Incorporation of multimedia approaches to literature online via e-learning for foundation level literature courses: The case of a private institution of higher learning in Malaysia

Literature Online via E-learning (L.O.V.E.) is a web portal with the objective to provide Foundation students of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (U.T.P.) with an adequate and informative literature learning material in an interactive approach. Before this, the learning process of English literature is only being done inside the classroom with large number of students being placed at one time. The teaching method has not only making the students feel uncomfortable with the learning environment, but also discouraged them from learning the literature effectively. Adding to the problem is the lack of references and reading materials. For that, the web portal aims to provide them with an interactive way of learning English literature by incorporating multimedia features together with the syllabus. For this project modified waterfall model has been used as a methodology of the L.O.V.E. portal with 5 steps of requirement analysis, design, implementation, testing and maintenance. The major areas of focus in the methodology are the analysis and product development (implementation) since the result of the final product will be reflected from what had been worked on these two phases. A survey had been done in the UTP campus to identify problems of the original method, and find better solutions to students in the future. The completed portal will contain lecture materials, student's forum, lecturer's teaching video, clips of drama scenes, and quizzes. It would stimulate an improvement in learning literature that had been considered as the 'boring' subject if there is an online, multimedia application created for the benefit of learning nglish literature. L.O.V.E. portal would benefit the students in terms of the way they learn and interact with each other on the literature sub ect, apart from learning the theoretical aspects in the classroom. It would allow them to express their thoughts and feelings in a different way, thus maximizing potential and possibilities of excelling in literature in English.