Direct and indirect effects of online learning on distance education

1. Direct and indirect effects of online learning on distance education 指導教授: 陳 明 溥 研 究 生: 許 良 村 Shin, N. & Chan, K.Y.(2004).Direct and indirect effects of online learning on distance education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 35(3).275-288.

2. Introduction • Lu et al's (2000) - a purposeful useof the Internet for the course should be contemplated on the part of students rather than merely spending more time on it. • Ahern and Repman (1994) - interface design could affect students' participation in online activities - a graphic interface were compared to a text-based mode of asynchronous computer-mediated communication, the former group generated significantly more messages than the latter group • the group of students who had graphic organisers on the screen was more active in visiting the site, and addressed more.

3. Woods and Keele’s (2001) Hypothesising that the use of audio messages, as a supplement to text-based communication, can enhance studentparticipation in online discussion, the result did not support. • Barrett and Lally (1999) :gender - men sent more messages than women - men wrote twice as much as women - men made more socio-emotional contributions than women. - women’s contributions were geared towards more interactive messages than those from men. • Carswell et al's (2000) students' final grades are no significant difference exists between the student group in a conventional instruction and online instruction.

4. Theoretical framework • Hypotheses: 1. direct positive relationship between students' engagement in online learning and learning outcomes - online learning would enhance distance learning by giving students more opportunities to interact with teachers or peer students - by providing increased access to information available on the Web. 2. given the OUHK’s integrated approach - course delivery - the provision of student support - administrative services via the World Wide Web

5. Research questions 1. Is a distance student's engagement in online learning related to (a) learning outcomes, (b) satisfaction with distance learning experience at the institution, and (c) intent-to-persist with distance learning in future? 2. Is a distance student's involvement in online learning related to his/her perception of institutional presence? 3. Is a distance student's perception ofinstitutional presence related to(a) learning outcomes, (b) satisfaction with their distance learning experience at the institution, and (c) intent-to-persist with distance learning?

6. Engagement in the OLE was measured by the frequency of a student's log-into the course site per week. • Institutional presence was defined as the degree to which a distance student perceives the availability of support services in the institution while feeling connected to the institution, and was measured with nine items.

7. Learning outcomes were defined as what individual students perceived as gains from taking an OLE course.

8. Satisfaction was defined as the degree to which individual students sensed a positive association between the courses they have taken and overall distancelearning experiences.

9. Intent-to-persist was defined as the estimated likelihood of one’s continued enrollment at an educational institution

10. Study participants

11. Data analysis

15. Findings 5 4 1 6 2 7 3 8

16. 4 5 3 6 7 1 2

17. Discussions and implications • confirmed the assumption that students incompulsory OLE courses are generally more active users than students in an optional mode of the OLE. • no significant differences between undergraduate and graduate studentsin web-related behaviours such as log-in frequency, average time spent per visit, and self-evaluation of level of activity in using the OLE as well as level of Internet skill.