A Study of e-learning Model for Defense Education in Taiwan

摘要

A literature review on the development of information technology in Taiwan shows that timing for e-lcarning environment has been getting mature on the island. When it comes to defense education that used to be strongly characterized by conventionally one-way communication modes in class, Tzeng and Lin also reported that if defense education is to be launched in e-learning environment, it will be welcome effort with forthcoming effective teaching/learning results.rnNevertheless, a critical reading of the previous study by Tzeng and Lin regarding the defense education via e-learning will expose some insufficiencies, i.e., the targeted groups may be small or not representatively enough in its procedures of sampling. With 1150 respondents across four schools but limiting the targets within North Taiwan only, the result, however positive, can hardly be reassuring. To convince policymakers dealing with defense education in Taiwan, more research effort definitely has to be done. Indeed, enlarging the targeted groups and adopting a theoretical framework are the starting point of the paper to address the above concern.rnThis paper therefore can be seen as effort to reinforce or falsify the previous findings with respect to the extent of maturity for e-Learning environment that is designed to accommodate defense education in Taiwan. It was methodologically to create a broader sampling base to answer a set of questionnaires and randomly chose 2500 respondents coming from 12 schools across whole Taiwan including one on an off-shore islet. The paper also found Keller's ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction) model as its theoretical assistance to start with as it based the reasoning that ARCS has long been considered an appropriate model suited for learners without age discrimination. The paper in the end reported that there exist much similarly positive results pointing to a successful marriage between e-learning as a vehicle and defense education in Taiwan as contents. It suggests in its conclusion part that e-learning environment for defense education in Taiwan has been mature, and while most potential learners are taking a welcome attitude towards it,rneffective teaching/learning results can be at least partially confirmed.