Scheduled for Research Coordinating Board Poster Session I (Student Posters), Thursday, April 27, 2006, 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Area II


A Qualitative Analysis of Student Satisfaction with Asynchronous Web-based Undergraduate Courses in Health Education

Beth Hensleigh, J. Don Chaney, Michael Stellefson, James Eddy and Tina Garcia, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

Universities across the United States are designing distance education courses to meet the needs of time and location bound students. As a result, progressively more distance education courses tend to be asynchronous in nature. This allows students to complete course related activities such as viewing lectures, completing course assignments, communicating with instructors, and submitting assignments, at any time from anywhere. Yet, asynchronous distance education courses are not without limitations, such as the need for effective student/faculty interactions, the difficulty of converting face to face instruction for on-line delivery, and the need to provide effective support services. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the qualitative results of a student satisfaction survey assessing four asynchronous distance education courses in health education at a large southern university. Approximately 2,500 students completed a student satisfaction survey. The survey consisted of 6 open-ended items measuring satisfaction with distance education. The results suggest that instructional technological applications, such as distance education, provide an effective alternative for students without sacrificing instructor accessibility, course quality, intellectual growth, and student satisfaction. This presentation will display the qualitative results of these data analyses and offer suggestions to enhance asynchronous distance education courses.

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