IMPLEMENTING E- LEARNING PRACTICES AND INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGY AT HIGHER EDUCATION LEVEL IN PAKISTAN: PROBLEMS AND POTENTIALS

Abstract

E-learning is a developed and modern form of classroom instructions based
educations in which students and teachers interact with one another through the most
advance technology based visual instruments. In this context, e-learning is quite
different from traditional way of learning and partially from online or distance
learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of students and
find out the problems and potentials regarding Implementation of E-Learning
Practices and Integration of Communication and Technology at Higher Education
level in Pakistan. Most relevant and latest theory of connectivism was applied in this
study. The researcher adopted mixed methodology and qualitative and quantitative
data was collected through multi stage sampling technique. Total population of the
selected public and private universities from five divisions of Punjab-Pakistan were
fifty nine thousand one hundred and five (59105) students. In order to get the exact
sample size for this study, three hundred and ninety seven (397) students were
selected through stratified sampling technique. After data collection, the Quantitative
and Qualitative Data Analysis were done through SPSS v.20 and Nvivo v.10
respectively. Findings of this study show that the private universities’ students are
comparatively at better level of perception regarding e-learning practices and its
potentials than public universities. Findings of the qualitative analysis revealed that
the students of both public and private universities consider the lack of resources,
communication gap and technical skills as major issues towards implementing elearning practices. Further, the findings of this research also highlights a great
potential of e-learning practices, if adopted, at higher education level for enhancing
critical thinking, positive perception, technical skills, less time consuming, cost
reducing, result-orienting and innovative learning to compete the international
universities in quality education. The researcher recommends for providing e-learning
resources, technical training as well as better communication skills among students
and teachers through technology integration in classrooms to remove perceptional,
conceptual and practical flaws towards e-learning practices at higher education level
in Pakistan.