ATTITUDE OF PRE-UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TOWARDS COMPUTER BASED LEARNING

 Abstract

 Computer has brought new revolution in the individual’s life. Every aspect of our social life is influenced by computers and their influence will go on the increasing day by day. Computer has been used in almost all fields of human life.  It is used in business and research. Almost in every field of human activity the computer can stretch its arms and make it perfect. The main purpose of this study is to find out the attitude of pre-university college students towards computer based learning. Traditional method of teaching helps an individual in their all-round development and it insists some moral values to the students.   The intension of this study is to find whether the PUC students in Christ University have positive attitude towards computer based learning or they would rely on traditional method of learning. For the purpose of this study the researcher framed questionnaire consists of 10 items & the questionnaire was administered to 20 PUC Students in Christ University. The result indicates that there is no significant difference between the male & female PUC students in their attitude towards computer based learning. Computer based learning develops positive attitude among the I PUC & II PUC students. They really enjoyed computer based learning which enhanced their learning abilities & they actively take part in classroom activities.

Introduction

Technology is the main support for the students learning developments nowadays. With shifting from the teacher-centered instruction to child-centered instruction, the role, activities, attitudes, reflections of the students become more important concern to overlook the effectiveness of technology in instruction. Computers are the main technology support as a tool for effective learning and teaching process. Computer based instruction and computers programs, tools as itself provides much facilities and supports to students’ educational life.

Computers are update mechanism for the education and it is not only for education, these developments affect all global, cultural, economic life standards as well.  Within the today’s application, it is important to get the meaningful learning for the students’ learning cycle. It is not necessary to get information directly from the instructors, what is important today is that experiencing reality, discovering reality with technology guidance. When we look at issues and ahead, we can commend that technology has main responsible process in instruction for today educational world. With the development of high technology improvements, students get main role in their learning process. Computers have role to support easy study of students with their learning process.

Computer Based Learning

The main concern in the classroom instruction today is to integrate technology, computer with instruction. Because it enhance the learning, create update, contemporary understanding of students. Computers tools such as word processors, spreadsheets, databases and multimedia authoring programs may help students learn actively. If the main concern is the examination of the how computer based learning effects the developments of learning of students, the attitudes, tendency and thoughts of the students should be handled. Therefore; application of computers to the instruction, statistical results from the questionnaire will reflect if there are the effects on developments of students’ learning and what their attitudes towards computer. Through the research inclusion and problem sentence, research handled the problem sentence that is attitudes of students towards computer based learning by applying questionnaires to students based on statistical evaluation.

Need for the study

 The main intention of the study is to make a survey on attitude of the PUC students towards computer based learning or to find whether they would rely on traditional method of learning.

Methodology

Operational Definitions

Attitude- In the present study attitude is defined as a feeling or predisposition to favor or be against objects, ideas, persons or groups. In this connection one may define attitude towards computer based learning as a matter of degree of agree, disagree etc.`

PUC-  Pre-university college students who enrolled themselves in an intermediate course for two yearsduration.

Computer based Learning - learning program using computers as a central staple.

Identification of the Population

The population under investigation included Pre-University college students from Christ University.

Sample

 The sample for present study was 20 pre- university students. Of the total sample there were 10 boys and 10 girls. Further from 20 students 10 samples from I PUC & 10 from II PUC.

Instrument used in the study

 For this research study, questionnaire was designed for analyzing students’ attitudes towards computers based learning.

There were 10 items at this instrument. Their responses that are Representing 10 items are on a series five-point Likert-scale.

(5-strongly disagree, 4-Disagree, 3- Neither agree nor disagree, 2- Agree and 1-Strongly agree).

Administration of the Tools

The self-developed questionnaire were adapted by the investigator to find the students attitude towards computer based learning and self-developed Performa to collect information on the variables such as gender & PUC class.

Statistical Analysis:

 ‘t’- test analysis was computed to find out differences in the variables such as gender and PUC classes.

  

Analysis and Interpretations of Data

In the present study the relevant data collected were the scores of the attitudes of the boys and girls from I PUC & II PUC students from Christ University. The data were employed by employing the above statistical techniques to arrive at meaningful conclusions.

 Testing of hypothesis related to variables - Gender

 Hypothesis -1

 There is no significant mean difference in the attitude to computer based learning among boys and girls.

Table-1 Showing the Mean, Standard Deviation and Std.Error Mean of the attitude with respect to boys and girls.

Group Statistics
	Gender	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean	t	Mean Difference
SCORE	male	10	33.5	5.94886	1.88119	0.208	0.5
	female	10	33	4.71405	1.49071

  From table 1, it is found that there is no significant mean difference in the attitude of male and female.

 Testing of hypothesis related to variables - Class

  Hypothesis -2

 There is no significant mean difference in the attitude of computer based learning among I PU and II PU Students

 Table-3 Showing the Mean, Standard Deviation and Std.Error Mean of the attitude with respect to I PU & II PU.

Group Statistics
	Gender	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean	t	Mean Difference
SCORE	male	10	34.3	4.80856	1.5206	0.893	2.1
	female	10	32.2	5.67255	1.79382

 From table 2, it is found that there is no significant mean difference in the attitude of I PU & II PU towards computer based learning.

 Results

 Computer-based learning is a new trend that has wide range of affections on all areas. It has an effect on education by influencing the students learning as a being technological and cultural functions.When it is examined the results of research and questionnaire, students have positive tendency towards computer based learning.The importance of the study is to emphasis that computer has an impact on students in learning activities. Both the male and female students from I PUC & II PUC possess positive attitude towards computer based learning. Though, the traditional methods teach some values , computer based learning make the concept of learning more interactive and enjoyable with sharing the knowledge in a collaborated manner.

  

APPENDIX

  

ATTITUDE OF PRE-UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TOWARDS COMPUTER BASED LEARNING

 Please provide following information about yourself

1.      Name               :

 2.      Age                 :

 3.      Gender            :           Male    Female

 4.      Name of the Institution:

 5.      Class                :

 Please use the following scale to describe your feelings for each question:

SD: Strongly disagree                                                 D: Disagree

N: Neither agree nor disagree                                     A: Agree

SA: Strongly Agree

Please select the response which best describe your feelings. Please select a response for each item.

S.NO		SD	D	N	A	SA
1.	Computer based learning replaces the traditional methods of teaching.
2.	Computer based learning develops the all-round personality of the students.
3.	Computer based learning teaches moral values to the students.
4.	Computer based learning helps me in improving my learning style.
5.	Computer based learning should be nothing more than the distribution of notes over the internet.
6.	Computer based learning creates more impact on teaching& learning process.
7.	Computer based learning evaluate learning materials on the internet.
8.	Computer based learning is more effective than traditional learning.
9.	Computer based learning makes my presentations more effective and enjoyable.
10.	I am not comfortable with Computer based learning