Distance learning: An empirical study

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1 Ditance learning: An empirical tudy Mehdi Sagheb-Tehrani Bemidji State Univerity College of Buine, Technology and Communication Bemidji, MN Abtract Ditance learning (DL) i a popular option in higher education. Information technology (IT) ha made education more available for tudent without regard to location or time. Univeritie are now offering online degree at all level. Thi tudy preent an empirical invetigation deigned to identify ome advantage and diadvantage of ditance learning. Ninety tudent from even different coure at two variou univeritie took part in thi invetigation. The tudy upport that online teaching could be more than 35% of the total credit hour in a graduate program. Alo, the tudy upport that online teaching ha gone too far. The tudy uggeted four hypothee which were teted uing a erie of t-tet. The author hope that thi paper provide valuable inight into application of ditance learning and educational deign a an important part of an academic routine activitie. Keyword: Online Learning, Information Technology (IT), Ditance Learning (DL), Advantage, Diadvantage, Management in Education. 1. INTRODUCTION Online learning i being introduced a a primary part of the tudent learning experience in higher education. It i no longer core buine only for thoe univeritie with a miion for ditance education, It affordance are being ytematically integrated into the tudent learning experience by predominately campubaed univeritie ( Elli, et al., 2009, McLinden, et al., 2010). Online ditance learning ha attained a degree of acceptance in many work environment, mainly in the government, hightech egment and academia. For a variety of reaon, online learning i an attractive option in higher education (Hollenbeck et al., 2005; Bennett et al., 2009, Cheng, 2008, Donal et al., 2009).The technologie behind ucceful e- learning program are no longer conidered new or unteted; they have been in exitence for decade. The newet generation of ditance learning tool relie mainly on peronal computer and the Internet to ditribute high volume of educational material over long ditance. The future of e-learning look promiing, but it may not be a olution for all organization. E-learning, alo known a online ditance learning can be defined a any curriculum delivered to a tudent eparated by time or pace from an intructor. The utilization of information technology (IT) remove a number of the defect related with traditional correpondence education: namely, the lag in communication between intructor and tudent, the high cot of hipping learning material, and the ability to rapidly and effectively modify teaching material to reflect change in the learning environment or yllabu. Online ditance learning till account for only a mall percentage of coure in academia and corporate and government training coure, but the potential for growth i great a more organization begin to realize the potential aving and ability to reach a wider audience. Ditance learning i ued interchangeably with on-line learning, web-baed learning, computerbaed learning, and E-learning. E-learning cover web-baed learning, digital collaboration, and virtual claroom and the delivery of 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 1

2 content via the Internet. Ditance education i not a new concept. A Chritner (2003) indicate, ditance education wa known a far back a the mid-19 th century when it wa referred to a correpondence coure. However the information technology revolution ha allowed univeritie and potential tudent to purue ditance education to a degree. New delivery technologie in term of network and computer have contributed to thi proce (Moore, Kearley, 1996). There are numerou difference between e-learning and traditional learning. Beide the delivery method, e- learning can be elf-paced, live, or a combination of both. It can alo be performed independently or in a group etting. Regardle of the method or mode, e-learning give organization alternative to in-houe training. Many buinee elect e-learning option becaue of the cot aving which reult from eliminating travel cot and intructor fee. Therefore, it i important to invetigate the advantage and diadvantage of online coure in order to ae the poitive and negative impact of the online educational environment. The purpoe of thi tudy i to determine the advantage and diadvantage of online coure to ee difference in level of atifaction by tudent regarding face to face teaching veru online teaching. 2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS, METHOD, AND LIMITATION The reearch preented here draw upon ocial ytem theory in the functionalit ociology defined by Burrell & Morgan (Burrell, Morgan, 1979). Thi paper approache it ubject matter from an objectivit perpective. The reearch preented here i baed on the holitic view chool (Social Sytem Theory).The author ha direct experience with ome of the advantage and diadvantage of online learning and the role that it i playing in higher education today. The reearch approach i baed on a literature review and the author experience a a CIS/MIS/IT profeor at variou univeritie. 2.1 Quetion Some of the reearch quetion (RQ) and hypothee (H) are a follow: RQ-1: What are the advantage and diadvantage of online coure? H1: The main advantage of online coure i flexibility and allow working at any time and location. H2: The main diadvantage of online coure i no face to face contact with intructor and other. RQ-2: How hould be the online coure within a program? H3: Online teaching could be more than 35% of the total credit hour in an under graduate or graduate program H4: Ha online teaching production gone too far. 2.2 Methodology The objective of thi tudy wa to find out about the advantage and diadvantage of ditance learning (DL). A quetionnaire wa deigned baed upon the concept of ditance learning advantage and diadvantage. The urvey wa approved by the intitutional review board at the intitution. The firt verion of the quetionnaire wa compried of 22 quetion and the econd verion of the quetionnaire wa compried of 26 quetion. Some of the quetion were deigned a open-ended quetion. The quetionnaire were pre-teted by ome tudent before ending them out. The firt verion of quetionnaire wa ent out to forty ix MBA tudent taking an online coure, Management Information Sytem at univerity Y (ee Table-1). For the purpoe of confidentiality, the name of univerity i not dicloed. The econd verion of quetionnaire wa ent out to forty four tudent taking five different online coure at univerity Z (ee Table-1). For the purpoe of confidentiality, the name of univerity i not dicloed. An earlier verion of imilar tudy wa publihed in Baed upon the feedback received, the econd verion of the quetionnaire wa produced. The anwer they provided were confidential and did not affect their coure performance/grade in any way. Participant were not required to identify themelve; the name of the repondent on the quetionnaire wa optional. Over 85% of the tudent who participated in the tudy had full time job. In total 66 quetionnaire out of 90 quetionnaire (73%) were returned. After collecting the quetionnaire, the author analyzed each quetion from each repondent and ummarized the data in almot thirty table EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 2

3 2.3 Limitation A with any reearch, thi tudy ha limitation. The data were obtained in even online coure which had ninety tudent (ee Table-1). Furthermore, the quetion in thi tudy focued on the concept of advantage and diadvantage of e-learning. Further tudie might identify additional factor related to the pro and con of ditance learning. 3. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENTS 3.1 Advantage: Learn more, fater and location free- 24/7 Ditance education ha been in exitence for a very long time. The medium ha changed from paper and pencil correpondence coure to real time Internet coure. Conidering the information technology in real-time Internet coure ha provided the opportunitie for tudent to learn more and fater (Cookon, 1989; Galuha, 1997). Online education i ideal for non-traditional tudent who may be working full-time and cannot take face to face coure. Unlike traditional univeritie, online learning can be worldwide and location free. For mot online coure, all a tudent need i a computer and Internet acce. Education i therefore available to nearly everyone in any location. There are many univeritie which believe in thi philoophy. Becaue online clae are real time, they allow people to go home from work, get on the computer, and work on their coure aignment regardle of the time of day Lower cot and additional univerity income The univeritie which offer online degree are able to reach tudent throughout the world. Traditional teaching ervice may no longer be required. The univerity certainly raie it income by adding more and more tudent to cla roter. A traditional ingle cla could have 20 or 25 tudent wherea online cla can have 50 or more tudent. Thi improved enrollment increae the tuition bae generated by the univerity. Many univeritie today are faced with financial problem. State funding i limited o offering online coure reduce the overhead cot and increae the univerity income. With declining funding joined with improved enrollment, ome facultie are being aked to increae output. There i no doubt that on-line education i more cot efficient for univeritie. A univerity may add more tudent to the online coure while maintaining or even decreaing the number of faculty needed to provide the required ervice. Brick and mortar may not be really needed for online education. Therefore univeritie can cloe building, reducing air conditioning, maintenance, heating, ecurity, and other imilar cot (Moore,Winograd, Lange, 2001; Shaw, 2006). The univeritie which offer online degree may, however, require a greater invetment in technology upport Bring diparate tudent from anywhere Key change have taken place in higher education intitution that have led to ignificant tranformation in their practice and policie. For example, the UK ha experienced growth and diverification in it higher education ytem. Student bodie are now compried of tudent from a wider range of age, background and qualification, and alo from group traditionally diadvantaged - ethnic minoritie and people with diabilitie (Ahwin, 2006). Thi growing demand for higher education placed college/univeritie in a new ituation where they needed to repond to the need of the new tudent body, conidering limited funding, in order to be able to ucceed ( Jara & Mellar, 2007). Conidering the large body of potential tudent, the variety of the tudent body i poibly much greater than what i normally found in a traditional cla. Thi diverity contribute to improved dicuion and enhance the number of idea and perpective examined when looking at a given topic. Thi lead to increaed learning for all of the tudent a the material i viewed and analyzed in the cla from the variou experience bae (Moore, Winograd, Lange, 2001; Drave, 1999). Generally public univeritie in many tate have a ervice area aigned to them by authoritarian bodie. Within thi ervice ditrict the univerity draw mot of it tudent body and provide educational ervice to people inhabiting thi region. By providing on-line education, chool are no longer limited to their geographical ervice ditrict. In other word, the chool can offer it ervice to the citizen of the tate that provide the volume of their funding while reaching beyond it border. Online coure preent regitration poibilitie to individual located anywhere in the world making the ervice 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 3

4 ditrict much bigger (Moore, Winograd, Lange, 2001; Kearley, 2000; Drave, 1999) Undeirable weather, latet IT, force interaction, take break Online education provide both faculty and tudent the ability to work at home if the weather i not favorable for commuting to chool. Some people are not early morning peron o they have difficulty taking an early morning coure. Many tudent have thi problem, i.e., they do not like early morning clae and their learning i not efficient becaue they are leepy. With online coure thi i not an iue. Online coure provide both tudent and faculty with the option to utilize the latet in technological educational advance a part of the cla pedagogy. A the coure are Internet baed, it would be logical to look for method of intruction that profit from information technology. For example, an online coure may include video clip and appropriate Internet ite link. One of the important learning practice in any cla, i tudent dicuion. A mentioned above, the faculty member need to enure that tudent are involved in thi proce. There are tudent who will avoid peaking out and the typical lecture dicuion approach let tudent hide even a they are itting in the cla room. Dicounting the fear reaon, there are imply ome tudent who prefer not to involve themelve in the dialog. By uing information technology, a profeor can ae exactly who i and who i not participating in coure activitie. (Drave, 1999; Palloff, Pratt, 2001).By taking an online coure one would gain a certain level of computer expertie. The more a peron ue the computer, the more comfortable one become with the computer a a tool. It ha been accepted that literacy rate contribute to a higher tandard of living in a country. So online learning improve the computer literacy rate of individual in a country thereby leading to improvement of the living tandard. By taking online coure, both the profeor and tudent have more opportunitie to manage their break within the period of the coure time (ee Table- 2). 3.2 Diadvantage Face to face interaction One of the main trait commonly ought by employer i the ability to communicate with other people. Online learning uually doe not allow for the development of face to face interaction. Ability to tate idea clearly and the verbal kill are alo important for the ucceful manager. More, preentation kill are alo often required in the work place. Thoe talent are included in an on-line coure. However, thi author ak hi online tudent to take the final exam and preent group preentation in the traditional manner. Conflict among participant are not a big iue in online coure, becaue of minimal interaction between participant. Online learning may provide interaction with the ue of chat room, dicuion board and . Problem may arie, though, when trying to comprehend the peronalitie of the group' member if the only method of communication i computer! In a face-to-face coure, tudent interaction can improve the learning effect for them. One tudent may decribe what a particular phenomena mean while the other can explain how omething work. While other tudent did not know both anwer, now they undertand both. Thi kind of learning experience i not promiing in an online coure Complex concept, feedback iue, interruption, computer fail In online coure you are not able to ee your audience. So online learning doe not permit for full feedback. Having a rich feedback help to have an effective communication. Word can have variou meaning to different people and they may have diparate meaning in variou context. Verbal feedback with face to face communication can convey a very rich meage along with our feeling. Thi lack of viual feedback can reduce the learning objective that take place in the coure. One of the main tak of a profeor i to give detail of a concept and material in a way tudent can undertand. There are concept that are rather eay, while other are more complex. Explanation frequently lead to more quetion which in turn offer more quetion. It i like an academic debate! There may not be a complete anwer while there can be everal inexact anwer. What make one anwer better than the other one? It i the job of the profeor to tep in and guide tudent in making the bet concluion. The computer cannot replace the human element in thi proce. One may not be able to do thee activitie in an on-line coure. With an online coure, the tudent till have all of the family dutie and reponibilitie. While the tudent i working at home on online coure, 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 4

5 omeone may call on the cell phone or the doorbell ring. Thi can lead to ditraction from the learning proce. Computer are machine; they are not without drawback. Experience ha hown that they will fail whether due to hardware failure, oftware failure, virue or other iue. Online learning depend on thi machine. Once they (erver) fail, it can lead to interruption of the coure for ome period (ee Table-2). 4.1 Data collection 4. RESEARCH FINDINGS The quetionnaire wa pre-teted by two MBA tudent and refined after the pre-tet. Quetionnaire were ent out via to all 90 tudent who took thoe coure lited in Table- 1. The online coure were conducted on divere platform uch a WebCT (powered by Blackboard alo), Blackboard, D2L and Courecompa (powered by Blackboard) provided by Peron Higher Education. Previouly the author taught the ame coure for numerou univeritie both face-to-face (pat 16 year) and online. One coure (MIS-Summer- 2007) wa not delivered 100% online. The lecture, quizze and cae were conducted online. But, the orientation eion, mid-term and final exam were delivered on campu; thoe eion were mandatory. Sixty ix (73%) quetionnaire were returned. See Table Data analyi Quetion ix focued on advantage of an online coure for MIS. The repondent had to rank the advantage by chooing 1 a the bigget advantage and 5 a the mallet advantage. The author ued weighted coring technique againt thoe criteria (advantage) in the following table to find the bigget advantage. The 8 th row in the following table how the weighted core (WS). In order to obtain the weighted reult (WR), thi formula (WR = R * WS ) ha been ued where i the refereed to related WS number in the column. A the lat column, Total Weighted Reult (TWR) in Table-4 how the bet advantage of online coure i Flexibility from the tudent perpective. The next bet advantage i location free ( Can be taken at home or work ). Before the finding of thi tudy, the author a well a many of hi colleague anticipated the cot iue a one of the main advantage. But, the tudy howed that cot iue i the leat important advantage from tudent perpective; it may be different from the educational intitution point of view. Next, tudent were aked to rank the diadvantage of a MIS online coure uing a imilar cale. The ame weighted coring technique wa applied and reult in Table-5. The author ued weighted coring technique againt thoe criteria (diadvantage) in the following table to find the bigget diadvantage. The 8 th row in the following table how the weighted core (WS). In order to obtain the weighted reult (WR), thi formula (WR = R * WS ) ha been ued where i the referred to related WS number in the column. Lat column how, Total Weighted Reult (TWR). From the tudent point of view the bigget diadvantage of online coure i there will be no face-to-face contact with other participant and peaker followed by not having contructive feedback on complex concept and more interruption while taking the coure online rather than interruption in the claroom. Quetion twenty three aked whether ome online chool become degree producer. A Table-6 how 75% agreed. Only 25% reponded negative. Thi indicate that the perception about online degree i not poitive among tudent. Thi may be true for applying a job with an online degree. Factor # % Ye No 7 25 Total Table-6: Online chool become degree producer The next quetion wa directed at whether online teaching production gone too far. A Table-7 how 75% diagreed while 25% reported agree. Factor # % Ye 7 25 No Total Table-7: Show if the online teaching gone too far 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 5

6 Quetion twenty five wa directed at how the online diploma pretige i compared with nononline degree. A Table-8 how 43% reponded little difference while 36% reported no difference at all. Only 14% reponded very much difference. Factor # % No difference at all Very much difference 4 14 Little difference Other 2 7 Total Table-8: Show the online diploma pretige The lat quetion aked what hould be the percentage of online coure within an undergraduate/graduate program. A Table-9 how 39% reported 100% while 18% reponded le than 75%. Only 25% reported le than 25% and another 25% reponded le than 50%. Factor # % Le than 25% 5 18 Le than 50%e 7 25 Le than 75 % 5 18 Online 100% Total Table-9: Show the percentage of online coure 5 HYPOTHESES TESTING AND RESULTS In order to tet the hypothei and hence anwering the reearch quetion of thi tudy a erie of t-tet were conducted. H1: The main advantage of online coure i flexibility and allow working at any time and location. Baed upon the fact extracted from Table-4, one may do the Chi quare tet uing the following formula: Source: Lind, D,A., Marchal, W.G., Wathen, S.A, p.642 With k-1 degree of freedom, where K i the number of categorie, f 0 i an oberved frequency in a particular category, f e i expected frequency in a particular category (= 176.8), α = 0.05, df= (uing table critical value of Chi quare), H 0 : Neutral repone, i.e., there i no difference in advantage of online teaching, and Ha or H1: Non-neutral (ome have higher repone than other), i.e., the main advantage of online coure i flexibility and allow working at any time and location. After inerting all value in the formula then,, a the value of 202 lie in the region to right 9.488, then H 0 i rejected at the 0.05 ignificant level in favor of Ha or H 1, i.e., the data upport H 1. So, one can conclude that the main advantage of online coure i flexibility and allowing work at any time and location. H2: The main diadvantage of online coure i no face to face contact with intructor and other. In thi cae (fact extracted from Table-5) we may do a imilar tet, i.e., Chi quare tet, with f e = 188.6, α = 0.05, df= 9.488, H 0 : Neutral repone, i.e., there i no difference in diadvantage of online teaching, and Ha or H 2 : Non-neutral (in thi cae ome have maller difference), i.e., data upport H 2. So, the main diadvantage of online coure i no face to face contact with intructor and other. After inerting all the value in the formula then, a the value of 35 lie in the region to right 9.488, then H 0 i rejected at the 0.05 ignificant level in favor of H 2, i.e., the data upport H 2. So, one can conclude that the main diadvantage of online coure i no face to face contact with intructor and other. H3: Online teaching could be more than 35% of the total credit hour in an under graduate or graduate program EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 6

7 In thi cae, baed upon the fact from Table-9, one may conduct a tet of hypothei for a proportion, uing the following formula: With x (mean) = 7, π (0.35) i the population proportion, p (0.571) i the ample proportion, (p i calculated by weighted average, for example regarding the firt row in the Table-9, the average would be 12.5, then multiply it by 5. Do the ame for all the row and add them up and divide it by n), n (28) i the ample ize, α i 0.05, the z (critical value) value i H 0 : π = 0.35, and H 3 : π > After inerting thee value in z formula and compute the value of z, obtaining z = A the value of lie in the region to right 1.96, then H 0 i rejected at the 0.05 ignificant level, i.e., the data upport H 3. So, one can conclude that online teaching percentage in any graduate program could be more than 35% of the total credit hour of the curriculum. H4: Ha online teaching production gone too far. Baed upon the fact in Table-28, one may do the Chi quare tet uing the following formula: With k-1 degree of freedom, K i the number of categorie, f 0 i an oberved frequency in a particular category f e i expected frequency in a particular category (= 14) α = 0.05 df= 3.841, H 0 : neutral repone, i.e., there i no difference in online teaching production, and H 4 : non-neutral, i.e., online teaching production ha gone too far. After inerting all the value in the formula then, a the value of 4.14 lie in the region to right 3.841, then H 0 i rejected at the 0.05 ignificant level in favor of the H 4, i.e., the data upport the alternative hypothei. So, one can conclude that online teaching production gone too far. 6. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION Online learning permit educator and tudent to exchange idea and information, work together on project, around the clock, from anywhere in the world (Hiltz,1994; Albert, D. et al, 2008, McLinden, M. et al, 2010). Thi tudy ha dicued everal advantage and diadvantage regarding online learning in the higher education environment a upported by reearch finding. The online learning environment i jut another learning environment, in ome way imilar and in ome way different than traditional claroom. A we develop the environment, we adjut our teaching method. Thi i true for online learning. It i evident that ubtantial growth ha been een in the whole world, by the number of intitution offering complete tudie or coure via ditance learning (Mateo and Sangra, 2007; Allen & Seaman, 2007). Thi wa upported by the reult of thi tudy. The real quetion i how far can we go with online learning? Would you go to a phyician that received an online MD degree? Would you employ a computer programmer that received an online degree? Would you go to a chool whoe profeor/teacher have received online degree? Thee quetion were invetigated by thi tudy. I leave the anwer to you, but one hould conider the finding of thi tudy. According to a report by the Sloan Conortium, online regitration nationwide are increaing (Allen & Seamon, 2006). Thi tendency i the fatet and mot ignificant trend impacting enrollment in higher education today. From the author point of view, there i no doubt that we hould ue online learning in higher education. Thi wa upported by the finding of thi tudy both from decriptive and inferential analye. More, the online teaching may be ued uccefully for general corporate training exercie and advanced career-pecific educational advancement. The quetion i how many coure (or percentage) within an undergraduate/graduate program? The tudy howed that it could be more than 35% (ee H3). Theory i important for reearcher. Reearcher who proceed without theory rarely conduct top quality reearch. Concept are the main building block of theory (ST, 2006). Thi 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 7

8 tudy preented a lot of data related to ditance learning (DL) which can be ued for further reearch and concept development. One may ue the finding of thi tudy for developing a conceptual model for ditance learning. In addition, conidering the finding of thi tudy, thi paper provide valuable inight into the notation of educational deign a an important part of an academic routine activitie. Another direction for future tudy i to collect more data from more online coure from variou univeritie to further validate the advantage and diadvantage. One may ay that thi i a kind of ongoing reearch a the IT advance. 7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author wihe to thank Dr. Derek Webb (Bemidji State Univerity, Dept of Math and Computer Science) for checking the t-tet and reviewing the final verion of thi paper regarding the proof reading. Alo, Dr. David Smith ( Bemidji State Univerity, College of Buine) for checking the t-tet. 8. REFERENCES Albert, D., Robert, G, Sedon, G., Tachian, A. (2008). Student atifaction of traditional academic and equivalent online clae: an exploratory reearch, In the IABPAD Conference Proceeding, Dalla, Texa, April 24-27, pp Allen, E., Seaman, J. (2007). Online nation: Five year of growth in online learning. New York: The Sloan Conortium. Allen I.E., Seamon, J. (2006).Making the grade: Online education in the United State.The Sloan Conortium, Needham, MA. Ahwin, P.(2006).The development of learning and teaching in higher education. In Ahwin, P. (ed.), Changing higher education: The development of Learning and Teaching. Oxon: Routledge. Bennett, S.; Agotinho, S. Lockyer, L., Harper, B. (2009). Reearching learning deign in open, ditance, and flexible learning: invetigating approache to upporting deign procee and practice. Ditance Education, Aug2009, Vol. 30 Iue 2, p , Burrell, G, Morgan, G. (1979). Social Paradigm and organizational analyi. Heineman, USA. Cheng, j. (2008). Emergent e-teaching model for traditional brick and mortar higher education intitution. In the IABPAD Conference Proceeding, Dalla, Texa, April 24-27, pp Chritner, T.(2003). Review of claroom of one: how online learning i changing chool and college. Library Journal,128(1), pp Cookon, P. (1989). Reearch on Learner and Learning in Ditance Education: A Review. American Journal of Ditance Education, 3(2), Donald, C., Blake, A., Girault, I., Datt, A., Ramay, E.(2009). Approache to learning deign: pat the head and the hand to the heart of the matter. Ditance Education, Aug2009, Vol. 30 Iue 2, p , Drave, W. A. (1999).Teaching online. Learning Reource Network. Galuha, J. M. (1997). Barrier to learning in ditance education. Elli, R.A., Ginn, P., Piggottc, L. (2009).Elearning in higher education: ome key apect and their relationhip to approache to tudy. In Higher Education Reearch & Development, Vol. 28, No. 3, June 2009, Hiltz, S.R. (1994). The virtual claroom: Learning without limit via computer network. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publihing Corp. Hollenbeck, C.R, Zinkhan, G.M, French, W. (2005). Ditance Learning Trend and Benchmark: Leon from an Online MBA Program.Marketing Education Review, Volume 15, No. 2, pp Jara, M., Mellar, H. (2007).Exploring the mechanim for auring quality of e- learning coure in UK higher education intitution. European Journal of Open, Ditance and E-learning. contrib/2007/jara_mellar.htm. Kearley, G, (2000). Online Education: Learning and Teaching in Cyberpace. Belmont, CA:Wadworth. Lind, D,A., Marchal, W.G., Wathen, S.A. (2010) Satitical Technique in Buine & 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 8

9 Economic, 14 th Company, USA. ed., McGrawHill Publihing Journal of Viual Impairment & Blindne,Jan, Vol. 104 Iue 1, p30-42 Mateo, J., Sangra, A.(2007). A Deigning online learning aement through alternative approache: facing the concern. European Jornal of Open, Ditance and E-learning. 07/Mateo_Sangra.htm. Matthew, T., Pickar, G., Schneid, T.(2007). E- learning rik: why univeritie hould not go it alone. Online Journal of Ditance Learning Adminitration, Volume, Number III. McLinden, M., McCall, S., Hinton, D., Annette Weton, A. (2010). Developing Authentic Online Problem-baed Learning Cae Scenario for Teacher of Student with Viual Impairment in the United Kingdom. Moore, M.G., Kearley, G. (1996). Ditance Education: A Sytem View. CA: Wadworth. Moore, G. S., Winograd, K., Lange, D. (2001). You Can Teach Online. (New York, New York: McGraw-Hill). Palloff, R. M., Pratt, K. (2001).Leon from the Cyberpace Claroom: The Realitie of Online Teaching. San Francico, CA: Joey- Ba. (ST2006). For blind review purpoe, will pot later. Shaw, S. (2006). E-learning Market Trend, Available: /faulknerlibrary/ htm Editor Note: Thi paper wa elected for incluion in the journal a an ISECON 2010 Meritoriou Paper. The acceptance rate i typically 15% for thi category of paper baed on blind review from ix or more peer including three or more former bet paper author who did not ubmit a paper in EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 9

10 Appendix No Coure Title S Term No. of tudent 1 Virtual Buine 1 Spring-09 4 Z ye 2 Virtual Buine 2 Spring Z ye 3 MIS 1 Fall Z ye 4 MIS 1 Summer Y ye UN G UG QT 5 Sytem Analyi 1 Fall Z ye V2 6 MIS 1 Spring-09 5 Z ye V2 7 MIS 1 Summer- 17 Y ye V1 07 Total 7 90 V2 V2 V2 V1 Table-1: Show the Baic Information S = Section UN = Univerity Name G = Graduate coure UG = Undergraduate coure QT = Quetionnaire Type V1 = Verion-1 (Appendix-A) V2 = Verion-2 (appendix-b) Factor Advantage Diadvantage Location free Lower cot Additional univerity income Bring diparate tudent Bad weather Latet information technology Force interaction Any time take break No face to face interaction Complex concept Feedback iue Interruption Computer Failure Table-2: Advantage and Diadvantage 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 10

11 Factor # % Total quetionnaire returned Total quetionnaire not returned Female tudent Male tudent Undergraduate participant Graduate participant Univerity Z participant Returned quetionnaire from Univerity Z Univerity Y participant Returned quetionnaire from Univerity Y Table-3: Data about Returned Quetionnaire Factor-Advantage R * 1 WR R2 WR R3 WR R4 WR R5 WR NA TWR Flexible and allow to work at own pace and rhythm Can be taken at work or at home Will have clearly defined objective and content Can learn much more and fater Lower cot Other Weighted core (WS) Table-4: Show data related to advantage R * = Rank NA= Not Applicable TWR=Total Weighted Reult = Related Column Formula: WR = R * WS 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 11

12 Factor- R * 1 WR R2 WR R3 WR R4 WR R5 WR NA TWR Diadvantage There will be no face-to-face contact with other participant and peaker Will be frutrating to take conidering the current tate of hardware/computer in my office or at home Will not provide contructive feedback on complex concept More interruption while taking the coure online rather than interruption in the claroom More time contraint on online quizze and tet Other Weighted core (WS) Table-5: Ranking of Diadvantage 2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interet Group of the AITP) Page 12