Abstract:

E-learning at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) is at a very early stage, with the total number of courses available being very low. This is due to the lack of teacher training, lack of technical support, lack of specific tools and lack of institutional support policies, among other. An exception to this is the existence of a platform for teaching support, named SIDE – side.utad.pt, developed at UTAD, and which has been systematically used over the last decade. However, SIDE works more like a teaching management platform (e.g., student management, assessment schedules management, attendance management, schedules management, etc.) rather than as a platform for the dissemination and management of online content and courses.

Recently, we have elsewhere presented a model of a system that is capable of responding to the training needs identified at UTAD, and we have been using it at UTAD. In this paper we present the perspectives of the students actually using this model. To this end, we have applied an inquiry to the students, with 23 questions, based on a Likert scale, with a 5 points interval, with 1 being the lowest value (or dissatisfaction) and 5 being the maximum (or excellence) value, being the intermediate point considered satisfaction. The questions are grouped in 5 classes: platform, teaching, tests/ exams, devices/ hardware and global appreciation. The 78 validated answers and their results will be presented and discussed. For the first class, platform, it was concluded that most of the students consider the platform easy to use and that it adapts to the contents that are taught in the various curricular units of the different degrees of study, and that they feel comfortable using and working with the platform and that they recommend higher use by their teachers.

Concerning the “teaching” class, most students consider that the platform and content provided by teachers are a major contribution to the ease of acquiring knowledge. Students also consider that the accomplishment of activities, works and tests in the platform are a greater contribution to a more facilitated approval in the curricular units. In the “tests/ exams” class, we can see that students give preference to other activities rather than having tests/ exams, but they do recommend the use of the platform to perform tests/ exams, over the “traditional way” (“pencil and paper”). It is interesting to note that most of the students consider that the tests in digital format allows for better results and, consequently, a giant step for approval of the curricular unit. They also consider that the main difficulty in performing online tests on the platform is the control and management of time. Concerning the “devices/ hardware” class, students declare that they were pleased to use mobile devices to perform tests on the platform, and they also shown preference in using their own equipment over those available in the classroom. Globally, students showed their satisfaction using the platform, considering it accessible, simple and with great usability. They also highlight the fact that they can know the assessments values (“marks”) in faster and easier way, and they also point out that the activities and resources made available on the platform fit very satisfactorily.

Keywords:

e-learning, education, LMS, higher education.