Attitudes of business college faculty and administrators toward distance education: a national survey

Abstract

Educators' attitudes towards distance education are known to be influenced by many factors. This study incorporated survey data that measured business educators' attitudes toward distance education at both the baccalaureate and masters levels of instruction. Two simultaneous equations models were developed that described the relationship between the respondents' attitudes and other factors relevant to their receptivity and support of distance education. Key influential factors were found to be the experience of the respondent and their perception of difficulties with and appropriateness of distance education. Key differences between the models were based on the teaching role and age of the respondent.

Examination of attitudes towards teaching online courses based on theory of reasoned action of university faculty in Taiwan

“…In addition, many studies have attempted to discover the relationship between faculty attitudes towards teaching online courses and corresponding factors, such as institutional policy, administrative expectations, demands from the community, release of time and monetary rewards, etc. (Freberg et al , 1995; Nasser and Abouchedid, 2002; Ross and Klug, 1999; Siaciwena, 1989; Taylor and White, 1991; Wilson, 2001; Wolcott and Betts, 1999). Bates (1997) suggests it is strategically important to make sure that faculty participation in using technologies for teaching is encouraged and supported by all means.…”

Factors impacting development time for online postsecondary instruction.

“…Ross & Klug (1999), Rockwell et al (2000) and Butner, Smith, & Murray, (1999) all found institutional type to be an issue in measuring faculty attitudes, and this investigation could further describe that phenomenon.…”

“…The final models for both academic levels showed several similarities but also a few significant differences. Ross and Klug (1999) found that at both the baccalaureate and the master's level, business school faculty and administrators who believed distance education was a good fit with their personal and institutional goals showed a high degree of receptivity to distance education. Individuals who perceived more difficulties with distance education were less receptive.…”

“…Because of the timeliness of her research questions and her exacting methodology, Betts' work is often cited by other distance education researchers. Ross and Klug (1999) investigated the attitudes of business college faculty towards distance education in a national survey that addressed two research questions:…”

“…In analyzing their data, Ross and Klug (1999) dropped the few responses that answered fewer than 60% of the questions, but performed imputations on the remaining missing values using EQS (Benter & Wu 1995). Missing data were replaced by sample mean of questions that had less than 20% of their values missing.…”