Development of an e-Learning Courseware Based upon Online Personal Learning Environment through Social Networks on Probability

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to (1) develop the e-Learning courseware based upon a personal learning environment with online social networks on Probability with the efficiency criterion not less than 80/80, (2) find out an effectiveness index of the developed e-Learning courseware (3) compare students’ learning achievement of a control group learning through traditional instruction with that of an experimental group learning through e-Learning courseware (4) examine students’ learning retention after completing the course for 2 and 4 weeks and (5) investigate students’ satisfaction with the developed e-Learning courseware.

          The population of this research and development was 115 undergraduate students who enrolled for the Engineering Statistics Course in the first semester of the 2016 academic year at King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, College of Industrial Technology. The sample group of 100 students were derived by simple random sampling and divided into 3 groups: 40 students were the group for developing the research instrument and an experimental group and a control group, 30 students each. The research instruments were (1) the e-Learning courseware based upon a personal learning environment with online social networks on Probability (2) an achievement test (3) a student’s satisfaction evaluation form with the e-Learning and (4) a quality appraisal form on courseware content for experts. The statistics used to analyze data were percentages, means, and standard deviations. The dependent samples t-test and independent sample t-test were used to test the research hypotheses. The research findings were as follows: (1) The e-Learning courseware based upon a personal learning environment with online social networks on Probability achieved the efficiency at 82.93/83.56 which met a predetermined criterion. (2) The effectiveness index was 0.72. (3) The comparison of students’ achievement revealed that students’ achievement of the experimental group was significantly higher than the control group at .05 (4) Upon the completion of the course, no statistically significant differences in the students’ learning retention was found from the immediate, 2-week and 4-week delayed tests. This could be implied that the developed e-Learning courseware could enhance knowledge retention. (5) The students’ satisfaction towards the developed          e–Learning courseware was at a high level.