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.