Asian Journal of Distance Education

Yazarlar: Jack Fei YANG

Konular:

Anahtar Kelimeler:Distance Education

Özet: Assurance of educational quality is a fundamental requirement for distance learning development. Factors that influence educational quality include instructional design, teaching styles, learning styles, learning objectives, content, and instructional media. In this case study, we examined the perceived learning quality of the e-learning courses at the National Tsing-Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan. The study focused on analysis of the types of student learning styles and their correlations with student perceptions of educational quality. The instructional model for the NTHU e-learning courses has been a blended-learning approach which integrates asynchronous e-learning with synchronous two-way audiovisual system (JoinNet) and face-toface instruction. In order to examine educational quality, we used the Student’s Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) survey instrument to investigate each student’s perception of the received learning quality in terms of (a) learning / academic value, (b) instructor enthusiasm, (c) organization / clarity, (d) breadth of coverage, (e) grouping interaction, (f) individual rapport, (g) assignments / readings, and (h) examinations / grading. We then applied the Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Survey (GRSLSS) to investigate any correlations between each student’s reported learning style and the perceived educational quality. The findings showed that male students had higher ratings of the received educational quality than female students; there were three significant positive correlations between educational quality and three types of learning styles, including variables of Participative, Independent, and Collaborative; and one significant negative correlation between perceived educational quality and Avoidant learning style; the educational quality could be positively predicted by two SEEQ factors: breadth of coverage, and learning / academic value. These findings can inform instructors and instructional designers to develop better e-learning environments to improve the educational quality of e-learning.

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