Experimenting e-Learning with a large class

An experimental use of web based material to supplement the teaching of the course GEC121 – Computing and Information Skills Fundamental I, in the University of Botswana was carried out between August and December 2003 to a class of over 750 students in the Faculty of Social Sciences. The course was taught in a one-hour class, with two-hour lab sessions every week for each student. The face-to-face sessions were supplemented with course outline, lecture notes, laboratory manuals, quizzes and bulletin board on an Learning Management Software called WebCT while the laboratory sessions were purely done using WebCT. This paper looks at the areas of application of eLearning for large classes and how it was applied at the University of Botswana for the GEC121 course, students and tutors view of the course, as well as experiences from its use.