Use of Internet Resources to Improve Education Delivery - a Case Study in Bangladesh

From IPID

Auhtor(s): Mathias Hatakka

Year: 2008

Publication type: Conference proceeding

Published: Proceedings of the 7th european conference on e-learning

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Abstract: Abstract: This study concerns the use of Internet resources for education delivery in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is classified as one of the least developed countries in the world and the usage of Internet and accessibility to computers in the country is very low. ICT supported distance education in Bangladesh is only provided by one university which delivers the education via video, radio and mobile phones – no “traditional” e-learning via Internet is given. Despite the low Internet usage and lack of “traditional” e-learning teachers and educational organizations in Bangladesh can benefit from re-using learning material from Internet - most notably in time and cost savings in content development and quality improvement of the learning content.

The aim of this paper is to describe how open content and learning material from Internet are used by teachers and educational organizations in Bangladesh; which potential benefits and disadvantages they can see with re-use of learning material or open content; which potential benefits and disadvantages they can see with creating their own learning material. This study is motivated by the fact that despite the problems mentioned above (low Internet usage and lack of traditional e-learning) the number of universities in Bangladesh is constantly growing and only in Dhaka the number of private Universities exceeds 50. This means that every effort to improve the education delivery - both in terms of improvement for the educational organization (e.g. time and cost savings in content development) as well as improvements on the actual quality of the education – is highly valuable.

Findings show that the most mentioned advantages with re-use of learning materials are that is saves time and that teachers’ can get access to up-to-date knowledge. The most mentioned disadvantage is that the content is not suitable for the context of the Bangladesh students and adaptations to the material have to be made. The teachers also mean that the main advantage with creating their own material is that is helps them develop as teachers, but they do, however, feel that creating their own content is very time consuming.

Keywords: open content, learning material, Bangladesh, developing countries