This study hypothesized that distance education students who received regularly scheduled tutoring from trained subject-matter-experts via either telephone or electronic-mail would have significantly higher completion rates, learn significantly more, take significantly less time to complete their training program and be significantly more motivated to participate in future distance education programs. The study was designed as a pre-test-post-test nonequivalent control group experiment with one control and two experimental groups. Data was gathered using student pretests, postests, pre-motivation instruments, post-motivation instruments, on-line management routines, diaries and on-site interviews. ANOVA, t-tests and correlations were used to measure significance. / During the ten week study, 51 military reserve recruits in three different locations completed their basic Anatomy and Physiology training using an individualized computer-based training program. The control group was given no tutorial assistance unless they personally requested it. Students in the first experimental group were only given tutorial assistance if they failed a module test or were falling behind their peers in the amount of time it took to study a module. Students in the second experimental group were contacted by the tutors once every four hours of study time or once a week. Students and on-site supervisors in all three locations were counselled not to provide any in-house tutorial advice to the study participants. / The study found that regularly scheduled tutorial assistance made a significant difference in distance students' course completion rates and motivation towards distance education, but no significant difference in student learning or the amount of time to complete the study across the three groups. The study concluded that scheduled distance tutoring interventions had some positive effect on distance students, but distance education providers must carefully weigh the costs of establishing a tutor intervention program. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2685. / Major Professor: Robert K. Branson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77249 |
| Contributors | Powley, Roger Lynn., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 225 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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