Case study : effects of integrating web 2.0 applications in an e-business course

Abstract EN

Learning styles of undergraduate students of today are changing rapidly because of the ease of accessibility to the Internet.

Students are no longer dependent on conventional textbooks to gain knowledge.

Therefore, traditional teaching methods must be tweaked to accommodate such changes.

An E-Business course offered at Bethlehem University in Palestine during the spring 2011 semester blended Web2.0 applications such as social media and cloud computing to support the changing student learning styles, with the intent of effectively delivering the course content without requiring a textbook.

The course also included participation in the Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) that is offered worldwide.

This article evaluates innovations in terms of Web2 applications skills development of the 59 students taking this e-course and how the acquisition of such skills influenced their range of choices in seeking knowledge.

A questionnaire was designed to assess the students‟ perception and was supplemented by the students‟ results on GOMC.

Results of the survey showed that almost 80% of the students agreed that the course helped them develop confidence in their knowledge acquiring abilities.

This innovation appears to be effective in motivating students to learn how to utilize new applications on their own.

The findings are expected to encourage educators to employ Web2 applications relevant to the course content and to evaluate their results.