E-learning Environment Integration in the Chemical Engineering Educational Process

This paper introduces the electronic Portal, reports on the experiences of its use, shows how it motivates students towards more successful study, encourages lecturers to give better lectures, enhances learning, and so reduces workloads. group of students from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Maribor have used this Portal in their Process Synthesis Course for the last four years. Their responses to e-learning and the Portal were collected by means of a questionnaire The students thought that the Portal was cut effective tool that helped them to improve the quality and efficiency of their studies. They thought a combination of lectures and e-learning to be the most suitable solution for them because it gives a freedom of choice in methods and time devoted to studying. They suggest that this kind of arrangement would be beneficial for use in the future. These statements could motivate college students to choose studies at departments that use modern technologies within the educational process and thus increase the enrolment in those departments. The faculties' responses to using the Portal are also presented. The results of their questionnaires were not as encouraging as the students'. A few lecturers had already used certain functions of the Portal but, in general, they thought that the incorporation of e-learning into the educational process means a heavier workload and is time-consuming. Perhaps the experiences of the lecturer for the Process Synthesis Course, who has been using e-learning for several years, will demonstrate that the incorporation of e-learning into the educational process leads to a heavier workload at the start, but this reduces over time. Perhaps this experience will encourage the faculty to reconsider.