The use of interactive distance education as a methodology for teaching courses as measured by faculty attitudes in selected Texas universities

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors influencing faculty attitudes toward the use of distance education for graduate and undergraduate faculty at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. The population consisted of 60 faculty members. Of the target population, 42 respondents consented to participate in the study by returning the completed questionnaire.; The following conclusions were reached: (1) the majority of the faculty wanted to teach courses in distance education; (2) most of the respondents accepted distance education as a potential instructional methodology, but are not ready to embrace it on an equal basis with traditional education; (3) a statistically significant correlation of .512 at the .01 level of confidence was found between "I like the concept of using distance education" and "I make use of multimedia applications in teaching distance education courses"; (4) a statistically significant negative correlation of -.341 at the .05 level of confidence was found between using the concept of distance education as an instructional methodology and the perceived barrier that faculty are getting sufficient time to convert their courses to distance education; (5) a significant relationship was found between "there are a few problems with the equipment in distance education" and "most of my experiences have been positive in teaching distance education courses" with a statistically significant correlation of .362 at the .05 level of confidence.; An examination of the demographic data revealed that the faculty was predominantly male (60%) and most respondents (43%) were between the 46--55 years of age. The majority of the faculty first used distance education between 1992 and 1998 and 90% of the respondents rated themselves as innovators or early adopters of the distance education technology.; An examination of how faculty were first introduced to distance education disclosed that nearly half (49%) of the faculty were introduced to distance education by a colleague. In addition, recommendations supported by the conclusions of the study were offered for institutional administrators, and possible areas for future research were provided.