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Abstract
Online education, which is centered on the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web, presents a new generation of educational tools. Its ‘anywhere, any time’ concept frees the student from the constraints of time and place. Because there are no barriers to information flow over the Internet, it holds promise for a ‘curriculum without walls’ where intellectual richness is available to all. To take advantage of the huge number of potential students worldwide, many universities and commercial education providers have moved rapidly to introduce online tertiary programs to get a share of this market. Online programs are now commonplace in many learning institutions. However, Internet-based education has not attracted as many students as had been expected. Specifically, online tertiary education has not attracted as many students as had been expected in Singapore (Gagnon, 2002; Tan & Lambe, 2002; Wong, Gerber, & Toh, 2003); Brunei (Leong, 2006); and Malaysia (Alhabshi, 2002). There is still a lack of confidence among students, parents and educators in Singapore (Tan & Lambe, 2002; Wong et al., 2003) that online education could be an effective medium for imparting knowledge/skills, even though distance education has already taken root in the country (as shown by the wide popularity of offshore degrees and twining programs). The low preference for web peer-to-peer interaction among online learners presents tough obstacles ahead for any attempts to build online learning communities in Singapore (Tan & Lambe, 2002). In Brunei, online tertiary degree programs have had a slow start, needing time to establish their reputation for quality offerings and because of the lack of resources (Leong, 2006). Similarly, Alhabshi (2002) indicates that the Internet-based degree has not attracted as many students as had been expected in Malaysia, which is similar culturally to Singapore and Brunei (in terms of population ethnicity). Further, studies of brand impact on the student's choice of online tertiary providers are scarce. The brand, with its underlying appeals, can function as a route map for students through the bewildering variety of choices/information about tertiary education in our increasingly networked society. Tertiary education brands can assist students in identifying appropriate/reputable programs or courses, and therefore reduce search costs; provide assurance of the quality associated with a particular tertiary brand thereby reducing perceived risk; and give psychological rewards of prestige and status, helping to reduce the social and psychological risks that are associated with socially-inappropriate programs/courses. This study suggests that trust is the antecedent of brand choice for online tertiary education, because trust acts to decrease the perceived risk of using a virtual service. Following an extensive review of literature, this study conceptualized brand trust as an individual's conscious inclination to place his/her confidence in a brand's qualities or attributes in situations entailing risk to themselves as a consumer, and proposed four hypotheses, presented as a linear model, to be empirically tested through structural equation modelling.
An interviewer-assisted questionnaire – where respondents rank the importance (using a 7-point Likert scale) to trusting online tertiary education of institutional and course assurance factors, direct brand experience, and indirect brand experience factors – was then developed (using altogether 17 measurement variables). Nine hundred questionnaires (using a mall-intercept method) were distributed in three malls in Singapore, three malls in three major cities in Malaysia (Johore Bahru, Kuala Lumpur and Kuching) and one mall in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Out of the 637 questionnaires returned, 235 were from Singapore, 121 from Brunei and 281 from Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur n = 95, Johore Bahru n = 89, Kuching n = 97). The response data was normally distributed allowing parametric analysis. No major differences between Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei were found with all measurement variables (two-tail tests, p>0.05). Next, all measurement variables in the proposed linear model were subjected to exploratory factor analysis using SPSS's principal component analysis (PCA, varimax rotation). The KMO value was 0.782 and the Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant (Sig = 0.0), showing factor analysis is appropriate. The PCA pattern matrix table showed clear structure with the loaded variables similar to the proposed linear model. The average variance extracted for all four factors was above the recommended threshold of 0.5 (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998) for satisfactory convergent validity. A reliability test conducted showed good internal consistency with all factorial measurement scales [composite reliability (CR)>0.7], confirming that all the measurement scales used in the 4-factor model were statistically valid. Subsequently, structural equation modelling using AMOS ver. 6.0 software on all factorial models showed that the discrepancy between the sample covariance matrix S and the population covariance matrix Σ(θ) was minimal [that is, S − Σ(θ) = minimum]. The resulting structural model test (full model) on the 4-factor model supported all four hypotheses, supporting the notion that the antecedents of brand trust in online tertiary education are related to risk aversion, contingent on institutional and courseware design assurance factors. This tri-nation study also revealed that public opinion (friends/family's opinion about online tertiary education, industry support, word-of-mouth communication via alumni networks) and website quality enhanced learners' experiences and trust in an online tertiary brand. Among the various recommendations made to increase brand trust in online tertiary education are: having a regular classroom session in the form of block teaching to complement online teaching; the need for government recognition or accreditation of online degrees to ensure quality of education; ensuring the presence of up-to-date (relevant) information on, and ease of navigation within, the university website; on-campus orientation for community building; having online programs relevant to career advancement/industry needs; a portfolio of online graduates now at prominent institutions for promotional purposes and building a strong alumni network. These recommendations would enhance the credibility, visibility and trustworthiness of an online tertiary provider.
在线教育，是以使用互联网和万维网为核心，提出的一种新的教育方法。它的核心理念是“任何地方，任何时间”，解除学生上课时间和地点的限制。由于在互联网上信息传播是没有障碍的，在线教育秉承着“授课无障碍”的理念，将丰富的知识传向四面八方。在世界范围内，利用数量巨大富有潜力的学生，许多大学和商业教育机构迅速推出网上高等教育课程，以获得这个市场的份额。现在，在线课程在许多学校是普遍存在的。然而，以互联网为基础的教育没达到此前预期吸引很多学生。具体来说，网上高等教育在新加坡就没有达到预期吸引很多学生(Gagnon, 2002; Tan &Lambe, 2002; Wong, Gerber &Toh, 2003); 文莱 (Leong,2006)和马来西亚(Alhabshi, 2002)也一样。即使远程教育已经在新加坡有了根基，但是新加坡的学生、家长和教育工作者(Tan &Lambe, 2002; Wong et al., 2003)仍然对网络教育是一个有效传授知识/技能的媒介缺乏信心（由广受欢迎的海外分校学位和联合培养计划的情况得出此结论）。在新加坡，愿意选择网络一对一式互动教学的在线学习者不占多数，这大大阻碍了在线学习共同体的建立(Tan &Lambe, 2002)。在文莱，由于资源有限，网络教育起步较慢，教育质量等相关因素都要得到改善(Leong,2006).与此相似，Alhabshi (2002)指出，在与新加坡和文莱具有相似文化背景（在人口种族方面）的马拉西亚，在线教育没有像预期那样吸引到很多学生。此外，对学生的选择在线高等教育提供商的品牌影响研究也非常有限。伴随着网络社会日益增长，眼花缭乱的网络教育的信息层出不穷，在线教育的品牌可以潜在地引导学生做出选择。其品牌可以帮助学生确定适当的或是有信誉的在线课程或者学习方案，因此可以降低搜索成本;对于在线教育的品质与降低特定在线教育品牌的感知风险提供了保证; 在心理上能感受到品牌的威望与地位，并且可以降低社会危机和心理危机，避免提供与当下社会不符的课程或者方案。这项研究表明，信任是网上高等教育的品牌选择的前因，因为信任可以降低使用虚拟服务的感知风险。基于大量的研究文献，本文认为当消费者对品牌的质量或特性持怀疑态度时，品牌信任就决定了个人的意识倾向，同时利用线性模型展现出本文提出的四种假设，并通过结构方程模型进行了实证检验。
学校体制和课程的保障，直接品牌经验和间接品牌经验（共17个测量变量）是决定受访者是否信任在线高等教育的重要因素（使用七点李克特量表）。据此，本研究制定出有采访人协助的调查问卷。运用购物中心拦截的方式，900份问卷分别在新加坡三个商场，马来西亚三个大城市的三个商场（新山，吉隆坡和古晋）和文莱的斯里巴加湾市进行发放。共回收637份问卷，其中235份来自新加坡，121份来自文莱，281份来自马来西亚（吉隆坡95份，新山89份，古晋97份）。回收的数据都归类进行参数分析。在新加坡，马来西亚和文莱的问卷中，所有测量变量并无主要差异（双尾检测，para>.05）。接下来，在线性模型中的所有变量，都使用SPSS的主成因分析进行因子分析（PCA，最大方差旋转）。 KMO值为0.782，以及巴特利特球形检验是显著的（SIG = 0.0），所呈现的因子分析是相匹配的。PCA模型矩阵表结构清晰，其中变量与提出的线性模型基本相似。平均方差为四个因素提取了令人满意的收敛效度，0.5以上的建议临界值（Hair et al.,1995）。可靠性测试显示了良好的内部一致性与所有因子的测量尺度[综合可靠性（CR）> 0.7]，确认四个因子模型中使用的所有测量尺度在统计学上是有效的。随后，结构方程模型使用AMOS 6.0对所有的因子模型测试显示，样本协方差矩阵S和人口的协方差矩阵Σ（θ）之间的差异是最小的（即[S - Σ（θ）=最小]。模型结构测试的结果（全部模型）显示四个因子模型支持所有四个假设，支持的前提是网上高等教育的品牌信任与风险规避、 机构体制和课程设计安全系数有关。通过对这三个国家的研究还发现，公众舆论（包括朋友/家人对于在线教育的观点，业界的支持，通过校友网络通信口口相传）和网站品质提高了学习者的经验，以及对于在线教育的品牌信任。其中有很多关于增强在线教育品牌信任的建议：正规的课堂形式以配合网上教学；需要政府认可在线教育学位，以确保教育质量；确保信息及时更新和方便的大学网站导航;校园社区建设的方向;与职业生涯/行业需要相关的在线课程；为进一步的推广，建立优秀院校在线学习毕业生同学录和强大的网络校友群，这些建议将提高在线教育提供商的信誉度，知名度和信任度。