Xinyu, a student taking ES2007S Professional Communication, ruminates about potential research topics. She is aware of the inaugural eLearning Week at the Communications & New Media Programme earlier this year. So, her proposed question is:

Do students in Science Faculty at NUS support the introduction of an eLearning week to its curriculum?

The objective of my study is to determine if a majority of students in the Science Faculty support introduction of eLearning week. My aim will also be to present a report on the responses of the students in Science Faculty at NUS towards introduction of the eLearning week, to curriculum administrators in NUS science course.

My colleagues and I at the Centre for Instructional Technology would love to know the answer to that question! And if it is a 'yes', it will be both exciting and daunting for us. We started small with CNM, so ramping up eLearning Week for an entire faculty would be a challenge. Nevertheless, it is a challenge that we look forward to, if it comes to pass.

I would imagine that a full-scale eLearning Week would necessitate very simple tools. An issue we grappled with in terms of the technology being used is that in a real life situation, a forced eLearning situation might come very suddenly. With no time to prepare, we have to fall back on what we are familiar with. Faculty staff will not have time to learn new techniques/tools (some of which have a significant learning curve). The same goes with students. For example, virtual classroom solutions which we tried on a small scale may not ramp up well.

From my understanding eLearning Week in other institutions involves mostly uploaded lecture slides, with or without accompanying narration, in place of physical lectures. Tutorials are replaced with discussion forums or text chat.

I seem to be getting ahead of myself. Xinyu, if you read this and you decide on this research topic, do let us know your findings. =)