Challenges of Incorporating e-Learning Approach in Technical Education Institutes

Challenges of Incorporating e-Learning Approach in Technical Education Institutes

Research shows that although the varying technical educational institutions have varying core strategic motives, however it is established through research that these institutions usually sought to institutionalize e-learning, thus changing the entire experience of learning and teaching; provide accommodation for increasing enrollment of students; maintain the academic miscellany; and acquire a competitive advantage. Irrespective of the reason, all the technical educational institutes have a common reality; they require fostering a compassionate setting in all facets and phases of their e-learning experience (Afari & Achampong, 2010)

A significant aspect of such programs is the support facility provided by their departments and institutions as they progress and sustain their curricula of e-learning. Administrative leadership serves a significant role in forming and promoting the use of e-learning facility. When positive and strong administrative leadership is practiced, it results in effective and extensive use of e-learning facility (Dadzie, 2009). When there is poor or little leadership, there are low adoption rates, less effective employment of e-learning facility, and frequently resentment and resistance is shown up by the students. Majority of the institutions feel that they specifically support the integration of e-learning into their practices of education and instruction (Guri, 2005).

The faculty are instructed by the department or college to teach a particular course in one of the online modalities since it is now associated to their policies, however it is not required by the faculty to take part. However, formal strategies are significant, particularly for tenure consideration and promotion. When a faculty member spends a significant amount of effort and time on the improvement of their instructional efficacy by establishing an e-learning course, that endeavor may serve more towards promotion and tenure in some institutes and relatively less in some others. Partly, as a consequence of such variances, the level of participation by the faculty differs in different institutes (Hayashi, et.al, 2008).

Nevertheless, almost fifty percent of the faculty involved in e-learning is, to the minimum, at professor or associate professor. This proposes that it is highly probable that the members of promotion and departmental tenure committees are aware of the importance and role of e-learning in a technical education institution. At the same time as promotions and tenure stand for long standing inducements incorporate the adoption of e-learning, technical educational institutions have also required offering short ranging “carrots” for tipping the presumed benefit poise. Release time and stipends are the two most regularly recognized practices for encouraging the teachers towards the incorporation of technology with teaching and instruction (Keller & Cernerud, 2002).

The policy of coherence throughout the organization is equally significant to the success of incorporation of e-learning. This significance is referred to as a “holistic approach” towards the development and support of e-learning in technical educational institutions. It concerns with the pertinent teaching-versus-research emphasis. For achieving coherence amongst the practices of e-learning, it is widely believed that sufficient funding is marked as the most prominent institutional challenge towards the ...