Effectiveness and Stakeholders’ Perceptions of the Integration of Automated E-Learning Courses into Vocational Education Programmes in Universities in Ukraine

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to identify whether the integration of the automated vocational e-courses into vocational education could bring the students to the same academic achievements as the tutor-moderated ones, and whether the stakeholders of education perceive the automation of e-learning positively or negatively, and what impact factors triggered their perceptions. The baseline study used the ecourse evaluation checklist to assess the e-course structure and content from eight randomly selected universities. Four hundred and four students and thirty-one instructors participated in the baseline study, first pilot, and core experiment. The instruments utilised to monitor the variables in the pilots were as follows: the sampled students’ academic records, a Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test, a Rasch Measurement Model, and the Kolb’s Learning Style Questionnaire. The IBM SPSS Statistics 5.0.0.1. Software package was used to process the data drawn for the above measurements. The above measurements were followed by the focus group and nine education stakeholders’ perceptions analyses using the Triangle Assessment Method. The study provided new evidence that automated e-course delivery can lead to approximately the same statistically significant improvements in the students’ vocational competence, academic motivation, and learning styles proving that it might be considered to be a feasible instructional tool. Additionally, it suggested that the use of automated educational e-course assisted by a virtual agent had been a more cost-efficient option.