Perceptions of senior Army instructors toward the use of the Internet as a distance learning tool in meeting the desired learning outcomes of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program

The purpose of this research was to analyze the perceptions of Senior Army Instructors (SAIs) toward the use of the Internet as a Distance Learning (DL) tool in meeting the stated desired learning outcomes (outcomes expected by the program) of the Army's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program The independent variable in this study was use of the Internet as a DL tool. It was the objective of this study to analyze and determine whether or not SAI's perceptions, as measured by survey research, would reveal statistically significant differences between those SAIs that use or have been actively planning to use the Internet as a DL tool in meeting program outcomes (Group 1), and those SAIs that do not (Group 2). The worldwide study was conducted in the 1998--1999 school year, covering 1,363 high school JROTC units. A total of 658 SAIs responded to both closed and open-ended questions regarding their level of knowledge and concern for using the Internet as a DL tool. Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) software was used for descriptive statistics, coded qualitative data, and to test by analysis of the variance (ANOVA). This ANOVA design was 2 x 2 (one-way) for measuring the mean scores resulting from the survey data, hypothesizing in the null that scores will be equal for the SAIs of the two groups. Significance was at the .05 level. For each of the 20 survey questions, the F ratios ranged from 22.92 to 221.36 with consistent p values less than .0004. Reliability analysis of the data was accomplished, with the reliability coefficient fixed at .9034 (alpha), indicating strong reliability. This research indicates that those SAIs engaged in the use of the Internet as a DL tool, consistently had more positive perceptions than those SAIs that were not using the Internet. In the qualitative portion, 683 comments were coded. Funding, policy, staff development, dedicated telecommunications, and required hardware issues were identified as common concerns that need to be resolved, to fully unleash the potential of the Internet as a DL tool in the JROTC program. Recommendations regarding further research and policy considerations were also made.