1. 102 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0975-3486, (Print), E- ISSN -2320-5482, Aug- Oct, 2013 (Combind) VOL –V * ISSUE- 47-49
Introduction
E-learninghasbecomemuchmoreinteresting.
E-education has given a new look and feel to studies.
Unlike one-way teaching module in traditional teach-
ing, e-learning is a two-way learning process. It is a
platform where in a student can interact with a teacher
online and learn by discussion. The student is free to
ask theteacher anything, be itfromprescribed syllabus
or from anywhere else. With the help of voice-enabled
chat, the discussion and practice session becomes all
the more productive. E-learning is totally technology
based education classes, content teachers, learners,
examinations; all these are available online through
internet. Internet is the backbone of e-learning. Stu-
dentscangete-lectures,demonstrations,ande-instruc-
tions by eminent personalities from anywhere through
e-mailorinternet. Chiuetal.(2009)discoveredthrough
a research of students' e-learning that increase of user
satisfaction positively influence students' intention to
continue using the e-learning system. Salmon (2010)
emphasized that digital technology was an important
"moderator" in learning activities, as it was a condition
and an environment that could assist learners in learn-
ing activities. Besides, individual applications of tech-
nologyare also influenced byeffectsofsocialrelations
that exist between people, such as the reward system
and power structure.
Hackman and Walker (2010) indicated that media
richness contribute to increasing e-learning satisfac-
tionafter theempiricalstudyoftheuseoftelevisionfor
teaching. Saade et al. (2011) indicated when students'
intrinsic motivationis stronger, their willingnessto use
e-learning will be higher. Therefore, Learning attitude
positively influences students' use of e-learning
Objectives and Hypothesesof TheStudy:
The objectives of the present study were: (i).
to analyse the attitude of teachers under training to-
wardse-learning.;(ii)toexaminetheattitudeofteachers
under training towards e-learning studying in the col-
legeslocatedinruralandurbanareas(iii)toevaluatethe
attitude of teachers under training towards e-learning
in relation to gender. The hypotheses of the study were
framedas:(i)thereexistsnosignificantdifferenceonthe
attitudes of teachers under training towards e-learning
studying in the colleges located in rural and urban
Research Paper— Education
Aug- Oct ,2013
AComparative Study ofAttitude of Teachers
UnderTraining Towards E-learning
* Ms. Deepika Rajpal
areas, and (ii) there exists no significant difference on
theattitudesofteachers undertrainingtowardse-learn-
ing in relation to gender.
Sample :- The data were collected from 400 rural and
urban B.Ed students-both' males and females from
Punjab.Outofthissample,200werefromruralcolleges
and 200 were from urban colleges. From the rural and
urban colleges; 50% of the sample was male and 50%
female students.
Tool Used:- The scale to measure the attitude towards
E-learning was constructed and standardized by the
researcher.Itconsistsof30itemsandhashighreliability
(r=0.669)andvalidity.
Results and Discussion
After administrating the final format of the
scale for measuring attitude of teachers under training
towards E-learning to all the subjects consisting of
males and females as well as rural and urban teachers
under-training, the response sheets were scored on the
basisoftheprocedurei.e.thepositiveitemswerescored
as 5, 4, 3, 2,1 for SA,A, U, D, SD respectively and 1, 2,
3, 4, 5 for the negative items. The means, SDs and SEs
ofthe scores ofthe attitude scale were calculated for all
the subjects and the t-ratios were computed between
male and female teachers-trainees to see if any signifi-
cant differences existed between two groups of B.Ed.
students.
Gender Differences on Attitude Towards E-learning
Table 1 shows the mean scores differences on
E-learning of B.Ed. students for males and females to
know the sex differences on the attitude towards E-
learning. See Table 1 As per the above table, it is quite
obvious that significant differences existed between
male and female B.Ed. students on the attitude towards
E-learning; as t-ratios of 2.064 was significant at 0.05
level in case of the combined group and also in case of
urban male and female students (t = 2.212 P < .05). But
in case of the rural male and female students; no differ-
encewasfoundtobesignificant(t=0.765NS).Itisquite
evident from the means scores that males have better
attitude(M=86.00)thanthefemales(M=81.40)andthe
same trend was seen for the urban males which was
88.58andforurbanfemalesas81.88.Itisacommonfact
that themale studentsare moreinterested inthe science
andtechnicalsubjects.Theyusuallyoptfornon-medical
*Research Student, SinghaniaUniversity,Pacheri Bari(Rajasthan)

2. 103RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0975-3486, (Print), E- ISSN -2320-5482, Aug- Oct, 2013 (Combind) VOL –V * ISSUE- 47-49
andengineeringsubjectsfortheirfutureprofession.On
the other hand, female students are more interested in
fine arts, fashion technology, and humanities subjects.
For this reason, male B.Ed. students were having more
favourableattitudeinlearningcomputereducationand
hence more inclined in E-learning than the traditional
teaching.Duetothisfact,maleB.Ed.studentshadmore
favourable and positive attitude than the female ones.
Moreover,urbanmalestudentswerealsomore
favourablyinclined towardsE-learning; because in the
cities,therearemorefacilitiesandavenuesforcomputer
education. Most of the urban colleges are providing
better computer education, as they are well-equipped
withcomputerlaboratoryandmoreovertherearemany
cyber café in the city life. These facilities are totally or
partially absent in the rural area, hence the students
whethertheyaremalesorfemalesdonothaveexposure
to computer education and have less knowledge re-
garding the E-learning and were less favourable to this
aspect of education. The results of the study have
rejected the null hypothesis that there exists no signifi-
cant difference on the attitudes of B.Ed. students to-
wards E-learning in relation to gender; as differences
have been evinced between male and female
B.Ed. students. But Mungania (2007) showed that fe-
male students learn better than male students in online
learning. Compared to male students, female students
considered some instructional factors and learning
activities more valuable for their learning than other
factors, such as instructional design factors.
Rural-urbanDifferences
The differences on attitudes towards E-
learning on the basis of locale of the colleges of B.Ed.
students were also studied. The mean scores differ-
ences of attitude towards E-learning for the urban and
rural students have been presented in See Table 2.
As per the above table, there were no signifi-
cant differences on the mean scores of attitudes to-
wards E-learning between the urban and rural students
of B.Ed. colleges, whether they were males or females
or combined group; as all the t-values were found to be
non-significant.Hencetheseresultshavefailedtoreject
the null hypothesis of the study that there exists no
significantdifferenceontheattitudesofB.Ed.students
towards E-learning studying in the colleges located in
rural and urban areas. As the subject of computer
education is being taught in almost all the B.Ed. col-
leges,whethertheyareinurban orruralareas;so allthe
students have developed positive and favourable atti-
tudetowardsE-learningandhencenosignificantdiffer-
encewasfoundonattitudetowardsE-learningbetween
B.Ed. students of urban and rural colleges.
But Rimmi Anand (2012) observed that
although some negative consequences have been
noticed inflourishing E-learning in ruralareas because
oflackofawareness,unwillingwill,illiteracyandlackof
proper infrastructure, yet it has a broad scope in near
futureanditwilldefinitelyhelppoorgentrytofillthegap
between educated developed cities and rural underde-
veloped areas.
Conclusions
From the results of the present study, the fol-
lowing conclusions were drawn:
1. There are significant differences between male and
female B.Ed. students on the attitude towards E-learn-
ing and especially among male and female B.Ed. stu-
dentsofurbancollegesbutnotintheruralcolleges.The
maleshavemorefavourableattitudetowardsE-learning.
2. No significant differences exist on the attitude to-
wards E-learning between the urban and rural B.Ed.
College students; whether they are males or females or
combined group.
Table 1 Means, SDs and t-ratios of scores of E-learning of male and female B.Ed. Students
Groups N Males Females dm SEdm t-ratios Significant
level
M SD SE M SD SE
Combined 200 86.00 20.413 1.443 81.40 24.032 1.699 4.60 2.229 2.064* P< .05
Urban 100 88.58 18.411 1.841 81.88 24.050 2.405 6.70 3.029 2.212 P < .05
Rural 100 83.43 22.070 2.203 80.93 24.126 2.413 2.50 3.267 0.765 NS
* Significant at 0.05 level
Table 2 Means, SDs and t-ratios of scores of attitude towards E-learning for urban and rural B.Ed. students
Groups N Urban Rural dm SEdm t-ratios Significant
M SD SE M SD SE level
Combined 200 85.23 21.626 1.529 82.18 23.076 1.632 3.05 2.236 1.364 NS
Males 100 88.58 18.411 1.841 83.43 22.027 2.203 5.15 2.871 1.794 NS
Females 100 81.88 24.050 2.405 80.93 24.126 2.413 0.95 3.407 0.279 NS
1 Chiu, C. M., Sun, S. Y., Sun, P. C. and Ju, T. L. (2009). An empirical analysis of the antecedents of web-based learning continuance. Computers &
2 Hackman, M.Z. and Walker, K. (2010). "Instructional communication in the televised classroom," Communication Education, Vol. 39, pp. 145-156.
3 Mungania, P (2007) The Seven E-learning Barriers Facing Employees, A Research Report Funded by the Masie Center October © 2003.
4 Rimmi Anand (2012) E-Learning and Its Impact on Rural Areas, I.J.Modern Education and Computer Science, 2012, 5, 46-52
5 Saade, R.G., He, X. and Kira, D. (2011). "Exploring dimensions to online learning," Computers in Human Behaviour, Vol. 23, pp. 1721-1739.
6 Salmon, G. (2010). E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online (2nd ed.). London, UK: Rutledge Falmer.
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