Study Of The Effectiveness Of Information And Communication Technology Used In College Classrooms

At present, as a widespread attention is paying to the college education quality, using Information and Communication Technology(ICT) to reform teaching is becoming a tool to improve the college education quality. With the gradually promotion of the university informatization construction, the focus on technology has changed from the development of hardware, software and resources to the effectiveness of technology used in schools and classrooms.In order to explore the effectiveness of the ICT used in college teaching, this thesis, making use of the opportunity that the project of using computer technology tools to reform curriculum in the higher education is being carried out by ministry of education, aims to discuss and analyze the effectiveness of ICT for teaching and learning, specifically the application of ICT in college education with the methods of questionnaire and interview. The universities investigated include Nanjing University, Sichuan University, Tongji University, Soochow University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. The experimental courses investigated are university chemistry experiment, chemical information, general physics, electromagnetic field and electromagnetic waves, accounting information system and operation management.This thesis, with the combination of quantitative research and qualitative research, makes questionnaire among the281students and33teachers participated in the project of using information technology tools to reform curriculum in the higher education and interviews34students and11teachers. The investigation consists of8factors:(1) characteristics of students and teacher (2) learning experience of students (3) learning strategies of students (4) teaching ability of teachers (5) students satisfaction on the course (6) rate of the computer use in college course (7) effectiveness of computer use in college course (8) computer use of students and teachers being investigated.The investigation results show that teachers mostly use ppt to teach, they also use information and communication technology as a teaching supplement or to do exercises. The method teacher use most is teaching, which uses textbooks and multimedia most, and only44.5percent is class discussion. Both students and teachers believe that the application of ICT is necessary and useful, which brings convenience for study and work. By subject constructing, it shows that economic and management courses presents a better learning experience than science and engineering courses:more active interactive, more higher learning autonomy. The correlation analysis shows that the use quantity and effectiveness of information and communication technology has a positive correlation with course satisfaction. The more information and communication technology is used, the higher the course satisfaction is. According to the survey results, this study proposes the following suggestions:(1) Innovating thinking, explore more ways to use ICT, and expanding the use of information technology.(2) Strengthening the teaching designing, and increasing the energy input in teaching.(3) Establishing a "student-centered" teaching idea, strengthening the interaction and group cooperation, guiding the students to actively participate in.(4) innovating the teacher evaluation system, and evaluating the effectiveness of teachers’teaching achievement rationally.(5) Selecting the cases which are close to students’life.(6) Providing some difficult exercises which need deep discussion to improve study depth. In addition, some courses with large class sizes and fixed assessment methods, should be re-examined the teaching goal and set reasonable teaching methods and evaluation methods.