Web survey system to discover the actual role of experience in learning in higher education: a case study

March 19 - 22, 2006, São Paulo, BRAZIL World Congress on Computer Science, Engineering and Technology Education

Adults students (AS) bring to Higher Education (HE) and to the learning process a wide range of life experiences. The use of these can assist academic learning and enable AS to become independent reflective learners. Research is urgent as more adults are returning to HE, because of the push policy for lifelong learning – at national government, European Commission (EC) and Bologna Process levels. The project PRILHE (Promoting Reflective Independent Learning in HE), funded by the EC Socrates- Grundtvig Programme, aims to identify the learning processes which enable AS in HE to become independent reflective learners and how best to support these processes. Within this research, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to determine how students organise their studies and to discover their learning experiences. This paper describes the design and development of the system for the web survey data collection, taking into account the characteristics of information systems quality models.