Multiple predictors of perceived learning and satisfaction: The importance of information transfer and non‐verbal immediacy in the televised course

Abstract

This study examines how telecommunication system design and human factors combine to affect student learning and satisfaction with televised instruction. Participants in the study were 164 adult learners surveyed for their evaluation of forty courses taken via two‐way, multi‐camera, telecommunications systems. The study investigated which factors of system conveyance and instructor behaviour had the greatest impact on interactive communication, measured as perceptions of satisfaction and learning among students.

Among those responding, ‘amount of information received' was found to be the single greatest contributor to perceived learning and satisfaction. Instructor non‐verbal behaviours and audio and video transmission also contributed significantly to perceived learning and satisfaction. Results indicated clearly mat direct face‐to‐face contact with instructors, and interpersonal rapport with other class participants, were less important than the amount of information transmitted in distance education courses.