Paper
Monday, November 5, 2007
443
The Effectiveness of the Interactive Learning Communication and Management System (iCAM) in the Post-Basic Programme in a South African University
Sebi Lekalakala-Mokgele, PhD, MA, RN, NED, School of Nursing Science, North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
| Learning Objective #1: describe the effectiveness of the iCAM system |
| Learning Objective #2: make recommendations for the improvement of the iCAM system |
Higher education in South Africa is plagued by radical changes occurring in instructional delivery system modes. Current learning environment requires that the traditional way of teaching has become obsolete and has to undergo a drastic change to a new dispensation of open learning in South Africa. Many contact universities are taking up this challenge and embracing the idea of a mix mode delivery which include contact and distance delivery .
Interactive Learning Communication and Management system (iCAM), a telematic learning which has a distance education characteristic was introduced in The Post-basic Programme of the School of Nursing University of the Free State (SoNUFS) in partnership with the Department of Health (DoH) in 2002. The DoH requested the SoNUFS to offer training in Primary Health Care and Advanced Midwifery and Neonatology as well as Psychiatric Nursing.
To enable the SoNUFS to expand the training network the DoH would avail their newly installed Interactive Communication and Management System (iCAM ) to the School of Nursing. The iCAM system is a satellite-based interactive distance learning medium.
Problems surrounding the iCAM system has been experienced throughout the years since the system has been in place. Most of the problems have been brought to the attention of the director of the Post-basic programme and the coordinator of the iCAM system. It became imperative to monitor the quality of the system by assessing it to determine its effectiveness and to identify limitations of learning through such a technology. The aim of the research was to determine the effectiveness of the iCAM system for educational use as perceived by the students and to obtain suggestions from them on improving the effectiveness of the system. A non-experimental quantitative design which descriptive and exploratory in nature was used to gather information.
Recomendations were made based on the results.