Programme

Abstract

In Higher Education today there is an increasing expectation of students to interact with Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) for at least some of their instruction or general teaching and learning experience. Indeed the Joint Information Systems Committee (2002) found that 97% of post-1992 UK universities reported using one. This growing interest in e-learning has been precipitated by a number of factors, not least of which is the desire to reach greater numbers of students in the most cost-effective manner. The so-called massification of UK education in the early 1990s and the parallel Widening Participation agenda acknowledged that students have different educational needs, learn in different ways, at different speeds, and operate in different time and space boundaries. Against this backdrop, UK Higher Education institutions are now witnessing a boom in the recruitment of international students, with 61% of taught full time postgraduate students and 11% of the total student population being from overseas according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency figures for 2002-3 (HESA, 2003). It is only lately, however, that the quality of the international student experience is beginning to be evaluated, for example in the recent UKCOSA student survey (UKCOSA, 2004). Thus, it is appropriate now to examine the impact of e-learning strategies upon today's student body, especially in light of the potential issues created by the cultural and linguistic diversity of this population.

The literature on VLEs is, naturally, growing at a considerable rate, and it is informative in many respects including how systems may be effectively managed, the sorts of problems they can solve, possible approaches to course design, accessibility issues etc. What has not yet been researched to any great extent is the impact that language and culture may have on a student's experience of a VLE and by extension their experience of Higher Education in general. This paper discusses an investigation into these effects on students' experience of and attitudes towards use of and participation within WebCTat one UK university.

The study focused on a single school within the University of Sunderland , namely the School of Computing and Technology, which has a significant number of students who speak English as a second or additional language. Of almost 1700 on campus full time students, just under one third are international students, predominantly from countries such as China, Pakistan, India, Malaysia and the African continent. It is already well documented that such students face both linguistic and cultural challenges in adjusting to being taught in an education system that may be vastly different to that of their own country. The study employed informant interview – of the WebCT Administrator; Document Review – of WebCT online discussions; and questionnaire to elicit from students from various educational, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, their experiences and attitudes towards working within an online learning environment. The results showed that language and culture do impact upon a person's interaction in an online environment and the primary research largely supported the work uncovered in the literature survey.