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A Comparison of Faculty and Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Online Courses and Degree Programs

Journal of Information Systems Education, Summer 2006 by Wilkes, Ronald B, Simon, Judith C, Brooks, Lloyd D

ABSTRACT

Many colleges and universities are currently offering online courses and even complete online degree programs, and many others are developing or considering plans to do so. The perceptions of those who are potential subscribers to these programs as well as those who will deliver these programs will be critical to their success. This paper investigates the perceptions of current undergraduate students and college business professors toward online courses and degree programs along several dimensions. Perceptions of college professors toward these programs are significantly less favorable than are the perceptions of college students. The dimensions of these perceptions are explored to provide guidance regarding delivery of online programs.

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Keywords: Online Course, Online Course Characteristics, On-Campus Course Characteristics, Online Degree Program, Student Perceptions, Faculty Perceptions

1. INTRODUCTION

Many colleges and universities are currently offering online courses and even complete online degree programs, and many others are developing or considering plans to do so (Peltz, 2000; Quigley, 2001; Weil, 2001). Subscribers to these courses and programs have largely been non-traditional students and students that live and work at significant distances from campuses (Accetta, 2001). Their jobs, children, other responsibilities and locations make traditional on-campus matriculation difficult or impractical. But, competition from the large and growing number of schools offering courses and degrees will necessitate expansion of their markets beyond these groups to attain the critical mass to attain success. One obvious market is traditional students, who for a variety of reasons may prefer online offerings.

Another important factor in the offering of programs is faculty. Who will teach these courses?

Planning for successful online courses and degree programs necessitates identifying those things that students expect to find in these programs and their perceptions about them. Also, perceptions by faculty who may be called on to teach these courses need to be identified and addressed. There appears to be a high level of skepticism among business college faculty regarding the quality and integrity of online courses and degree programs. This skepticism appears to be more pronounced than that found in studies from Black, 1993; Pierpoint and Hartnett, 1988; and Ross and Seymour, 1999. The Sloan Consortium, 2003 & 2004, noted that perceptions of "academic leaders," particularly those who have responsibility for delivery of online programs, have a significantly higher regard for online programs than do faculty generally. Perhaps, as with many aspects of the use of technology, the promise is greater than the reality. However, over the 17 years covered by these studies, the negative expectations by faculty appear to have subsided somewhat.

The objectives of the multi-part study described herein were to determine the perceptions of undergraduate students toward online courses, determine the perceptions of college faculty members toward online courses, and to explore similarities and differences between these perspectives. These two subject populations are critically important to the development and future of online course and degree offerings - as consumers and providers. The purpose of the study was to investigate perceptions of these types of programs by the subject populations; the study is not intended to assess any specific program but rather to understand the perceptions of faculty and students toward online courses and degree programs in general.

The following section describes three sets of results of the overall study. First, undergraduate student perceptions from the study are analyzed. Next, the perceptions of college faculty members are analyzed. Lastly, the results from the two study groups are compared and contrasted. Recommendations are given in the Conclusions section regarding the conduct of online courses and degree programs.

2. METHODOLOGY & RESULTS

Two survey instruments were developed to ascertain the perceptions of students and faculty members toward online courses and degree programs. There were some differences in the nature of the demographic information solicited from the two subject populations. For example, grade level information was collected for student respondents and rank was collected for faculty respondents. The differences in the nature of the demographic data solicited for the two populations are evident in the descriptive statistics shown below. The overall forms of the survey instruments allow for comparison of perceptions across the two subject populations.

2.1 Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Online Courses and Degree Programs

A survey instrument was pilot tested on multiple student populations to validate subject understanding and interpretation of the survey items. These student populations were found to have properly interpreted the meanings of the questions and to have responded in a fashion consistent with the researchers' expectations for this instrument. The student version of the instrument was developed to ascertain their perceptions of which of 27 items were important to them in course delivery (whether through traditional on-campus courses or through online courses) and also whether each of these items would more likely be a part of an online program or an on-campus program. The instrument also gathered answers to very specific questions regarding the experiences and propensities of these students regarding taking online courses. Demographic data was gathered to facilitate analysis of the study results.

A Comparison of Faculty and Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Online Courses and Degree Programs

Journal of Information Systems Education, Summer 2006 by Wilkes, Ronald B, Simon, Judith C, Brooks, Lloyd D

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