DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF E-LEARNING WEB PORTAL (A CASE STUDY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE)

Background of the study: Learning is one of the very vital human activities that require concentration blended with interactivity, clear and distinct understanding of the facts been stated or discussed, high communication skills and techniques, attractive learning qualities such as colorful pictorial presentations of information among others. Nevertheless, all not learning process is considered to be effective. Effective could be assumed to had been achieved if about hundred percent (100%), of the population lectured assimilate the knowledge and/or ideas across; this is quite different when the population size is very high and there is existences of certain un-conducive learning conditions such as noise, poor ventilation, and extreme temperatures.

For effective   learning to take place, it is dependent on many factors. In most cases, these factors arise from the teachers, the students, the teaching and learning media or materials, and the learning environment with its structures. For instance, if a teacher lacks communication skills and techniques, the students, will find it difficult to comprehend, if the necessary media or materials required for teaching and learning is not provided or if the provision is inadequate, the understanding of the subject topic or issue been discussed might be impaired. In addition, the duration for teaching and learning, the rate of understanding and individual learning style effect the assimilation of knowledge by the students; and may have impact on the extent to which the teacher covers the teaching scheme. These factors will, certainly, hamper the effective teaching and learning by the teacher and by the students respectively.

Most especially, the factors affecting effective learning is pronounced in learning aspects where intensive or much practical approach is required for the impacting of knowledge to the students. For example, in computer science much practical knowledge is required especially in computer networking, computer programming, and computer maintenance. The practical equipping of students are been affected by certain factors such as the duration for practical teaching and learning, inadequate computers, availability of computer laboratories, and poor power supply among others. As a result it is generally observed that most computer science students with little or no practical knowledge engages the service of the road side “computer training institute” due to the fact that it is not financially intensive and there is great need for the services, this approach, by such student has high tendency of impacting wrong knowledge on students especially on the terms and explanation of concept s found or used in the computer science world. Therefore, there is the need to reduce this different situation and ensure that the practical standard required of the students is attained.

The progress made in the computer world through the development of sophisticated hardware, software, and other technologies could be employed for the remedy of the situation. Exploring the powerful capabilities of multimedia and implementing it on teaching and learning processes via the production of learning material and products such as e-book, computer assisted learning (CAI), computer aided instruction(CAT), computer based training(CBT), internet based training among others would go a long way towards improving the advancement of the practical and theoretical knowledge of the students. With high quality content value of the e-learning products and the captivating multimedia features embedded in them, a student can easily, assimilate such knowledge (even in the absence of a teacher and the required physical environment) through repetitive

Accessing of the e-learning materials and following the animated instructions contained therein. Finally, the case study computer science department, Federal college of Agriculture Ishiagu is selected due to its proximity.