Pro And Cons From The Student Perspective on E-learning Offered In Malaysian Universities

E-learning is a modern process of education which many local universities have been implemented it beside than offered the traditional ways of learning to their students. E-learning is supported by the computer technologies. This learning experience takes place without face to face communication between the lecturers and his or her students. It is also known as distance learning. Instead of attending lectures and tutorials, students can access to universiti intranet to get those materials provided by their respective lecturers and tutors as when as they are needed it. Hence, student able to get latest news and upcoming events by surf the E-learning portal. E-learning was begun in the late 1980's in Malaysia. MARA University of Technology (UTM) is one of the universities that offered distance learning in 1990.Since E-learning has become more and more popular but it still have some pros and cons on it form the students perspectives.

From the perspective of students, E-learning enable them to save cost because they no need to print out the notes and exercises and it also environmental friendly. They can access to the notes and done the tutorial online whenever and wherever they desired as long as they can access to the Internet. Other than that, they can also reduce the cost of travel to campus for attend the classes.

Furthermore, the students can also enjoy the time flexibility provided by the E-learning. They can 'attend' lectures at anytime, anywhere they want as long as they can access to Internet. The E-learning is available 24x7 so they no need to scare about missing part of the notes. Students can get information easily through the portal such as lectures notes, tutorial's questions. Beside that, they can also communicate with their lecturers through online.

On the other hand, there are some cons in using the E-learning portal too. The first disadvantage of E-learning is lack of face-to-face communication between the lecturers and students. E-learning which promotes home-study has reduced the opportunity of students to meet their lecturers. As when they have problems regarding their subjects, they might not get instant reply from their lecturers as well as their lecturers might not free at that moment.

By having the E-learning it tends to make the students become lazy and ineffective, due to spoon fed by the educational institutions. Since having the E-learning, most educational tasks are done either by the tutor or some sophisticated software, leaving students with the simple task of just downloading notes and reading them. It runs the risk of creating lazy and dependent students. In the future, students tend to expect all the information will be delivered to them and would not seek information on their own.

Other than non-technological problems, students may also faced technological problems while using the E-learning. Computer and Internet connection play an important roles in this distance learning. Sometimes the Internet connection may be interrupt and will cause to ineffectiveness of getting the information from the portal.