Abstract:

Recent studies indicate that researchers and teachers are divided on the benefits and problems that are associated with the introduction of technological and pedagogical methods for education in schools and tertiary institution of learning. While some believe that the introduction of these technologies to the field of education can increase students learning through easy access and sharing of information and data via most social networks or the e-learning platform, a whole lot more are of the opinions that these social networks such as Face book, Google, Twitter and Yahoo has little of educational or academic value to students. Another study associates the prevalence of ICT gadgets in schools with the current dilemma educators and students now face when it comes to grappling with any piece of knowledge targeted at adding the much desired values to the minds of all concerned.

A pilot study conducted in 2013 at Covenant University, using the Moodle platform, was directed at identifying the impact of ICT on teaching, learning and testing outcomes. Selected students from nine different programmes in the University were earmarked for the study. The study lasted a period of four months after which test and examinations where conducted for the students.

Results obtained indicate that a whole lot of students still have phobias for writing any kind of test or examination online. There is however little or no phobia when other types of learning activities were conducted on learning platforms on any devise. However, students and researchers have to make concerted efforts to concentrate on a single subject matter at one point in time, since these learning platforms and ICT gadgets continuously increase the temptations of wanting to process more than one information or piece of knowledge at a given time. These distractions were noted to influence the degree of passes or failures which were recorded at the end of the semester. Unsupervised online tests and examinations were noted to have encouraged cheating and exam misconducts. A general improvement on learning outcomes were noted as a result of the new platform introduced when compared with the old methods of teaching, learning and testing students in the University.

The study recommends Moodle 2.5 as one of the platforms which has efficient apps designed to aid students with assignments and tests of all kinds. Frequent exposures of students to online studies and assignments on the Moodle platform will help reduce the phobia experienced with students during tests or assignments.

Keywords:

Dilemma, Educators, Moodle, Social Network, Technologies.