South Africa has been experiencing several challenges regarding access to higher education, quality of higher education, effectiveness of higher education course delivery, and funding for higher education. In the higher education sector, the bulk of the burden is placed on traditional higher education institutions, most notably universities, in providing higher education to a growing youth base in dire need of education that supports their individual learning needs. With these challenges facing traditional universities, online higher education provided by both public sector higher education institutions and private sector education providers can act as a valuable alternative and solution to access for some of the population. Online education and face-to-face education differ considerably in how they deliver courses to students. Many have argued that these differences are in some cases attributable to strengths in face-to-face education and drawbacks or limitations in online education, large enough that they should serve as the criteria for selecting the former over the latter as the better mode of delivery. While there have been examples of online programmes that have failed to deliver courses successfully by underutilising or misusing the tools and techniques available, there are positive examples where these programmes perform equally as well as face-to-face courses. The defining difference is ultimately and often the management of these courses’ resources, activities, people, processes, and practices. Considering the above, and with examination of the available literature, a conceptual and theoretical framework was constructed and a quantitative research study was undertaken to prove the significant correlational relationships between elements of course delivery and a management framework to govern those elements. The sample consisted of 115 students from a postgraduate degree programme presented in two formats, online and on-campus. The findings provide evidence of significant relationships between the core functions of management as well as between aspects of course delivery, such as opportunities for interaction, opportunities for feedback, and course content in achieving learning outcomes for students and contributing to engagement. The findings also indicate positive perceptions from students in relation to the delivery of the courses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:27850 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Burger, Dimitri |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MBA |
| Format | xii, 112 pages, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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