Reasons why E-learning fails there...

I was searching inside for the last two years to find an answer of why I’m very opponent of the drastic trend of e-learning in our faculty; why I always find myself telling that “he3he3he3” once someone begins advising me about working on e-learning development in our faculty; and it was the same “he3he3he3” that I told dr.Waleed when he suggested that I may work with graduation projects to obtain the application of my MSc research point…

A week ago, I’d found out the answer of my unjustified refusal of e-learning, it was all about the unstructured environment we work on in our faculty… let’s explain the idea more; once I begin working on a research point I won’t be able to precisely estimate the deliverables or what shall my conclusions be from the beginning… to be able to see clearly I would need a safe, riskless environment to apply my theorems fully and truly, then the results would be used as a basis for the measurement of all the main concept I’m mainly building my dissertation upon and then this would be a point to derive all the possible versions of the scenario in question… after all; I’d be able to manage any risky, ambiguous circumstances I’m supposed to work through…

But what if I’ve tried to work at first mainly on a risky environment such as this one present in our faculty?? The answer is very simple; catastrophic incomplete results, and I would be deceiving myself if I took them as the measurement basis because they don’t represent the ideal or even a realistic state… ok, but I’m so sure that much that e-learning environment is a defective one, or this one would lead to incomplete results? Ok to answer this question I must apply it first on my research point which is composed of two main concepts (Agile Software Development + Service-Oriented Architecture)…so e-learning would be an unstructured risky environment to apply my research point on because:

1.There are no collaborative workgroups of researchers like those we find on the other international universities all over the world, so I must depend mainly on undergraduates’ graduation projects, the thing that would lead me to face hundreds of risks related to the solution’s quality… add to them the hassle of managing a group of students with all the possibilities of facing shortage in knowledge and experience as well as irresponsibility related hassle…

2.Agile development doesn’t have a wide basis of audience in our faculty [it was called macaroni development before]; so how shall I convince my teachers and colleagues about cooperating with me by even only giving me the suitable atmosphere I need to create with no in vain hassle??

3. SOA needs an infrastructure or some factors to build itself on the top of them… in more precise words; in my graduation project for example, though I know that it was with no other peer, but it hadn’t come up with all its desired objectives; and SOA wasn’t fully applied … i.e. we hadn’t used its full power because there were no reliable projects to integrate with and use its underlying data and I believe that there would have been more if we had applied fully SOA…

So if I used e-learning as the area where I apply my research, I’d come with unreliable, incomplete conclusions which would lead me to be as if I’m applying it or I’m studying it for the first time if I tried to apply it in the business real world… while people would trust me for my certifications telling that I’m one of MSc. holders I’d perform as just a postgraduate student and in this case the cost would be so high compared to the cost of using business to apply my point as the only alternative from the very beginning (I mean those research points which were mainly dedicated to business and those which demand either reliable infrastructure or distributed environment or both)

I’m not totally against e-learning part and parcel but I think that the right place where we can work on e-learning solutions is the research institutions where the environment is ready to develop such solutions and the risks are limited to the lowest level… but if this environment is not available at the moment; then we shall seek the right timing to apply our research points on e-learning in our faculty and never sacrifice our conclusions and measurements in the chase of a mode…

MDLC

During the last two years, I kept on reading what Haitham and Dr.Mervat had written concerning their MSc, sharing their experiences, their thoughts, their feelings and many times they shared also scientific information as well… while I was reading, I wondered if there would be a day when I’d write about my MSc, will I have something to write about other than an annoying conflict with my supervisor, a negative feeling to expose…

I didn’t expect to have an entry labeled “master hassle” soon, but I was surprised as my first discussion about my research point with some Dr.s in the faculty came out with the beginning of the series… I’d try not to be totally sarcastic; rather I’d try to present even a single useful piece of information through each episode…

This methodology was derived from an example suggested by one of the Dr.s in the committee discussed my proposed research point today… ok let me tell the story from the beginning;

Macaroni Development Life Cycle (MDLC):

I was proposing my suggested research point which is based on the incorporation of a new family of development methodologies called ADM (Agile Development Methodologies) & a new thinking based on the development of the system as a set of services which are loose coupled called SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)…

From the business opinion, both approaches gained a mass range of audience through the past six years, or let me say, from the first moment they exist large organizations are trying to adapt their resources to accommodate even one from the two approaches out of their realization of the welfare those approaches may bring to their businesses; from the academic point of view, both approaches gain the same clamor celebrating their existence and many researches had been done to explore the two new worlds, either separately or mutually…

From Mansoura_fcian point of view, no one have the comprehensive mind to adopt a new concept that may replace the traditional techniques of software development, neglecting the vast number of benefits that can be gained by quitting adoption of traditional minds and bypassing any voice calling for change, on the other hand; they are totally bursting forth the migration from the traditional object orientation to the new mind of service orientation.

At first let me admit that the only distinguishing criterion that distinguishes most of CMU_mans staff is the intuition only – if found- and their opinions and thoughts in most cases not based on practical experiences or readings or researches… there is no space to consider specialization, because unfortunately, the slogan of most of CMU_mans staff is “5aleeeha 3ala Allah”…

Back to the main topic; I was trying to convince the committee about the viability of this research point based on the various strengths of both of the two approaches, and usage of the strength points of each of them to vanquish the weak points of the other… but I found myself stuck on justifying only the feasibility of the ADMs, the topic I wasn’t preferring to get into that time, for three important reasons: first, I hadn’t gained yet enough background about this part to the extent that makes me debate about it and be certain that I shall be able to convince the audience of my point of view; second, the committee hadn’t even one specialized member to debate logically based on any criterion rather than intuition and appeal, they don’t believe on the severe viability of analysis and design, instead they believe on the perceived sides of development such as colors, interfaces…finally; it is not my responsibility to justify either approaches my research relies on, I took them both for granted and my part is to justify the viability of their mixture…

The Dr. who insisted on the debate doesn’t know but SOA and thinks that the whole of the world can be abstracted in this approach which can be the silver bullet of any development project…

To describe and justify the proposed methodology, I’d begin with the example the Dr. himself had given:

“If we considered macaroni cooking, shall we consider the process as a whole in the beginning or we shall take it as a separated set of steps with no knowledge in advance about what the result shall be, and without planning the produced dish??”… He said

“but, if I was told that the chief Osama El-Saied is on a TV show now proposing a new trend in cooking macaroni, if I’m following a traditional mind I won’t have the space for flexibility in considering new receipts and the new trend, while if I’m following an agile methodology I can guarantee to have this flexibility”… I replied

In both cases, I know in advance that I’m going to have in the end macaroni, and adopting either of the two minds would guarantee that the process would begin with boiling the macaroni in the beginning and having the dish hot and salty in the end…

Following a traditional methodology would restrict the mind of “plan it when you are going to accomplish it”, instead you must be ready with your full plan in advance because you must have decided each step with its milestones precisely before even boiling the water; leaving no space for sudden circumstances or, sometimes, for upcoming risks; while you cannot prevent them from affecting you; and you may have at the end unsatisfied eaters who may take the meal for granted; which won’t be the case if you are developing a critical system or a software system that the organization was planning to have it as a competitive advantage…

So, to summarize the benefits we shall gain by adopting an agile methodology:

1-The ability to react, to respond quickly and effectively to both anticipated and unanticipated changes in the business environment.

2-And more than reaction to change is its ability to create change which requires innovation which is the ability to create new knowledge that provides business value.

3-Agile development is focused on delivering business value immediately as the project starts, thus reducing the risks of non-fulfillment regarding the contract.

4-Close collaboration between the development team and the customer to reduce the risk of a project since the correct interpretation of the customer needs is verified at every step.

5-I liked a statement I’d read about the development phase (the game phase) in Scrum: “expecting the unexpected”…

That’s what I’ve tried to tell him during the debate that lasted for about 30 minutes and resulted in:

1-More insistence from my side on what I’ve decided long ago

2-More realization of what I’m going to face for the coming journey

3-A supervisor who finally decided to interfere to put an end to the debate; not out of conviction of the concept, but out of boredom and to hasten leaving

4- The Dr. who was debating with me hadn’t been persuaded, but he praised me for being the only one of my colleagues who had proposed a real research point

5-A Dr. whom declared finally that he didn’t understand what we were debating about for the past 30 minutes!!!

By the end of this episode, I shall liken Software development process to the process of constructing a building; the real process is based on having the architect planning the scheme, designing and making the estimations of the cost, measurements and all related stuff; then we would have all the deliverables are handed- out to the civil engineer to implement them in real world with the aid of the builders… the debate comes actually from how each one of us shall consider this process; a few persons whom consider it as it occurs in reality; larger sector of perceivers would assume that the civil engineer is the only responsible in the whole process and he seeks the help of the builders to have it done that way; but unfortunately; mass amount of perceivers consider it the builders whom had built the building!!!