Uus meedia kui õpikeskkond EHTE hotellimajanduse eriala õpilaste näitel

In the given B.A. thesis „The new media as a study environment with the example of a group of students majoring in hotel management at the Estonian School of Hotel and Tourism Management (EHTE)” I focused on „new media” as the essence of the study environment, while looking for relations between theoretical viewpoints regarding the use of e-studying and empirical experiences thereof. The empirical part of the given B.A. thesis is based on a questionnaire, which was developed in the process of a term paper (Vokksepp 2007) and which comprises the following research questions: a) How and by which means do the EHTE students make use of the e-study environment of IVA? More specifically, which kinds of means are in used actively and which ones are used more rarely during the study process or which ones are rather avoided altogether. b) How is the cooperation among each other and with the instructor being evaluated while studying in the web? c) How do students relate to e-study and the IVA study environment in general? Is there reason for improving the IVA e-study environment and if so, what in particular? d) What is the general opinion about e-study and how can the students’ attitudes have an effect on the initiation of full-scale courses at the Estonian School of Hotel and Tourism Management for the academic year of 2007/2008? There were 55 respondents for the questionnaire; however, since two questionnaires were filled out insufficiently only 53 responses were counted. Among the respondents there were 47 women and six men at the age of 19-32 years providing an average age of 21 years. Out of the respondents there are 38 persons, which means more than two thirds, who are living in Tallinn. The following statements, forming the major results of the B.A. thesis, need to be pointed out: a) Young people feel comfortable in the use of the Internet, the use of an e-study environment is not complicated for them, b) studying communities need consistent direction in order to function purposefully, c) the text-based nature of the studies does not create a problem; however, since the students prefer emotional means, e.g. videos and emoticons, then this kind of means should also be implemented, d) the IVA environment shows failures for the use of reflective means – forums and tests, e) the option of having a blog as another reflectional means will obviously not find users in the IVA e-study environment; instead, as a suggestion by the author of the thesis, the use of a search window for a particular database, e.g. Wikipedia, an estonian – english dictionary etc. could be provided by default, f) in terms of their organisation all e-study environments examined in the B.A. thesis are directed towards an asynchronous performance of studies. In a strategic plan of developing e-studies this may turn out into a mistake, for in this case a great part of the potential provided by the “new media” will remain unused. The author of the given thesis suggests paying attention to the synchronous part of e-studies as well.http://www.ester.ee/record=b3754008*es