(Download) "Distinguishing Sense of Community and Motivation Characteristics Between Online and Traditional College Students (Report)" by Quarterly Review of Distance Education # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Distinguishing Sense of Community and Motivation Characteristics Between Online and Traditional College Students (Report)
- Author : Quarterly Review of Distance Education
- Release Date : January 22, 2008
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 232 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION Distance learning has increased markedly in recent years. According to the Allen and Seaman (2006), 3.1 million students studied online in the fall of 2005 and it is projected that numbers will continue to increase. The additional number of online learners in 2005 was around 850,000, more than twice the number added in any previous year, and online students represented 17% of the total student population in higher education. This growth rate greatly exceeds the overall growth rate in the higher education student body and is over ten times that projected by the National Center for Education Statistics for the general postsecondary student population. A growing body of research compares online instruction to face-to-face instruction, much of which reports no significant differences (Saba, 2000). These studies do, however, reveal the complexity of distance education, indicating the many variables involved in the concept. Two important variables that affect distance learning are the sense of community experienced by the students and the degree to which students are motivated to learn in an online environment. This study examines these two variables and seeks to identify whether they can be used to classify participants as being either online or face to face students.