While the mission of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) is to promote educational opportunity to all who wish to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potentials, one of the major challenges facing ODL educators is to create an optimum course content that attracts students and enhances their engagement. In that respect, whether course content is highly structured or not is one of the contributing factors that impact students’ interaction with the learning material (Chadwick and Ralston, 2010). One measurable output of such interactions is manifested in the form of tardiness in submitting assignments. A comparative study between a structured and a less-structured course at the post graduate (masters) level were used for this study. This study looks into students’ tardiness responses in submitting their Tutor-Marked Assignment (TMA) at Wawasan Open University in both a well-structured course and a less-structured course. The finding of this study shows that students are less participative and less tardy in a well structured course content compared to weak structured course content. Further exploration by the analysis of the five dimensions of the students’ interaction in the learning management system (LMS) concluded that in less-structured course content students tend to be high in procedural activities such as administrative issues. Survey questionnaires were distributed to students to obtain additional supporting data that are related to the structured nature of the courses which may affect their tardiness in the submission of the TMA. Implications of the findings were discussed with recommendations and for future research.
Material type
Electronic
Notes
Paper presented at the 25th AAOU Annual Conference (28-30 September 2011; Penang, Malaysia)
Students’ tardiness in an ODL environment: a comparison study on structured and less-structured course content
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Student's Tardiness in ODL
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