|
|
(Excerpts from the report by Assoc. Prof Chee Yam San, Associate
Director, CDTL, 11 August 2000)
| Duration of survey |
: |
April-May 2000 |
| Population for the survey |
: |
22 instructors
who used NUSCast in
Semester I and/or II of academic year 1999/2000 |
| Number of instructors who
responded |
: |
15 (i.e., a sample size of 68% of the
user population) |
| Survey Instrument |
: |
A questionnaire divided into six
sections, comprising a combination of 47 open-ended and multiple choice
(measurement levels including nominal and ordinal scales) opinion questions.
|
| Mode of survey |
: |
Mail Questionnaire |
Introduction
The NUSCast facility has two distinct components. The first
component is NUSLive: the realtime streaming of the lecture, while it is in
progress in the lecture theatre, across the campus network. The second
component is Multimedia-on-Demand (MOD): the archived lecture that is made
available to online users on demand.
Conclusion
The NUSCast technology, from the instructor perspective, has a
role to play in campus instruction. What is important is for instructors to be
discriminating when they select this tool as their mode of instruction. They
should be aware of its advantages as well as its limitations and potential
dangers. Most importantly, they should ensure that the technology provides a
good match to the nature of their subject matter and the effective modes of
instruction that will help them achieve their teaching goals. If any
generalization can be fairly drawn from this survey, it appears that the main
benefit of NUSCast relates to the flexibility afforded to students to view the
lectures at their convenience and also to re-view them for revision, while the
main drawback is that the quality of learning is not enhanced. Put differently,
the main benefit of NUSCast technology appears to be predominantly practical
rather than pedagogical.
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