Home PublicationsJRTEPast IssuesVolume 34 Number 1

	Edited by Dr. David J. Ayersman, Mary Washington College, and Dr. W. Michael Reed, New York University
formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education

Volume 34 Number 1 Fall 2001

Students’ Perspectives on Distance Learning

Jacqueline Leonard and Smita Guha
Temple University

Abstract
The Internet offers colleges and universities new opportunities to act on a potential watershed—online learning. Online learning offers students and institutions great flexibility, and thus, online courses are increasing in number and scope. This article taps the perspectives of preservice teachers enrolled at an urban university. The majority of students in traditional courses favor online courses but are less likely to enroll in them. Implications are that instructors must address student perceptions that online courses are not as effective in preparing them to teach. The majority of students taking online courses find that they meet their academic needs and improve their technological skills.

Contributors

Jacqueline Leonard is an assistant professor of mathematics education, and Smita Guha is an assistant professor of early childhood education in the CITE Department at Temple University. Both have four years of teaching experience in higher education at Temple University and more than 10 years of teaching experience in Grades PK–6.

Contact

Dr. Jacqueline Leonard
College of Education
1301 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Ritter Hall 438
Philadelphia, PA 19122
jleonard@nimbus.temple.edu

Appendix A

Survey Questionnaire for Students Taking the Course in Traditional Method

1. Online courses should be offered in the college of education
   

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   4

   5

2. All courses in the CITE department should be available online to graduate and undergraduate students.

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   4

   5

3. The content of ED 107/MTH 462 can be taught effectively online.
   

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   5

4. If this course was offered online I would take it.
   

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   5

5. I believe that the online course in ED 107/MTH ED 462 will prepare me to teach young children/mathematics.
   

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   5

6. Online courses encourage students to communicate with their professors more often.
   

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7. When I have to e-mail professors, they usually get back to me within a reasonable amount of time.
   

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8. If online courses are offered, professors will have less time to meet with students.
   

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9. I believe students will learn less material in an online course.
   

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10. I believe that the chat rooms cannot replace the value of a good classroom discussion.
    

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    5

Appendix B
Survey Questionnaire for Students Taking the Course Online (http://oll.temple.edu/oll/survey/)

Tell us what you think about our Web site, our course, our organization, or anything else that comes to mind. We welcome all of your comments and suggestions.

Please make sure you answer all the questions before submitting it. Your feedback will be really helpful to let us improve the online courses.

Please do not use commas in your text answers and do not hit the Tab key to move to the next text line.

Thank you for your time!!!

Instructional Method and Student Performance

1.1 From these weekly hours, I devoted ____ hours reading the course material and my assignments.
1.2 From these weekly hours, I spent ____ hours following the professor's instruction.
1.3 From these weekly hours, I spent ____ hours interacting with the professor.
1.4 From these weekly hours, I spent ____ hours interacting with my peers from class.

2. I enjoyed this online course.

3. I would like to take another online course.

4. I believe that if this course had been offered in a face-to-face mode it would have covered more material.

5. I believe that if this course had been in the face-to-face mode I would have interacted more with the professor.

6. I believe that having a course online is more challenging than having a course via a face-to-face mode.

7. I participated more in the online course than I usually do it in a face-to-face class.

8. The following reasons had an impact on your answer to question 7:

A Your personality.

B You felt anonymous.

C You felt more freedom to express your ideas.

D You had time to think about how you wanted to express your opinion about a particular matter.

E You felt more comfortable writing than talking.

F You felt more comfortable with this medium due to the fact that you were faceless.

G Other: ________________________________________

9. At the beginning of your course, you received all the instructions you needed in order to be able to "attend" the online course?

10. The interesting parts of this online course were:

A The content

B The Web format

C The interaction with classmates through e-mail

D The interaction with the professor through e-mail

E The interaction with people from the help desk through e-mail

F The experience of using the electronic mailing list

G The experience of using chat

11. The instructional features were well integrated with the text and the readings.

12. The instructional features were too long and it required too much reading.

13. The learning material was too theoretical.

Technology

1. Please circle all of the technologies that were used during your course:

A World Wide Web

Yes

No

B Videoconferencing

Yes

No

C E-mail

Yes

No

D Chat rooms

Yes

No

E Face-to-face meetings

Yes

No

F Correspondence

Yes

No

G CD-ROM

Yes

No

H Electronic mailing list

Yes

No

I Other: ___________________________

2. The technology used in the course overpowered the subject matter.

3. If your course used any type of video interaction, please let us know your opinion about the advantages or disadvantages of it, as well as for what purposes was video used? ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
4. If your course used a course management tool just as WebStudy or CourseInfo Blackboard, please let us know the features you like and why? ____________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

5. If your course used a course management tool just as WebStudy or CourseInfo Blackboard, please let us know the features you did not like and why?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

6. If your course used a course management tool just as WebStudy or CourseInfo Blackboard, please let us know your recommendations for future implementations in using this tool for the online course.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

Administrative Issues

1. Why did you choose to take this online learning course?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

2. I received all the support necessary in order to register for this course.

3. I experienced some technological difficulties such as please check as many items as apply:|

A I had problems accessing the course online

Yes

No

B I had problems dialing into the Temple University's system

Yes

No

C I got disconnected from the system several times while accessing the course material from home

Yes

No

D I did not know how to send my assignments online

Yes

No

E Other: ___________________________________

4. I requested some technical support for this course.

If you did not need any technological support, please skip to question # 6..

5. If you received any technological support:

A I got support from the help desk

Yes

No

B I got support from the professor

Yes

No

C I got support from a friend

Yes

No

D Other: _________________________________

6. Were you informed of the prerequisite courses needed in order for you to take this online learning course?

7. Were you aware of the technology equipment necessary for you to take this course?

Course Evaluation

1. Overall, I was satisfied with my online learning course experience.

2. The online course met my expectations about an online course.

3. I believe that the online course gave me more opportunity to interact with my classmates than if I had taken the same course face-to-face.

4. I believe that the online course gave me a better learning opportunity than if I had taken the same course face-to-face.

5. I am satisfied with the online course experience I had.

Why? ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

6. In your opinion, what are the advantages of being able to receive a whole class via courses online? ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

7. In your opinion, what are the disadvantages of being able to receive a whole class via courses online? ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

Demographics

Please check all of the items that apply

1. I live on campus.

2. I live off-campus, and it takes me _____ minutes to commute from home/work to campus.

3. I had taken a course online before.

4. I had access to the online courses from home.

5. I had access to the online courses from Temple University Computer Labs.

6. I am a matriculated Temple University student.

7. I registered through the Continuing Education Program.

Age:

Gender:

Major: __________________________________

Thank you for your time!

Dominique Monolescu

This survey was developed by the combined effort of:

Dr. Catherine Schifter: schifter@vm.temple.edu,

Dr. Concetta Stewart: cstewart@astro.temple.edu,

Dominique Monolescu: dominiq@astro.temple.edu,

Nandini Sen: nsen@astro.temple.edu, and

Christine Ndirangu: cndirang@astro.temple.edu

Revised: June 21, 2001. Copyright © 1997. All rights reserved.

Appendix C
Curriculum in Early Childhood Education ED 107

In its online form, Curriculum in Early Childhood Education provides a unique way for students who otherwise are unable to attend classes on campus to complete a three-credit hour course requirement in the undergraduate teacher education program. Students enrolled in the online course had the option of enrolling in the traditional course. However, 30 students elected to enroll in the online course.

As part of the course requirements, the students needed to meet for the first class at the college campus and then at the early childhood centers in order to have first-hand experience with young children. Although the course was not exclusively online, it was designed to provide 60% of the instruction online. The course was Web-based using a personalized system of Instructional PSI model Price, 1999. A Web page developed for the course allowed students to review the course materials and download the needed documents. Students were provided a specific login name and password to access the course materials.

The students communicated with each other and participated in class discussions through the class electronic mailing list. They also communicated with the instructor through e-mail. Students were required to read the textbook assigned for the course; they also reviewed articles and observed as well as interacted with the children at the childcare centers. The course was designed so that the class assignments could be posted on the Web in electronic format. Students logged onto the Web site, accessed the files, and retrieved the lessons. After the students had submitted their assignments electronically, their assignments were graded and were sent back to respective students electronically. The last process utilized the student drop box tool, which enabled the graded assignments to be delivered to students whereby they could retrieve their graded assignments at their leisure.

Students used Web services to retrieve information on lesson plans, which they needed to create their own plans and implement them in early childhood classes. Once students had constructed their respective lesson plans, they had to submit them electronically for the review. It was important to have teacher-student interaction in constructing the lesson plans, as it needed to abide by the principles of Developmentally Appropriate Practice Bredekamp & Copple, 1997.

Online interaction included a discussion board where a question was posted each week for students to answer it. Before answering the question, each student could view the statements made by the other students, which were also posted on the discussion board. This created a classroom-like environment where students could build upon each other’s answers to a specific discussion topic.

Toward the end of the semester, students had to present a resource project. It was a group project, and students in a group discussed their topic of presentation among themselves in a sub–electronic mailing list group. Each group had a leader, and the members of the group were to agree on a topic and prepare two sets of teacher-made materials. The resource project guideline was posted on the course Web page, and communication was made with the group leader about the group’s progress.

Teaching Children Mathematics MTH ED 462

This graduate-level course was designed to accommodate different learning styles by providing both face-to-face 40% and online interactions 60%. Several reading assignments were discussed online, but content such as numeration, fractions, decimals, and percents were explained and demonstrated in face-to-face sessions along with other activities designed to enhance student learning and prevent misconceptions. Videotapes of expert teachers working with urban students were also presented, and students were encouraged to do PowerPoint presentations of sample lesson plans during face-to-face meetings. In addition to using the WebBoard for chat and private conferences, the students were required to complete a WebQuest to evaluate the quality of the lesson plans they found on the Internet.

It was discovered that the learning curve for accessing the Web site and submitting papers electronically through the WebBoard was very high at the outset. Although the students were walked through the steps during the first face-to-face meeting, many forgot how to log in and called for assistance during the first two online sessions. Moreover, glitches such as high Internet traffic, particularly for America Online users, prevented students from logging into the chat room on time. Thus, it becomes critically important for instructors to use the Ethernet and have the office telephone line open.

Although additional training was given in the next face-to-face session, the students still had difficulty understanding how to use their personal conference room to communicate and download feedback on graded assignments. However, after eight weeks of instruction halfway through the course, students became comfortable with the format and interactive weekly meetings in the chat room became routine, as discussions about the readings and other issues related to teaching mathematics occurred.

Appendix D

Table 2. Reasons for Participating in Online Discussions
Reason	Percent who agreed
Personality	70%
Feeling anonymous freedom	50%
Feeling more freedom to express their ideas	50%
Having time to think about how to express an idea	90%
Feeling more comfortable writing than talking	40%
Feeling more comfortable with this medium due to the fact that they were faceless	20%

 

Table 3. Positive Features of Online Courses
Course Feature	Percent who agreed
Content	90 %
Web format	60 %
Interaction with classmates using e-mail	60 %
Interaction with professor using e-mail	60 %
Interaction with people from the help desk using e-mail	20 %
Electronic mailing list	60 %
Chat rooms	10 %

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Copyright © 2001, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.