THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING IN A WEB-ENHANCED COURSE

Abstract

Web based courses are being offered at more and more colleges and universities. In many instances, students do not have a choice whether to enroll in an online course. However, little research has looked at the experiences of these students as they learn in an online environment. This qualitative study used in depth interviews with volunteers from a web-enhanced course to examine the experience of learning online from the students’ perspective. Particular attention was paid to the impact of course structure and interaction and dialog among the students and instructor. The study found that lack of experience with the technology, frequency of feedback, language barriers, group size and subject matter all impacted students’ learning in this webenhanced course.