Abstract:

Education and learning institutions are becoming increasingly aware that today’s workplace, and tomorrow’s, has tougher requirements than before. These workplaces require people who can think critically, are able to build knowledge from various sources, able to collaborate locally and globally, and able to learn in a changing business environment [1]. Traditional ways of teaching where students typically sit quietly at their places, taking notes, while their teachers explain a subject, have been successful teaching methods used throughout generations. However, Exley and Gibbs [2] argued that the current workplace requirements of learners are no longer compatible with the traditional teaching method, which assumed teachers are the information giver and learners are the passive recipient. The emergence of electronic learning (e-learning) has provided an alternative to the traditional ways of teaching and its popularity is increasing every second in the education world. E-learning has shifted the current learning system from a teacher-centred approach to a learner-centred approach. Unfortunately, little work has been done explicitly to address if the new ways of teaching through e-learning resulted in a higher learning performance than the traditional ways of teaching. Consequently, this paper will provide a critical examination on the strength and barriers of each teaching methods, and a final recommendation will be given on the best way to teach in the current agile environment.

References:
[1] Shapiro, J. & Hughes, K. (1996). Information Literacy as a Liberal Art: Enlightenment proposals for a new curriculum. Educom review. 31 (2), 31-35.
[2] Exley, K. & Gibbs, G. (1994). Course Design for Resource Based Learning Science. Oxford: The Oxford Centre for Staff Development.

Keywords:

Traditional teaching, e-learning, strength, barriers, student performance.