Editor’s Note:  As distance learning spreads to all parts of the globe, it stimulates research to determine acceptance and ways to make it more effective. Online learning is becoming pervasive across barriers of language and culture, age and disability, geography and distance from population centers. Great centers of commerce such as Hong Kong now benefit from distance learning to enable “education for all.”

Perceptions of Students on
Online Distance Learning in Hong Kong

Harrison Hao Yang and Fung Chun Lau

Hong Kong

abstract

The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) is the first higher education institute introducing distance education in Hong Kong, and has been playing the central role on online distance learning in that region. This study reports the overview on the perceptions of students on online distance learning at OUHK. It intends to offer a glimpse into students who enrolled in two different online courses (n = 64) with the objective of investigating their views and opinions related to the Online Learning Environment (OLE) and the Interwise system, which are mainly used asynchronously and synchronously for teaching and learning, respectively. The Online Distance Learning Questionnaire Form is developed for this study, and a comparison between two courses on the OLE is conducted. Conclusion and discussion of online distance learning at OUHK are provided.

Keywords: perceptions; online learning; distance education; asynchronous and synchronous communication

Introduction

Online distance learning represents a new paradigm which deeply affects education in general. Many of the traditional face-to-face classroom activities can be reconstructed through web-based distance learning such as conferencing, electronic mail, and bulletin. Students and instructors can work at their own pace and at locations they are able to control (Edelson, 1998; Berge, 1999; Spiceland & Hawkins, 2002).

Asynchronous communication has been recognized more common than synchronous communication for online distance learning (Jonassen, 2000). There are two noteworthy advantages of asynchronous learning: first, it makes the convenience and flexibility offered by the “anytime, anywhere” accessibility (Richardson & Swan, 2003); second, “it allows students to reflect upon the materials and their responses before responding, unlike traditional classrooms” (Richardson & Swan, 2003).

Synchronous learning, on the other hand, has some of unique advantages, such as: “sense of immediacy is compelling. Live interactions produce more motivation to contribute” (Jonassen, 2000). One way or another, online distance learning has been widely used by institutions around the world. The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) is the only higher education provider to students with distance learning mode for every program in Hong Kong. OUHK believes that every aspiring adult should be given a chance to get higher education. With the philosophy of “education for all”, the university admits any Hong Kong resident aged 17 or above. The students are pursuing their studies by part-time genre in distance education. The Online Learning Environment is the first online system which has been developed for delivering online courses asynchronously by OUHK. In addition, a newly developed synchronous learning system Interwise has been employed for supporting online teaching and learning since April 2005.

While online distance learning programs are expanding, and participants are mounting globally, the question of how effectively to design and conduct online courses to students who are physically and/or timely separated from each other has been raised (Palloff and Pratt, 1999; Rovai, 2002; Yang & Maina, 2004). Such separation may increase social insecurities, communication anxieties, and feelings of disconnectedness (Kerka, 1996; Jonassen, 2000), as a result, “the student become autonomous and isolated, procrastinate, and eventually drops out” (Sherry, 1996). Previous studies suggest that successful online courses relate to interactivity, sense of well-being, quality of the learning experience, and effective learning (Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, and Archer, 2001; Rovai, 2002).

In order to identify the factors which attribute to the success of online courses, researchers believe that students’ perceptions of distance learning program is a prime area where should be focused on (Richardson & Swan, 2003; Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, and Archer, 2001).  It is well documented about students’ perceptions of online distance learning in general (Romiszowski & de Haas, 1989; Romiszowski & Jost, 1989; Allen, Bourhis, Burrell, & Mabry, 2002; Picciano, 2002; Richardson & Swan, 2003; Yang & Maina, 2004).

There are sufficient studies examining on one online environment and/or comparing that to traditional face-to-face class, little is done on systematically and authentically investigating students’ perceptions on online distance leaning with more than one online environments and courses. This study intends to investigate views and opinions from students of two online courses at OUHK using the Online Learning Environment and the Interwise system, which are mainly used asynchronously and synchronously for teaching and learning, respectively.  

Online Learning Environment and the Interwise System

The Online Learning Environment (OLE) is the first online system developed by the Open University of Hong Kong for delivery of the university’s online courses asynchronously. The OLE contains the online platform which consists of five major areas for the online course: news, schedules, interactive tools, course materials, and assignments (see Figure 1). In this online learning platform, users (students, tutors and the course coordinators) can post their questions, answers, and ideas or opinions on the discussion board of each module. Students can submit their learning assignments and materials electronically. Besides, users can get emails and send out any message to others privately or publicly (see Figure 2).

Figure 1. Course Map of Online Learning Environment

Figure 2. Individual Platform of Online Learning Environment

Other than the provision of the OLE, OUHK launched its newly developed Interwise system starting April 2005. The Interwise is a live and interactive distance learning system (see Figure 3). In the Interwise system, the students can join in the i-Classes which are scheduled by the tutors or course coordinators at any place. They can synchronously view whatever the tutors and coordinators are doing on the Whiteboard; converse and exchange notes with others; answer verbal questions and respond to the structured questions; record a live lesson, and play back live or pre-recorded lessons; etc. The Interwise environment enables the tutors and course coordinators to emphasize verbal instruction; to use a Whiteboard for displaying of learning materials; to operate the fully-monitored instruction during the “live” lessons; to ask questions and give tests, to conduct surveys and poll the students’ responses; and to share an application with the class or an individual participant, etc (see Figure 4).

Figure 3. Course Map of Interwise System

Figure 4. Screenshot of One i-Class in Interwise System

Method

Design and Instrument

To measure students’ perceptions of learning on online distance education at OUHK, and to preserve anonymity and voluntariness, an inclusive questionnaire was developed based upon two perspectives. On one hand, items were extracted and adapted from previous related studies, and the students’ survey on the usage of OLE at OUHK. On the other hand, the interview was conducted with a small sample of 8 students about perceptions of online education through their learning experiences at OUHK. During the interview, following questions were asked and discussed:

• What do you know about the Online Learning Environment?

• Do you enjoy using public forums such as the Discussion Board in the OLE?

• Do you find the communication easier among you, classmates, the tutors, and the course coordinators by using the OLE?

• Does the OLE give knowledge which makes you enjoy your learning more?

• Do you gain any knowledge or raise any concern from using the OLE system?

• Do you consider the course materials useful in your discussion?

• Do you consider the tutorials helpful for your understanding of the topics?

• What do you know about the recently introduced Interwise system?

• Have you participated in an i-Class in the Interwise system?

• Do you think that the Interwise system is an effective system to teach mathematics and/or statistics contents?

The final version of Online Distance Learning Questionnaire Form for the cross-sectional survey consisted of respondents’ personal data and perceptions of Online Learning Environment, the OLE course, and the Interwise system.

Participants and Procedure

The participants of this study were selected from students (n = 78) who enrolled two online courses MDST242 Statistics in Society (Course One) and M213 Linear Algebra and Analysis (Course Two) at OUHK in Spring 2005. Despite focusing on different subject areas, both courses had the similarities of course design and activities. Both courses shared the nature of using numerical data to understand patterns and relationships, and had been offered on the same difficulty level by OUHK. Most of participants in both courses were part-time students whose ages were in 20-30. In addition, one of researchers on this study was a tutor for both courses. 

All 78 students received the Online Distance Learning Questionnaire Form, along with the information of explanation of this study and of how to complete the questionnaire survey form. Upon the deadline for completion of the questionnaire on March 12, 2006, 64 questionnaire forms were returned (Course One: n = 34; Course Two: n = 30), of which 64% were sent by male students and 36% were sent by female students, and all 64 forms were completed and usable. The return rate was 82%.

Results

Respondents’ Perceptions on Online Learning Environment (OLE)

Most of the students (70%) from both courses agreed that in general, they were satisfied with the OLE. About 63% of the students indicated that it was very easy to access the OLE, and nearly the same amount of them agreed that they found online communication with tutors helpful for their studies. About 53% of the students indicated that it was always beneficial to know the standard of the work expected. About half of the students concurred that the interface of the OLE was well designed (52%), and the program required them to describe and analyze data (47%).

Table 1

Comparison of the Frequency of Using OLE Features

* p < .05.

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