Factors That Affect Students’ Capacity to Fulfill the Role of Online Learner

Abstract

Because most undergraduate students are digital natives, it is widely believed that they will succeed in online courses. But factors other than technology also affect students’ ability to fulfill the role of online learner. Self-reported data from a sample of more than 200 undergraduates across multiple online courses indicate that students generally view themselves as having attributes that equip them for online learning. Additionally, course-level factors affect students’ online learning experiences. Specifically, students in qualitative (vs. quantitative) courses and in introductory (vs. advanced) classes reported more positive perceptions of their online learning and various aspects of their coursework.

Keywords:

• distance education
• distance learning
• online learner role
• online learning
• readiness for online learning

Notes

1. In this study, we focused on asynchronous online courses characterized by a relatively small number of students, thus facilitating extensive interaction among students and between students and their instructor. Therefore, we do not consider massive open online courses (MOOCs), which have a very different aim and focus. Nor do we consider synchronous online courses nor hybrid/blended courses.

2. Students’ unrequited expectations likely contribute to the lower retention rates identified in online versus traditional classes (Allen & Seaman, 2013; Heyman, 2010; Kember, 1996).

3. We did not have an opportunity to analyze full-semester online courses in this study because our institution introduced such courses only recently.

4. We compared the scores of the class of traditional students to the subset of our online sample in the same course to minimize the effects of other factors. It should be noted that their scores were also significantly different on all four factors when compared to those of the whole online sample.