Internettbasert fjernundervisning

Abstract

Due to the scattered population and the political goal of equal right to education, distance education has become popular in Norway. Technological advances have led to more and more distance education courses being offered via the Internet. In this thesis we focus on internet-based distance education and its characteristics.

We examine the benefits and limitations of using distance education compared to traditional education. Also, we examine the effects of distance education and its accompanying teaching aids on education in general. We try to characterise the typical student taking distance education courses and determine what his or her typical needs are.

The thesis is based on a survey performed over two semesters among regular students and distance education students in entry-level computer science classes at the University of Oslo. The course design was very similar for both groups of students, with the main exception that the distance education course used slides with accompanying sound recordings in lieu of lectures, and that the distance education students did not participate in group tutoring sessions.

We found that the average distance education student worked full time and therefore used less time on studies than the regular students. The distance education courses also had a larger percentage of drop-outs and a slightly higher failing rate on the exams. Furthermore, we found that it was hard to establish communication among the students in the distance education courses, which led to a higher workload for the teaching assistant. The feedback from the students in the distance education courses was generally positive, and they were especially satisfied with the slides with accompanying sound. Several of the distance education students also commented that the freedom in the course design made it suitable for combination with full time work.

To conclude, we evaluate the distance education courses and suggest possible changes to their design.