IDEAS

CIT actively monitors the usage trends of IVLE and other e-learning services. We present the usage figures for IVLE and webcasts this year thus far.

Figure 1: Usage of module, forum and workbin tools by year

Fig 1 shows the increasing usage of IVLE by teaching staff. The number of modules here indicates both published modules which are visible to the students in the current semester and unpublished modules which have been created by faculty but not visible to students. Faculty are increasingly using workbins to distribute their notes and using discussion forums for collaboration.

Figure 2: Tool usage by individual Faculties and Schools (August 2004)

Fig 2 gives a breakdown of the various IVLE tools used by the Faculties and Schools for the month of August 2004.

Figure 3: Number of webcast lectures

Fig 3 shows the increasing trend of modules being webcast. Webcast lectures are popular with students. Many faculty have kindly consented to numerous student requests to have their modules recorded and webcast. Webcast modules aid in student revision and allow the students to focus more on the lecture.

The webcast service is run and maintained jointly by CIT and the individual Faculty IT Units. With the Faculty IT Units’ support, CIT has managed to fulfil requests from faculty to webcast their modules.

In the effort of making webcasts as accessible as possible, CIT began providing webcast support for Macintosh users this semester.

Figure 4: Students' IVLE usage over 24-hours

Fig 4 charts students’ IVLE activity in a day. Monitoring student activity over a 24-hour period reveals that most students are active accessing IVLE from 7 p.m. to well past midnight in preparation for upcoming lectures and tutorials.

Figure 5: Staff and student logins and page views by month

Fig 5 shows staff and student logins and page views. In August 2004, student logins to IVLE reached a peak of 60,000 logins in one day.

Figure 6: Number of page views and hits (Jan-Sep 2004)

Fig 6 shows the number of page views and hits from January to September. Page views indicate hits to files designated as pages. All graphics and non-page files are not included in these statistics.