ROLE OF E-LEARNING FACILITIES ON STUDENT'S LEARNING: A LITERATURE REVIEW

In Malaysia, the invasion of the computer to the school commenced since 1990. In line with the three communication technology (ICT) policies formulated by the Ministry of education, the school and Universities have responsibility to establish the ICT facilities for their student and enhance their role in education as a teaching and learning tool. The "Smart School Project", conceptualized in 1997, introduced technology-aided teaching and learning in the primary and secondary levels. Assuming that Malaysian students are already competent in ICT technology, question arises what is the impact of ICT facilities on their competency / success. However, the studies on impact of ICT facilities in the Malaysian context had been minimal. This paper is a review of available literature on the "impact of e-learning facilities on student's learning" in different parts of the world. Detailed analysis of accessible literature was made. The role of the ICT facilities can be subdivided into (1) facilities for information sources (2) social networking and learning tools 3) special design learning process and (4) communication enhancing instruments. Information sources include computer, palmtop, e-books, world wide web, Internet, online data base & internet search engine, and Wiki, etc. Social networking and learning facilities are facebook, blogs, Youtube, Moodle, Blackboard, e-mail, threaded discussion, chat or video-conferencing. Special design learning processes are known as digital game based learning (DGBL). Most of the studies did not state the problems clearly. However, (a) lack of information regarding utilization of existing ICT facilities, (b) outcome of ICT trainings and (c) the impact of e-learning facilities on the students' learning process and learning outcomes appeared to be the problems in most of the studies. Learning outcome was assessed in terms of student perception even though evidenced based data would best reflect the learning outcome rather than perception based data. Most of the studies focused on individual e-learning facilitates and their usefulness on learning describing how knowledge was being developed through the process of student interacting with e-learning facilities... Almost all the literature showed that ICT either in the form of internet or individual e-learning facilities or social net working facilities, enhanced learning. Students' attitude towards the use of ICT in learning was positive either in Malaysian context or global context. Thus, the role of ICT in learning is not questionable but how these facilities should be incorporated into the curriculum and how to evaluate the educational programme utilizing ICT facilities would be the major issues for further research.