| This study examined community college students in a traditional and an on-line course, taught by the same instructor, for the purpose of making visible what counts as on-line instruction to students. Findings challenge common distance learning assumptions such as learner autonomy. Importance of the teacher, the high drop out rate, and student misconceptions about the demands of on-line instruction have implications for course design, pedagogy and administrative decision making.; On-line instruction is one distance learning delivery technology. Many community college administrators consider this to be an effective way to provide access to education, thereby increasing enrollments with no need for additional classrooms or teachers. However, on-line courses are expensive, creating a problem of cost effectiveness. These courses require large numbers of students to enroll, persist and achieve to balance the costs.; To address this problem, student inputs such as the reasons for selecting a course, student actions during the course and student outcomes of satisfaction, persistence and achievement were studied. A research design adopting an ethnographic research tool, Spradley's (1980) Developmental Research Sequence, was used to uncover information about eight specific research questions. Students were the primary source of data and collection methods included survey, observation, interview and document review. Analysis followed the Spradley model of domain, taxonomic and componential analysis. Statistical procedures were also used in one instance.; The study found that the teacher was important to the students in each situation. Specifically, traditional students selected the class to have access to the teacher. On-line students formed a group that participated in optional face to face sessions and they also sent a high number of e-mail messages to have access to the teacher. Access to the teacher was a way to handle learning problems. Also, many students indicated that having access to a teacher gave them satisfaction. Access to the teacher was also important to achievement. The mean grades were highest for the two groups of students having direct, face to face contact on a continual basis and the mean was lowest for the group of on-line students who did not have the same contact. |
