they can just
sit for the exams on behalf of students. It is the
responsibility of the student to take the lectures
seriously, put in efforts and come up with doubts.
Another major problem in this case is that the
instructors those who teach on the online platform
are part time and have no security of tenure which
is why they are hesitant to go for the online
classes. Online instruction has come up with
certain structures such as the discussion boards.
The main concern of the academic leaders and the
members at faculty was that the online courses
lack in social as well as interactive elements that
are otherwise provided by the face-to-face courses
and according to them those specific aspects of
face-to-face courses are essential. Social
interactions have now been implemented into the
online courses but the aspect that got lost is the
built in discipline of having to put aside a specific
time for a course every week. Online education
lacks in the forced structure that involves making
an effort for learning a course. The authors are of
the opinion that even discussion boards offer
minimal value to the online courses and it can be
said that these discussion boards are useless.
Other major aspects of online learning that has
been considered by the authors are course length,
proctored exams and online student profile.
2.3 Technology in online learning
As per the research done by Alajmi, Sadiq,
Kamaludin & Al-Sharafi, (2017), the traditional e-
learning model has evolved because people are
extensively using internet services. With the
advancement of technology it has become easy for
learners for sharing information interactively. The
growth in online learning course has increased
significantly with its utilization by large number of
people. There are dedicated institutions which look
for models used for improving the online learning
process. Hence the learning which is cloud based
has gained much importance and has many
advantages in this e-learning atmosphere. The
cost-effectiveness and low maintenance of cloud
based learning model is beneficial and has
contributed in shaping of the future. On the other
hand traditional learning method has various
challenges like maintenance and construction of
system can only be done within the enterprise or
institution and moreover its repairing requires lot of
resources. E-learning methods have been
developed for the improvement in learning.
Research is being done for the reinforcement of
cloud computing. Efforts are made for information
system enhancement, development of resource,
and improving the build of online course. Usage of
Internet in learning has helped in designing,
managing, supporting, implementing and extending
the learning process in an easy manner. Traditional
E-learning has failed in meeting the expectations
whereas cloud based learning has increased the
learning efficiency. A recent study comprising of
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150 students and around 40 teachers revealed that
Cloud based e-learning is better than classical e-
learning. From the perspective technology which is
changing rapidly, traditional learning model will
become outdated very soon. Considering the other
side, cloud computing has been a turning point in
education and proved beneficial to those who
choose technology for accessing education related
content. Computing has promoted effective and
efficient utilization of resources along with dynamic
scalability. It has made the sharing of resources
easy, particularly in those areas where there are
limited resources. The involvement of cloud
computing in the process of learning requires
checking of the integration of resources and the
teaching system. Learner is required to understand
the important ways for sharing the learning content.
Shareholders focus should be on evaluation
management, building of capacity and content. The
cloud based system creates the new generation e-
learning system. Windows, Google and Amazon
are offering cloud based services and these can be
taken up in the E-learning environment. The
modeling of cloud based learning has been done
for complying with modern day needs of E-learning.
Both the E-learning methodologies, be it cloud
based or traditional have proved to be very
beneficial for learners. In some cases the
institutions are unable to cope up with the rapid
change in technology hence they prefer to use the
old method of e-learning. So in this the students
and teachers failed to get benefitted from the
services that are provided by the new e-learning
model. Storing of the information in local disks
which is done in the traditional e-learning is risky
because if there is some fault it may get deleted.
However the problem of hacking exists in the
methods of e-learning. When resources are stored
in cloud platforms, students can easily access
those using different types of devices.
3. CONCLUSION
From the above three paper that have been
reviewed it can be understood that e-learning has
come a long way and has evolved since its
inception. The first article focuses on the concepts
of e-learning, second article on the current trends
while the third on the technology being used in this
case. These articles give a clear idea of the
compact topic and thus this can be the base for the
research which will be conducted. Thus it can be
said that e-learning can be considered as main
medium of teaching in days to come but detail
research will be required to confirm the same.
Whether third parties should be relied depends on
various factors that need analysis. The research
will consider the main fact how e-learning can help
in situations such as the one like corona virus that
is prevalent now. As per initial research it can be
said that e-learning will be of great help in crisis.
This will focus on how to use private open source
cloud management platforms like opemnebula to
build up e-learning platforms.
4. REFERENCES
Alajmi, q., sadiq, a., kamaludin, a., & al-sharafi, m.
A. (2017, may). E-learning models: the
effectiveness of the cloud-based e-learning model
over the traditional e-learning model. In 2017 8th
international conference on information technology
(icit) (pp. 12-16). Ieee.
Gros, b., & garcía-peñalvo, f. J. (2016). Future
trends in the design strategies and technological
affordances of e-learning. Springer.
Nash, j. A. (2015). Future of online education in
crisis: a call to action. Turkish online journal of
educational technology-tojet, 14(2), 80-88.
5. RESEARCH DESIGN
Research design is the structure of the framework
of the research that is to be conducted. In this
research both primary as well as secondary
research methodology will be considered.
Literature review will be done in a broader way so
that the concepts of other authors are understood
properly. Online survey will be conducted owing to
its various advantages. Using online survey will
help in gathering relevant data about the topic; the
medium for data collection is not that costly, better
response can be desired for and it is easy to reach
the target audience. Online survey has been
chosen as it is easy to use not only for the
participants but the researchers as well. The
participants in the survey can be pre-screened and
only the target audience can be made a part of the
survey. Another reason behind this is that,
participants willingly prefer to be an active part of
online surveys as compared to any written
questionnaires or telephonic interviews. Thus, this
data collection method has been chosen. The only
issue with online survey is that sometimes
participants just fill in the survey with random
answers and just take part just for the sake of being
a part it. Their answers are not genuine which can
have a drastic effect on the results of the survey.
6.ETHICAL, LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL
CONSIDERATIONS
In this research, the work will be done honestly and
there will no misuse of data. The results of the data
collected will be analyzed properly and fairly
without any biasness. When working with others
their perceptions and agreements will be taken
care off. No participant will be forced to be a part of
the survey. The works of the different authors
considered in the literature review will be well cited.
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The legal issues that will be taken care off while
conducting the research are complying to the
regulations that are laid down by various regulatory
bodies, seeking approval from authority to carry on
with the research, avoiding biasness, incorrect
reporting and misuse of the informations that have
been obtained by data collection. It is assured that
the research will not have any plagiarized solution.
While conducting the research professional code of
ethics will be kept in mind. The code of conduct for
responsible research laid down by different
authorities will be adhered to. There will be no
plagiarism, piracy or misconduct while doing the
research. Everyone associated with the research
will be treated fairly and justly. The data that will be
collected will be topic relevant and not personal.
The identity or the emails of the participants will not
be tracked. In this way, it will be ensured that while
conducting the research ethical, legal and
professional considerations are taken into account.
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