Januarius,
Thank you for your comments. I have also found "non-traditional" students to be more receptive to online courses and I would add the following hypothesis to your observations. Adults are challenged in the workplace to perform, which is not the case in many of our high schools. I submit that working adults who want to advance are more accustomed to taking on responsibility for their behaviors, whereas many recent high school graduates have not internalized that. Most recent high school, graduates are accustomed to other people being responsible for their lives, especially parents. This is reinforced by a public school system no longer teaches responsibility and accountability and "spoon feeds" its charges. While recognizing my hypothesis makes a general statement, I suspect it is an additional contributing variable to your observations.
Dr. Robert Roehrich
I started over-thinking this question. On the one hand, student populations are always in flux. Student levels of abilities, motivation, and access to resources will vary greatly, so do you make a decision on whether or not to deliver a program online based on the student population, or do you look to other factors in making the final decision? As you develop an online program, I think consideration certainly has to be given to who your target audience is, but the factors that have the most weight in deciding for or against online delivery seem to be market pressures, business objectives, and organizational resources. I work for an organization that is taking its first steps toward developing online programs, and the main reasons for deciding to do this have been 1)our competitors are doing it, 2) MOOCs are proving to be a disruptive force in traditional instructor-led, brick and mortar programs, and 3)with the availability of online content, clients are demanding flexibility in how learning is delivered and shared. So while we encourage our faculty to provide online learning experiences to meet the needs of different learning styles, our ultimate decision on whether or not to provide an online program is not primarily based on the characteristics of the student population.
The characteristics of the student population should influence the reason for or against online delivery. Interestingly, my observation has been that adult, working class, students tend to prefer online course delivery than traditional aged student just out of high school. This is probably because traditional students like being in a traditional school campus or atmosphere. On the other hand, older students tend to prefer convenience and online learning provides such convenience. Furthermore, adult students have developed the necessary discipline to succeed in an online learning environment, while the younger students still depend on instructors to pressurize them into doing their work.
JJ Asongu
Jane,
Have you considered the pre-qualifications of students; for example, their high school preparation, ability to read and comprehend without outside assistance, time management skills and their facility with technology? These are all variables that should be taken into consideration in addition to the ones you mentioned, are there others that you can think of?
Dr. Robert Roehrich
Only to the extent that those characteristics would result in no demand for online delivery. Otherwise, student characteristics may influence what courses are offered, course content and the extent to which the school provides access to equipment; however, assuming there is demand for online learning, student characteristics shouldn't influence the idea of online delivery itself.
