Psychology Experiments on the Internet: An evaluation of the impact on distance education students

The internet offers considerable potential for open and distance learning in psychology. Research reveals an abundance of psychology demonstrations and experiments available online, directed both at students and potential research participants. Although expertise is being developed to overcome the technical problems associated with this medium, there has been little or no evaluation into the impact of participating in such studies on the learning experience of distance education students. This paper describes an attempt to remedy the situation. An experiment including two computer tasks and questionnaires was offered online to a group of distance education students. A follow up study was used to assess the implications of internet experiments on the learning experience of distance education students.