Students' usage and perceptions of the ELITE programme

This purpose of this article is to share the findings of a research project on the Institute ELITE programme which had been designed to provide students with foundation IT skills when preparing to meet the requirements of the IT competency levels mandated by the Government. The author presents data from a 12 month study conducted at the Hong Kong Institute of Education which investigated preservice teachers?perceptions of the self-paced computer-based ELITE programme. Important findings include the reasons why students choose the level and types of use of the ELITE programme, the frequency and duration of use, the reasons for the number of self-evaluation tests attempted and the timing of these tests. Findings reveal that students were not ready for self-directed learning and could not effectively transfer the IT skills into other areas to further integrate IT across the curriculum although most of them had entered the Institute with some degree of IT competency. Copyright © 2002 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Western Australia.