Learning at a distance: the experiences and attributional style of secondary students in an audiographics teleconference chemistry course

Madore, Kimberly Ann (1998) Learning at a distance: the experiences and attributional style of secondary students in an audiographics teleconference chemistry course. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study investigated the experiences of secondary students in an audio-graphics teleconference chemistry program from the students’ perspective. Two theoretical perspectives were used to guide the study. The first was based on the ideas of Moore and Garrison who highlighted the importance of interactions to students’ learning. Garrison argues that these interactions are supported by the interactive capability of teleconference technology. The second was derived from the literature on motivation, in particular Weiner’s attribution theory. From this perspective, students’ motivation to persist and succeed in distance education was studied and the attributional style of both distance and non-distance students was compared. -- Data collection included diary entries, telephone interviews, a questionnaire, an Attributional Style Questionnaire, and a Causal Dimension Scale. The data provide insight into students’ opinions concerning the teleconference technology, their characteristics and motivation, and the distance learning environment (workload, supervision, organization, etc.). The results revealed a character profile of the distance learner. These students reported being organized, responsible, independent, mature individuals. The majority of distance students attributed to their success in distance education chemistry to level of effort. There was a significant difference in the attributional style of the distance and non- distance students. The non-distance students tended to have a ‘pessimistic’ attributional style while the distance students had a more ‘optimistic’ one. The results clearly indicated the importance of the interactions described by Moore. All interactions, except learner-learner between different sites, were supported by the teleconference technology.

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