1.0 INTRODUCTION
In 1999, online courses became a new and novel way of teaching and learning. And since then, the world of teaching and learning has changed significantly, and it is still changing till date. Pallof and Keith (2007)stated that online learning communities would become an area of study, and it has. This area of study became necessary to in order to produce seasoned learning process online.
Today online learning has become common place. The explosive growth of the Internet has contributed to the increasing popularity of this type of learning, along with a desire to reach students at a distance to increase effectiveness in teaching and learning, and to provide a type of education that will be very helpful to students.
It is impressive to see almost everything being offered online, from math and science courses to art and even dance. The emergence of new technologies has made almost anything possible – a trend that will continue into the futurePallof and Keith (2007).
The world as we know is gradually getting computerized, and students all over the country and the rest of the world spend a great deal of their time on the internet. Therefore there is every need for educational institutions to utilize this development by making their course materials available online. This will enable the students to carry on with their academic work online as well.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Increasingly, organizations are adopting online learning as the maindelivery method to train employees (Simmons, 2002). At the same time, educational institutions are moving toward the use of the Internet for delivery, both on campus and at a distance. For organizations and institutions to make this often expensive move, there must be a perception that using online learning provides major benefits. Some of the benefits for learners and instructors are detailed below.
For learners, online learning knows no time zones, and location and distance are not issues. In asynchronous online learning, students can access the online materials anytime, while synchronous online learning allows for real-time interaction between students and instructors. Learners can use the Internet to access up-to-date and relevant learning materials, and can communicate with experts in the field which they are studying. Situated learning, or the application of knowledge and skills in specific contexts, is facilitated, since learners can complete online courses while working on the job or in their own space, and can contextualize the learning.
For instructors, tutoring can be done anytime, anywhere. Online materials can be updated, and learners can see the changes immediately. When learners are able to access materials on the Internet, it is easier for instructors to direct them to appropriate information based on their needs. If designed properly, online learning systems can be used to determine learners’ needs and current level of expertise, and to assign appropriate materials for learners to select from, to achieve their desired learning outcomes.
The rapid development in Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) has made tremendous changes in the twenty-first century, as well as affected the demands of modern societies. Recognizing the impact of new technologies on the workplace and everyday life, today’s educational institutions try to restructure their educational programs and classroom facilities in order to minimize the teaching and learning technology gap between developed and the developing countries. This restructuring process is providing learners with knowledge of specific subject areas, to promote meaningful learning and to enhance professional productivity (Tomei, 2005).
Over the years, Nigeria has undertaken educational reforms aimed at raising the standard of education. In view of the infrastructural challenges facing Nigeria’s educational system, ICT use, especially computers and Internet, when fully introduced will increase access and improve the relevance of education. Currently the educational reform has introduced general educational program of direct class teaching through the Internet or television to thousands of homes in densely populated communities where fewer schools are available.
Elsewhere the computer technology has made it possible for teachers and students to interact through the Internet. ICT are resources that can be deployed to augment existing teaching and learning materials. Haddad et al (2002) identify at least five levels of ICT use in education: Presentation, demonstration, drill and practice, interaction, and collaboration. Websites today abound where instructors and students can visit in order to obtain needed information and interact. This is used in most distance education programs. United Nations Institutions for Training and Research (UNITAR), for instance, uses the Internet as a medium to offer training programs to thousands of public sector workers around the world. The computers have become motivating tools for teaching and learning in schools.
Computers have been used to create electronic libraries and catalogues to enhance academic research work. Referring to Heeks (1999), “many libraries now provide online resources to facilitate learning and research electronically”. Hakkarainen et al. (2000) reported that ICT is a transformative tool and its full integration into the school systems is necessary to prepare students for the information society they will inherit.
The Internet allows cost-effective information delivery services, collaborative and distance education, more than has ever been imagined (Clyde, 1995; Todd, 1997).The Internet has myriad websites to help teachers develop or improve lesson plans, exchange ideas, obtain information, and find free animations and simulations to enliven their lessons. Awotua-Efebo (1999),stated that most Internet-based collaborative learning projects include teacher support and training, and conference proceedings are published regularly on the Web. Chat rooms or forums may become a laboratory for new ideas. Online study resources can also provide interactive tools for teachers to access feedback from students. Computer based assignments are an effective way of ascertaining students’ understanding of concepts. Students also learn more quickly, demonstrate greater retention, and are better motivated to learn when they work with computers (Koert, 2000).
From the early 1990s, education stakeholders have been concerned about how teachers and students use computers in schools and how their use supports learning. Teachers use computers to write lesson plans, prepare materials for teaching, record and calculate student grades, and communicate with other teachers. As such, “computers have become aroutine tool for helping teachers accomplish their professional work” (Becker, Ravitz, & Wong, 1999). However, many teachers do not facilitate substantial student use of computers for learning activities (Becker, Ravitz, & Wong, 1999).
Computer-based lectures are easier to administer and are quicker to access. Research shows that the use of computers for lecture delivery, results in increases in learning in the traditional curriculum and basic skills areas, as well as higher test scores in some subjects compared to traditional instruction alone (Fouts, 2002). Internet-enhanced learning mobilizes tools for study, and analysis of information, providing a platform for student inquiry, analysis, and construction of new information. Learners therefore learn as they do and whenever appropriate, work on real-life problems in-depth, making learning less abstract and more relevant to the learner’s life situation. In this way, and in contrast to memorization-based or rote learning, Internet-enhanced learning promotes increased learner engagement (Wastson, 2002).
Educational policymakers in Nigeria have hailed the introduction of ICT in Nigerian schools as a remarkable step that will contribute to knowledge production, communication and information sharing among students and teachers in the school system. However, the commitment of government to the provision of infrastructure for ICT policy implementation has been minimal.
At the inception of the millennium, Ghana’s education authorities embarked on a number of projects to introduce ICT into the Ghanaian education set up; especially at the basic and secondary school levels. For instance, in the middle of the 1990s, educational providers realized that Ghanaian professionals could not compete on the global market for jobs because they were limited in skill, especially in the area of Information Technology. Subsequently, the authorities incorporated the study of ICTs as part of the study of science.
Teachers with pedagogical proficiency who are ready and willing to transmit knowledge and support students to construct knowledge will normally make a difference in any learning process.
It is interesting to note the way the internet has positively transformed how we communicate with each otheron daily bases. Education, which is the purposethetraditional classroom, is not exempted from this transformation. The way we learn is not the same today as it was years ago, and the internet, being just a global collection of computers connected to each other so they can communicate and share information, has revolutionized education. Also coupled with the rising transportation and infrastructure costs, schools at all levels, the government and private enterprise are all recognizing the enormous benefits of managing classrooms online, that is on the internet. Online training and learning saves money all the way around. It reduces building and maintenance costs and increases the flexibility of learning.
Unlike traditional classrooms, online classroom promote effective and productive communication between students and their various course instructors. It is totally noiseless, convenient for both instructors and students, more organised, and can be accessed anytime anywhere with internet facilities. Online classroom does not have the problem of space, hundreds of thousands and even millions of students, can be taking a course at the same time. People also find it interesting and enjoy using the Internet to learn new things. Learning online is much more comfortable than sitting in a class, especially an overcrowded and noisy classroom without electrical appliances like fan, air-conditioners and proper lighting. It saves money on transportation and you don’t have to worry about what to wear to go anywhere to learn. Course materials can easily be made available online to all the students at the same time.
Training session can be created in online classes several weeks in advance;the instructor may not need to be present when students decide to accessstudy materials. Also, the communication line is always open for students to interact with the instructor or one another based on the study materials. Students can study anywhere as long as there is access to an internet connection.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
With the present transportation, infrastructure costs, and major news headlines: the security challenges in the country.Schools at all levels, the government and private enterprise are all recognizing the enormous benefits of managing classrooms online, that is on the internet. Online training and learning saves money all the way around. It reduces building and maintenance costs and increases the flexibility of learning.
Haddad and Drexler (2002) stated that an effective teaching/learning process must stimulate intellectual curiosity and offer a sense of enjoyment that will move the students from the passive role of recipients of information to the active role of builders of knowledge. Yet, engaging the learner in this process can be the most challenging task for teachers. ICTs are effective instructional helps to engage students in the learning process. As learning shifts from the “teacher-centered model” to a “learner-centered model”, the teacher becomes less the sole voice of authority and more the facilitator, mentor and coach—from “sage on stage” to “guide on the side”. The teacher’s primary task becomes to teach the students how to ask questions and pose problems, formulate hypotheses, locate information and then critically assess the information found in relation to the problems posed. Students also learn more quickly, demonstrate greater retention, and are better motivated to learn when they work with computers.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of this study are to develop a system that should be able to:
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
A good number of organisations and companies are working to “disrupt” education by changing the way things work in the traditional classroom and by bringing the classroom entirely online. It is necessary to take a good look online classroom, and see how to make it work best for our educational system. The internet has changed our approach to nearly everything – commerce, social networking, healthcare, and more. There is need to building the kind of education the world needs, so that education will not suffer any negative side of the big change accompanied by the internet.
In this age of internet and its integration in the educational system, the role of the teacher, just like in the traditional classrooms, should not be overlooked or underestimated. If teachers possess little knowledge of ICT then the integration of ICT into pedagogical practices is seriously Compromised (Boakye and Banini, 2008).
It is not just acquiring the knowledge of ICT that is important. Teachers need to understand how to use ICT pedagogically. ICT used appropriately can stimulate the development of higher cognitive skills, deepen learning and contribute to the acquisition of skills needed for learning all life- long and for working in today’s job market (Tchombe et al., 2008). However, teachers must have opportunities to develop requisite aptitudes, be able to observe or experience constructive learning, and be motivated. In most countries innovation is thought about, invited into educational practices, and pushed down the throats of teachers without warning or preparation (Maclure, 1997). To make innovations and reforms more meaningful, those who will be most directly affected –in schools, this would be teachers, students, parents and administrators– need to be part of the conception and planning process (Samoff et al., 2003; Weva, 2003).
The integration of ICT in Nigerian school systems is a major step in promoting innovation. However, the educational system currently is bedevilled with myriads of problems including lack of adequate computers and other ICTs tools especially in rural schools, poor Internet connections, inadequate manpower, and lack of coherent ICT policy framework.
The rapid changing of life requires a support for continuous learning and ongoing creation of new ideas and skills. Thanks to Internet, the education process changed significantly in last two decades. E?learning becomes important source of knowledge for distance learning students, as well as full?time students. Although learning resources are often considered as key intellectual property in a competitive higher education world, more and more institutions and individuals are sharing their digital learning resources over the Internet openly and for free, as Open Educational Resources (OER). The concept of using the educational resources has changed significantly in last decade. The development led from free content that one can individually teach himself, to social learning, where users have thepossibility of mutual communication and exchange of opinions. Linking databases of resources, which will allow the user to use the information adapted to his previous knowledge, is expected in the near future. The paper touches also the quality of educational materials and the problem which appears because a lot of the materials are pedagogically inadequately prepared. There are also several good practices of OER, ideas and existing initiatives presented.
1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of this project is to provide online classroom that can be running alongside the traditional classroom system, augmenting and making up for all the areas in which it is lacking, like in the area of space, effective communication of knowledge. It can go a long way to make provision to web application also known as web software that will enhance learning, like an online laboratory, where laboratory equipment can be simulated and used to conduct experiments online.
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
ONLINE CLASSROOM: A web application that makes it possible for the same purpose of traditional classroom to be achieved online.
TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM: A real life classroom setting with chairs, desks, doors, windows and whiteboard.
WEB APLLICATION:A software program designed to run on internet, and accessible via the web browser.
SYSTEM: An organized unit which composed of two or more inter related parts that functions together to achieve a particular goal.
INTERNET: A global collection of computers connected to each other for the purpose of communication, and share information.
ONLINE: On the internet.
PEDAGOGY: The profession, science, or theory of teaching.