Barriers to the Utilization of Educational Software

Abstract

Quantitative data about the use of various tools in the Learning Management System (LMS) in the year 2004, the academic year 2009-2010 and 2018 at a small Swedish university confirm the notion that increased use of educational software usually does not lead to a wider use of collaborative pedagogical methods. This paper aims to explain why lecturers predominantly use LMS to distribute documents to students, rather than to facilitate collaborative learning and interaction. A survey of lecturers and students' perceptions collected in the spring of 2019 with an online questionnaire provided additional qualitative data.The authors discuss the situation with restrictions due to the Corona pandemic and a change of LMS in the years 2019-2022 as a problem to both the education process and the collection of data, but also as an opportunity to accelerate the implementation of on-line digital methods. It remains to be seen if the increased use of off-campus methods in 2020 to 2022 will be persistent over time.In their conclusions the authors assert that a wider use of the tools for interaction depends on pedagogical practices built on social constructivist, learner centered theories of learning. They suggest that if higher education is only justified by the impact on economic growth, creation of new jobs and new products rather than as a means for personal growth and development, it works as a barrier to the use of pedagogical methods intended to elicit student activity and promote the creation of learner communities and shared perspectives.

Discrepancies and Similarities Between Online and Face-to-Face Teachers’ Use of Open Educational Resources (OER) for Teaching Purposes

“…The other issue is that many face-to-face teachers use mainstream textbooks in class and do not use Internet-based supplementary materials or teaching aids. These findings on teacher attitudes align with findings of previous studies (e.g., Garrote Jurado and Pettersson, 2015;Mishra and Singh, 2017;Oates et al, 2017). It is essential that face-to-face teachers become more aware of the benefits of OER and be exposed to it on a regular basis.…”

“…Some perceived challenges, including problems with Internet connections and speed, the possibility of computer viruses and problems, and eye strain, were reported. In a cross-national study, Garrote Jurado and Pettersson (2015) investigated the attitudes of university lecturers from four geographical locations (Cuba, Guatemala, Peru, and Brazil) toward the use of OER. The results of the survey indicated that the lecturers who were more positive about using OER encouraged their students to use OER more frequently.…”