ASSESSMENT OF E-LEARNING COURSE DELIVERY FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA

The paper presents results of a study on students' perception of the eLearning technology, namely WebCT/Blackboard. The study was carried out at the University of Botswana (UB) during the first semester of 2007/2008 academic year. Several mechanical engineering courses were delivered using a blended method, i.e. online resource (eLearning) and traditional face to face approach. An electronic questionnaire was administered to a cohort of third year mechanical engineering students for the study. The questionnaire consisted of 92 items that covered such areas as facilities, resources, access, instruction and quality issues. An open ended section enabled students to comment on other issues related to the course delivery. The paper discusses the challenges of using eLearning and proffers recommendations to ensure that the maximum benefit is derived from technological investment and staff effort. The results show that students were very receptive of ICT based course delivery.