Choosing Between Online and Face-to-Face Courses: Community College Student Voices

Abstract

In this study, community college students discussed their experiences with online and face-to-face learning as well as their reasons for selecting online (rather than face to face) sections of specific courses. Students reported lower levels of instructor presence in online courses and that they needed to "teach themselves." Accordingly, most students preferred to take only "easy" academic subjects online; they preferred to take "difficult" or "important" subjects face to face. To meet students' needs, then, colleges need to either more explicitly build instructor presence and guidance into online courses or continue to provide ample face-to-face sections of courses for those students who prefer them.

Psychological Variables of Estimating Distance Learners' Motivation

“…Users with high computer experience participate in web-based learning more willingly (Mitchell, Chen, McCredie, 2005 In distance education, students need to have basic computer skills to control their own learning (Sahin and Shelley, 2008). Besides, negative experiences that students get from online courses are among the reasons why they leave the system (Jaggards, 2014 Kaupp (2012), performing poorly in online courses compared to face-to-face courses can be the reason for this difficulty. Starting from this point of view, we can say that the success of a system depends on its feasibility.…”

Learning Analytics of Student Participation and Achievement in Online Distance Education: A Structural Equation Modeling

“…Since the course through which this research was conducted was taught completely online, such an obligation might not be consonant with convenience and flexibility of distance education. It is wellknown that students prefer online programs to accommodate their busy lives with multiple responsibilities including jobs, appointments, travels, family matters, and so on (Jaggars, 2014). Hence, synchronous meeting at a specific time may not be suitable for every student's working schedules, possibly leading to reductions in attendance.…”

Student Attitudes toward Technology-Mediated Advising Systems

“…The existing literature suggests that student preferences regarding online courses vary depending on the complexity of the subject. In one study (Jaggars, 2014), students who enrolled in both online and face-to-face courses expressed a preference for face-to-face instruction when they perceived the subject to be "difficult"; in the study, students generally referred to math and science courses as difficult. Students also felt that certain subjects were better suited for an online format compared with others.…”