Distance education via the Internet: the student experience

Students' experience of a large-scale trial in which students were taught using electronic communication exclusively is examined, revealing comparable learning outcomes with no discrimination in grade as the result of using different communication media.

Abstract

This is the second in a series of papers that describes the use of the Internet on a distance‐taught undergraduate Computer Science course (Thomas et al ., 1998). This paper examines students' experience of a large‐scale trial in which students were taught using electronic communication exclusively. The paper compares the constitution and experiences of a group of Internet students to those of conventional distance learning students on the same course. Learning styles, background questionnaires, and learning outcomes were used in the comparison of the two groups. The study reveals comparable learning outcomes with no discrimination in grade as the result of using different communication media. The student experience is reported, highlighting the main gains and issues of using the Internet as a communication medium in distance education. This paper also shows that using the Internet in this context can provide students with a worthwhile experience.