An increasing number of courses are being offered by distance education, and
delivery over the WWW through WebCT is popular with many institutions
offering such courses. However, has anyone done formal surveys of student
preferences among distance education delivery modes?
WebCT offers advantages and disadvantages (which, of course, depend on the
perspective of the evaluator). Anecdotal information suggests to me that
students don't like having to be logged onto a WWW site to read everything
(as opposed to being provided with print-based course instructions and
texts, floppy-disk- or CD-ROM-based interactive material, and telephone or
listserver-based e-mail exchanges with other students and tutors). Others
have told me that they either don't know or haven't received complaints with
respect to their own distance students, and don't know of published studies
on performance and preferences.
Before this growing new technology takes on an even bigger life of its own,
it would be nice to know whether it serves learners better or worse than
alternatives. If anyone knows of formal student evaluations of WebCT-based
courses versus other distance delivery modes, I'd appreciate being pointed
toward published studies.
Thanks,
David.
David Birnbaum, PhD, MPH
Clinical Assistant Professor
Dept. of Health Care & Epidemiology
University of British Columbia, Canada
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