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Importance of e-learning in improving the performance ofstudents in the group work activities: a case study
Mr Habib Ullah Khan
Faculty, Department of Management, Marketing, and Information Systems,College of Commerce and Business Administration,Dhofar University Salalah, OmanEmail:h_khan@du.edu.om 
ABSTRACT
The world has changed dramatically from earlier ages to today's highly technologicalworld. Similarly, learning has also adopted new distance or invisible style of classroomlearning, providing another mode for traditional face to face classroom environment(Sutherland, 1999). Internet is very useful medium of communication for innovativeelectronic style of learning. Forum on technology in Education working under U.S.Department of Education also supported this medium of learning in their strategicreview of national educational technology plan 2000.Teaching styles are also adopting technological tools like traditional lectures arechanging into multimedia presentations. These new trends in education are in theirinfancy, online learning or E-learning, and are quickly becoming an important aspect ofeducation in our future around the world. Due to this reason private investors areopening their doors of investment in this online education sector, and this investment isincreasing very rapidly [www.ed.govt/technology
 
].Group work activities are also main point or task in the high education. Switzer andShriner (2000) were of the view that students are the most obvious party who benefitfrom group work among students, faculty members, and the community. According tothem there are four overlapping types of benefits for students. These are: 1) immediateeducational benefits, 2) immediate social benefits, 3) critical thinking benefits, and 4)long-term career benefits.Lawrance (1992) , and Yates (2001) were of the opinion that face to facecommunication will not solve the gender related discriminative problems. This casestudy will be a further step in addition to the previous IT & group work relatedresearches. In this researcher will try to explore that how e-learning can play its role toover come the group work problems and to increase the performance of the students inthe Arab under developing countries.
 
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KEY WORDS
Group Work, E-learning, Computer Mediated Communication
GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
College and university professors are considering collaborative learning as one of themost affective learning strategies to provide more meaningful learning experience forstudents (Paul E. King, Ralph R Behnke, 2004). There are many definitions ofcollaborative learning, according to different situations. Colbeck et al,(2000, cited inElizabeth, Monk, & Brian 2005) explained this concept of collaborative learning ineducational context. According to him in this type of learning, students are workingtogether on assignments, quizzes, and apply their knowledge collectively to answerquestions and problems.Collaborative learning is a grown up trend in higher education, providing many usefulforms and styles of work, according to the required situation. Among these, twocommonly used forms are peer tutoring and group investigations (Kroll, Masingila, andMau 1992, cited in Paul & Ralph 2004). Peer tutoring is the form of collaborativelearning, in which senior or experienced students help others weak or inexperiencedstudents to master in certain skill and help them in solving certain problem, whichaffectively they cannot solve independently. For example in university or college’ssenior or mature students help junior students to adopt the style of learning, and alsohelp them to cope the transformation from college to university or school to college.Group investigation is also very commonly used form of collaborative learning in thehigher education. In this form, members of group cooperate and support each other towork on a collective task, resolve conflicts, and provide suitable solution of the problem(Kroll, Masingila, and Mau 1992, cited in Paul & Ralph 2004). Good coordination andproper organization of a group can produce much better results of any task, ascompared to completion of same task by an individual. As an example, modules likemarketing and software development, where students are required to workcollaboratively in groups, to share their ideas and to finish big projects affectively. It isdifficult for an individual student to produce same level of output individually. To achievethe same level of output by group work, individual needs to put extra efforts, resources,and time. This style of learning in a group environment can produce better results,therefore many specializations of higher education are getting benefits from this wellestablished style of collaborative work to meet learning outcomes, like: informationsystems, finance, physical sciences, marketing, human resources, businesscommunications, software development, and social sciences (Johnson, Johnson, andSmith 1998; Millis and Cottell 1998; Slavin 1990, cited in Paul & Ralph 2004).Many researchers discuss different benefits of group work activities in practical life ofthe students. Two prominent professors of biology, with the names of Switzer andShriner (2000), supported researchers' argument of the professional life benefits ofstudents with the use of group collaborative work. Their main work was on assessmentand implementation of the learning strategies of the big size classes and laboratories.They suggested that students were the most obvious party who benefit from group work
 
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among students, faculty members, and the community. They distributed overall benefitsinto four main types, and these types included: 1) immediate educational benefits, 2)immediate social benefits, 3) critical thinking benefits, and 4) long-term career benefits.Researchers like Stamatoplos (2000) also supported Switzer and Shriner’s study in hisintegrated approach of teaching research. According to him group work activities shouldbe adapted in higher education, to met the objectives of the education.In addition to the above benefits, researchers like Nichols and Miller (1994), Oldfieldand Macalpine (1995), and Ferting (1995) concluded the benefits of educational groupwork according to their research dimensions. As general they proposed benefits likepositive motivation, individual member responsibility development, and democratic styleof work and interaction.All these benefits can be milestone in any student's social, political, and practical life,but still group work is less applicable in many situations and environments like thecurrent target population. It is very important to understand nature of the problem andobstacles, while applying group work activities in general.
Problems with Group work:
Group work has so much potential in all aspects of life, especially in the highereducation. Now the question is why college or university professors do not moreregularly utilize group work activities in many situations? The answer lies in theobstacles that stop professors from integrating these group work strategies into theircourse work. For example, some faculty members are concerned about time, and groupwork activities require more time and attention from instructor. In addition to this,instructors from some specializations are not trained enough to create, direct andimplement group work activities into their courses (Colbeck et al. 2000, cited inElizabeth, Monk, & Brian 2005; Michaelsen et al. 2002). In the current environmentthere are lacks of staff development activities, as a result faculty do not get propertraining in group development strategies on the job. This reason makes it easier forfaculty with lesser group development skills, to rely on traditional lecture strategies inthe current and similar type of environments.Another big problem faced by faculty members in a group work is the distribution ofgrades, in which they evaluate the individual and over all group performance.(Michaelsen et al. 2002; Millis and Cottell , 1998). For example in the currentenvironment, faculty cannot exceed any assignment or group related task more than 10percent of the total course grades. If one needs to exceed, he/she has to take approvalfrom college academic committee with proper justification. Students are very muchconcerned about the grades of a task and expected time in the completion to that task.Sometimes a good group work efforts needs more appreciation than standard 10percent. Even Michaelsen et al. (2002) recommended that students be involved indeveloping their grading systems. This motivates them to work on certain project withtheir suggested grade distribution.
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