Students Perceptions of Distance Learning, Online Learning and the Traditional Classroom

Abstract

Until the late 1980’s, the primary educational delivery model for collegiate professorial staff was
essentially the traditional lecture. Student populations consisted of single, residential 18-23 year
olds although working, non-traditional students had begun to increase dramatically. As we
approach the year 2000, the student population has continued to change to married, employed,
and non-residential students. Due to new technologies, knowledge delivery modules have also
changed to include on-line (education access through the Internet) and distance education
(interactive learning). Often these new educational technologies are implemented without fully
understanding their impact. Based on a study done at North South University, we have found that
distance learning and on-line learning technologies are perceived by students as having some
benefits although they are not necessarily knowledge related.

Introduction

The traditional delivery system for higher education has been a classroom setting with a
professor giving a lecture and students listening and writing notes. Interaction between the
professor and student has been viewed as an essential learning element within this arrangement.
However, innovations in educational delivery mechanisms have challenged this paradigm.
Advances in information technology (IT) are enabling little used educational delivery methods
such as distance learning (DL) to gain new life. In addition, the advances in IT have ushered in a
new paradigm, on-line learning (OL).

The result is that many institutions of higher learning have adopted distance and on-line
education as the next logical step in educational delivery systems. These systems are being
promoted as the educational pedagogy of the future. Some experts have gone as far as to predict
that the "residential based model," that is, students attending classes at prearranged times and
locations will disappear in the near future. However, one overriding question that must be
addressed is how will these new educational delivery approaches that move away from the basic
face to face relationship between a professor and students impact student learning and student
perceptions of learning.
At many institutions, the effectiveness of distance and on-line learning methodologies has not
been well researched prior to adoption. To better understand how these learning technologies
impact student perceptions of learning, a study was conducted at North South University. The
goal of this research is to better understand student perceptions of the effectiveness of these two
teaching methodologies. In addition, this paper investigates dimensions of distance and on-line
learning that we believe are perceived by students as providing advantages over the traditional
teaching methodology.

This paper is structured as follows. The initial sections develop a theoretical basis to better
understand student perceptions of DL and OL. This is followed by the research methodology
which includes the design of the survey instrument. The results of the survey are then discussed.
Finally, conclusions are drawn and opportunities for further research are presented.

Background

Typically we perceive that higher education has always used the lecture method to deliver
material. In reality, this is a relatively new phenomenon. For centuries, knowledge was passed
from a master to a student in a one-to-one or one-to-few arrangement. This method is still used in
most Ph.D. programs today. Over time, the lecture method of arranging a meeting at a given
place and time with many students was adopted and has now become the primary educational
delivery method. However, classroom lecture has not singularly been used for educational
delivery in the twentieth century. Distance learning through the use of closed circuit television
has existed for over 25 years. In addition, correspondence courses have existed for over 50 years.
Generally, these methods have not been perceived as providing the same learning impact as the
lecture method.

In Bangladesh, formal education fifty years ago was basically the region of a privileged few in
our society. However, as the economy of Bangladesh has changed rapidly, so formal education
has become essential for the economic success of individuals, organizations, and countries. The
undergraduate student population three decades ago was basically single, residential, full-time,
and 18-23 years old. As we enter the telecommunication age, with its vastly expanded
employment skill sets, the undergraduate student population has changed to include older,
married, employed, and non-residential students. The work force of Bangladesh must
continuously be retrained as a result of technological changes. Also, employees now must
manage their own careers as new skill sets are required and companies demonstrate less loyalty
to their employees.

Another factor influencing higher education is increased competition for students. Universities
are banding together to form consortiums to offer additional degrees and flexibility in course
offerings. In addition, some private & public companies are also offering courses to their
employees to upgrade their skill and knowledge sets.

The changing demographics of students, new required skill sets, and new educational
competitors are driving the adoption of new educational delivery systems that bridge the time-
place gap that traditional courses have created. Interactive distance teaching (DL) and world
wide access of educational instruction through Internet services (OL) offer non-residential
education services which may be more compatible with student lifestyles and needs. Educational
delivery through the Internet is also encouraged by the dramatic reduction in the cost of personal
computers and the increased capabilities of telecommunications. Reductions in state
appropriations for higher education are driving administrators to find new ways to reduce
expenditures. Although institutional start-up costs for OL and DL may be substantial, many
administrators believe that as more students use such services, cost per credit hour will
dramatically decrease.

Time and Place Dimensions

A two-dimensional, four cell matrix can be employed to categorize the above educational
delivery systems (Figure 1). The first dimension is time and the second dimension is place. The
time dimension has two levels, synchronous, which is when both delivery and receipt of course
material occur at the same time, and asynchronous, when delivery of the course material
precedes receipt of such material by the student. There are two levels of place: same where both
the instruction and student reception of instruction occur at the same place and different where
the location of the instruction and student receipt of instruction are different. These cells can be
further described as current primary delivery (synchronous and same), distance learning
(synchronous and different), on-line (asynchronous and different) and recorded (asynchronous
and same).
Figure 1. Instructional Mode Matrix

Place

Same Different

Time Synchronous Current Method Distance Learning

Asynchronous Recorded On-Line

It appears that many institutions of higher learning are rushing into the new educational delivery
systems without fully understanding how "place" and "time" factors impact student learning. In
essence, does place, defined as the location of both the instructor and student, impact learning?
In a like vein, does time, defined as when the instructor delivers course content and when the
student receives course content, impact student learning? There appears to be little research
available to help faculty and administrators in determine the "learning impact" on students of
these two critical variables.

Methodology

In order to study the four constructs in our model, a questionnaire was developed based on some
measuring indicators.

Once the full set of indicators was developed, two independent experts reviewed the indicators.
Based on their recommendations, indicators that were ambiguous were either eliminated or reworded
to clarify the ambiguity. Items that did not tap the constructs in the model were eliminated. In
addition, a set of demographic variables was added to the survey. This resulted in a survey with 128
items. A seven point Likert scale with strongly agree and strongly disagree as anchoring points was
used.

The survey was then administered to students at the participating university in a variety of business
courses including management, accounting, finance, and information systems courses. A total of 128
questionnaires were collected. Approximately 54% of the respondents were female and 46% were
male with an average age of 23.6 years. The majority of respondents (64%) had taken an OL course
and a large minority (48%) had taken a DL course. A slightly larger percentage (67%) of the
respondents had taken a course that combined traditional and OL methodologies. In a similar vein,
49.2% of the respondents had taken a course that combined traditional and DL methodologies.

The students ranged from sophomores to graduate students with juniors accounting for 62.5% and
seniors representing 29% of the respondents. The remaining 8.5% of the respondents were either
sophomores or graduate students. No freshmen filled out the survey, which was expected as
freshmen do not generally take business courses at the university where the questionnaire was
administered. The sample appears to be reasonably representative of the business school student
body.

Results

The survey contains 31 paired items (total of 62 items) where the same question was asked regarding
OL and also of DL. An analysis of these 31 paired items revealed that for 19 of the pairs, the average
answer for OL was significantly (.05 level) different from the average DL answer. The probability of
randomly having 19 or more significant differences out of a total of 31 paired items is 14.05%. Thus,
it appears that students do not perceive that OL and DL are the same. Therefore, we decided to do a
separate analysis for OL and DL.

OL Analysis

The first goal of our study is to determine student perceptions of the effectiveness of OL. Five
indicators in the survey that relate to effectiveness of OL are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Effectiveness of OL

Item Questionnaire Items t-value* Alpha

Number

1 Most people believe that OL is more effective than .343 .732

traditional methodologies.

2 In a course with both traditional and OL methodologies, I 1.761 .081

learn better through the OL portion.

3 I prefer OL courses to traditional courses. .272 .786

4 I believe that I can learn the same amount in an OL course -1.386 .168
as in a traditional course.

5 I believe that I can make the same grade in an OL course as -2.606 .010
 in a traditional course.

* - a negative value indicates that students agree with the statement while positive values indicate
that a student disagrees with a statement.

Students appear to be ambiguous regarding the effectiveness of OL when compared with traditional
methodologies. Students believe that they can make the same grade in an OL course (item #5).
However, when asked if they believe that OL is more effective than traditional courses (item #1), they
slightly although not significantly disagreed. When asked if they learn better through an OL portion
of a combined course (item #2), they agreed with the statement but again it was not significant. In
addition, students do not seem to prefer OL to traditional courses (item #3). Finally, although
students tended to agree that they could learn the same amount in an OL course, the finding was
not significant (item #4).

The second goal of our research is to determine what dimensions of OL provide advantages relative
to traditional methodologies. Table 2 lists 13 indicators of OL benefits. Items #1, #2, #5, and #13
seem to indicate that OL is beneficial to students. It appears that most of the relative advantage of
OL is related to saving time (item #8), scheduling (item #9), and taking more courses (item #12). In
addition, the direction for item #10 seems to indicate that OL may enable students to attend more
classes although the finding is not significant. Alternatively, based on students perceptions that it is
difficult to contribute to class discussions in an OL course (item #11) and that OL requires significant
changes by the student (item #3) one can see that OL does have some negative features. While
students agree that they feel comfortable taking courses on-line (item #7), item #6 indicates that they
may not be sure about how comfortable they are doing so.

Table 2. Relative Advantages of OL

Item Questionnaire Items t-value* Alpha

Number

1 I would benefit if there were more OL courses. -3.907 .000

2 OL does not offer any advantages to me. 5.595 .000

3 OL requires significant changes by a student. -4.552 .000

4 I believe that I can learn more or would learn more through 1.396 .165
on-line material than through lectures.

5 I prefer on-line courses to traditional courses. 2.246 .027

 6 On-line courses make me uncomfortable. 1.816 .072

7 I would feel comfortable taking courses on-line. -3.381 .001

8 OL saves me time. -6.054 .000

9 OL works well with my schedule. -8.851 .000

10 OL enables me to attend classes more frequently than -1.207 .230

traditional courses.

11 It is difficult to contribute to class discussions in an OL -4.075 .000

course.

12 OL enables me to take more courses than the traditional -4.248 .000

methodology in a year.

13 I would like to have more courses taught using the OL -2.980 .003
methodology.

* - a negative value indicates that students agree with the statement while positive values indicate
that a student disagrees with a statement.

DL Analysis

In regards to DL we had similar research objectives. Table 3 provides the results of the DL analysis.

Table 3. Effectiveness of DL

Item Questionnaire Items t-value* Alpha

Number

1 Most people believe that DL is more effective than traditional 3.489 .001
methodologies.

2 In a course with both traditional and DL methodologies, I learn better 3.438 .001
through the DL portion.

3 I prefer DL courses to traditional courses. 4.437 .000

4 I believe that I can learn the same amount in a DL course as in a -.582 .562
traditional course.

5 I believe that I can make the same grade in a DL course as in a -2.352 .020
traditional course.
* - a negative value indicates that students agree with the statement while positive values indicate
that a student disagrees with a statement.

The first three items strongly indicate that students do not perceive that DL is effective. In each case,
students significantly disagree with the statements. Students do not believe that they learn better
through DL (item #2) and they do not prefer DL courses to traditional courses (item #3). They also do
not believe that DL is more effective than traditional courses (item #1). In regards to learning, the
students slightly agree that they can learn the same amount in a DL course but the finding is not
significant (item #4). The students do believe that they can make the same grade in a DL course
which may be more a result of student self confidence than in the capabilities of DL methodologies.

Table 4 lists nine indicators of DL benefits. Items #4 and #5 indicate that DL potentially has two
relative advantages compared to traditional courses. Our findings indicate that DL works better with
student schedules than do traditional courses (item #5). Item #4 indicates that some students may
find that DL saves them time although the finding is not significant. Item #1 indicates that students
do not seem to benefit in an overall sense from DL courses. DL does not seem to offer many
advantages to students (item #2) and it does require significant changes by a student (item #3). In
addition, students do not believe that DL enables them to attend classes more frequently (item #6).
Difficulty in contributing to class in a DL environment also seems to limit the relative advantage of DL
(item #7) and it does not appear that DL enables students to take more courses in a year than
traditional methodologies (item #8). Finally, students do not seem to want more DL courses to be
offered (item #9). Thus from our study, students do not generally find that DL methodologies have
much of an advantage over the traditional methodology.

Table 4. Relative Advantage of DL

Item Questionnaire Items t-value* Alpha

Number

1 I would benefit if there were more DL courses. .36 .160

2 DL does not offer any advantages to me. .134 .894

3 DL requires significant changes by a student. -3.093 .002

4 DL saves me time. -.812 .419

5 DL works well with my schedule. -2.310 .023

6 DL enables me to attend classes more frequently than 2.257 .026

traditional courses.
 7 It is difficult to contribute to class discussions in a DL -4.475 .000
course.

8 DL enables me to take more courses than the traditional .540 .590

methodology in a year.

9 I would like to have more courses taught using the DL 1.234 .220
methodology.

* - a negative value indicates that students agree with the statement while positive values indicate
that a student disagrees with a statement.

Conclusions

We had two primary goals for our research: first to find out if students believe that OL/DL teaching
methodologies are as effective as the traditional methodology and second what dimensions of OL/DL
provide benefits to students. The results of a survey of 128 students indicated that students do not
perceive that OL and DL are similar so separate analysis were conducted.

Our research indicates that students perceive that OL has a significant relative advantage to
traditional methodologies. These advantages include saving them time, fitting in better with their
schedules, and enabling students to take more courses. They do not believe that they learn more in
OL courses and have concerns related to being able to contribute to class discussions. Interestingly,
the students seem to be ambiguous when comparing OL to traditional methodologies. They prefer
traditional courses to OL courses although they want more OL courses.

Students seem to have much more negative beliefs about DL than OL. Generally, students do not
perceive that DL is as effective as traditional methodologies. The only perceived benefit of DL is that
of working well with their schedules. In addition, students do not want to take more DL courses.

Limitations

This study surveyed students in business courses only. Results therefore cannot be generalized to
non-business students. In addition, students surveyed were at one university and these results cannot
be generalized to students at other universities. In regards to the DL findings, it may be that the
university where the students are surveyed is not effectively using DL methodologies although
instructors do receive extensive DL training. It may also be that the technology used is not enabling
effective DL.

Future Research
Future research should include non-business students and students from other universities. Doing so
would enable one to generalize the findings more broadly. It would also be useful to test the
linkages between the dependent and independent variables in Figure 2, the Student Perception
Model. Finally, the use of structural equations modeling would provide interesting insights into the
theory used to develop the model.

Distance and on-line learning appear to be the teaching methodologies of the future. Our findings
suggest that researchers and administrators need to view OL and DL as separate methodologies.
Students seem to prefer OL to DL and the traditional methodology to DL. There are more benefits to
OL than DL, at least from the students' perspective. As universities move more courses to OL and DL,
administrators need to consider student perceptions. It may be that students would be willing to take
courses at another university rather than take OL/DL courses at their present institution.

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