Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Current Status Regarding Taking Online Courses
Students were asked to describe their current status regarding taking a course online
and were allowed to select more than one response. As shown in Table 4, about one-fourth
of the respondents indicated that they would not take an online course. Not surprisingly, few
had already taken or were currently taking a course online.
The results for categories shown in Table 4 were also compared by gender, as shown
in Table 5. Again, there was little difference in the results for males versus females.
Ratings of Issues' Importance
The remainder of the survey had two parts, each with a listing of issues for students
to consider. Thirty-eight students failed to respond to a majority of the questions in this part
of the survey and were eliminated from further calculations.
In the first section, students were asked to indicate how important each identified issue
was to them in deciding whether to take a course online or in an on-campus environment. A
Likert-type scale was used, with 1 representing “not at all important” and 5 representing
“extremely important.” A mean was calculated as a basis for determining which issues were
considered important (defined as a mean of at least 4.0). A majority of the issues had means
Table 4. Current status regarding online courses (
n
= 378)
Status Regarding Online Courses
Percentage of Respondents
I would not take a course online.
24.87
I would consider taking a course
online.
58.20
I would like to take a course online.
28.04
I plan to take a course online.
6.35
I am currently taking a course online.
0.26
I have completed a course online.
0.49
Table 5. Current status regarding online courses by gender
Status Regarding Online Courses
Percentage —
Male
Percentage —
Female
I would not take a course online.
24.52
24.78
I would consider taking a course
online.
56.77
58.41
I would like to take a course online.
26.45
28.76
I plan to take a course online.
6.45
6.19
I am currently taking a course online.
0.65
0.00
I have completed a course online.
1.94
0.00
