Evaluation of effectiveness of e-learning materials in senior secondary science and mathematics subjects

The provision of quality and sufficient resources of interactive self-learning is one of the main foci of the third round of Hong Kong Government’s strategic policy to integrate ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in learning and teaching – “The Third Strategy on IT in Education: Right Technology at the Right Time for the Right Task “. It is in fact built upon the earlier strategies of empowering learners and teachers with IT, enhancing educational leaders to integrate IT in schools and provision of necessary IT infrastructure and training to teachers etc. On the other hand, since September 2009 the New Senior Secondary Curriculum has already been implemented in Hong Kong to re-align the senior secondary and university education system with those found in most parts of the world, especially in Mainland China and USA. Both the Science and Mathematics Key Learning Areas are affected by the NSSC because the curriculum structure and the assessment requirements have been substantially revised. At the same time, an e-learning provider company called Hanlun Information Limited has started to develop a large bank of learning objects (LOs) in the 3 science subjects (to wit, Physics, Chemistry and Biology) and the Mathematics subject at the NSSC level. For our development of the new self-funded Bachelor of Science Education (Honours) (Science & Web Technology) programme at HKIEd, we have met and interviewed the key personnel of that company, knowing that they need our professional service to objectively assess the quality of their LOs and at the same time they could provide a good opportunity for us to conduct research on the learning effectiveness, implementation feasibility/difficulties and students’ and teachers receptivity and attitudes towards the use of e-learning materials to supplement regular school lessons. This project aims to 1. evaluate the learning effectiveness of the learning objects as developed by an e-learning provider; 2. find out the role of feedback in self regulated learning strategies (SRLS) used and 3. investigate the role of instruction in developing students’ SRLS.

Funding Source: HK Private Fund - Charities/Foundations^^