An Analysis of Factors Affecting Community College Students' Expectations on E-Learning

Opportunities the Internet provides make e-learning widespread and easy to access. E-learning has been integrated to most of today's university programs. However, universities providing e-learning should consider several factors while developing and implementing these programs (Selim, 2007). Weller (2007) stated that e-learning environments have three components: people, process, and technology and these factors form the basis of a learning community. The most important of all in this triangle is the “people,” as the success of a community depends on its members. Moreover, new technologies increased interest in e-learning and thereby it rapidly improved. Nevertheless, e-learning initiatives remained mainly at the stage of course development and course material preparation, disregarding the highly complex interrelated structure of e-learning systems (Alexander, 2001). Additionally, this triangle is associated with each of the three components and it is not possible to separate them with precise lines. Experiences and expectations of both students and teachers should be openly discussed and set in e-learning environments (Stodel, Thompson, & MacDonald, 2006). To find answers to the fundamental questions like why e-learning environments are to be developed, who the students are and what their expectations are, and to learn the structure and content of these environments, a pedagogical approach and theoretical background must be necessitated (Minocha & Sharp, 2004).Awareness of e-learning expectations and realizing these facilitate students' willingness contribute to instructor-student and studentstudent interaction (Dennen, Darabi, & Smith, 2007). In e-learning, the larger the gap between students' expectations and experiences is, the less the student participation becomes. Defining expectation types and finding the underlying reasons for these expectations to maintain continuance will raise e-learning quality (Swan, 2003). Motivation of e-learning students will increase when they feel the effort made to meet their expectations and the value attached to them as individuals (Dennen, Darabi, & Smith, 2007).Most studies of e-learning have focused on what instructors can do or what instructors have done so far (Alexander, 2001). Student experiences and expectations have generally been disregarded. The literature demonstrates that significant differences observed on experiences will inevitably influence student expectations. If e-learning is taken as a system, it will be incomplete to refer to just one experience or expectation. The e-learning system requires consideration of a variety of factors, including students' varying expectations.When some expectations of students in the e-learning environment are not met, it might result in drop-outs (Martinez, 2003; Minocha & Sharp, 2004). Possible reasons are aridity of the e-learning environment, low level of usability, weak interaction between students and the content, insufficient support by the instructor, and ineffective cooperation among students (Minocha & Sharp, 2004). To identify the reasons for the problems e-learning students experience and why drop out, new students' expectations and to what extent these expectations are met needs to be prioritized.Literature shows that students appreciate accessing the instructors and feeling their support. In addition, it is vital that students sense being observed and followed in courses. Expectations of students and even of instructors should be questioned while designing, organizing, and managing the instruction in e-learning (Garrison, 2006; Stodel et al., 2006). It is necessary that students' and instructors' roles are to be redefined in e-learning environments, as it is quite different from face-to-face learning in terms of student and instructor attitudes, practices, and expectations. Transformation processes in education require clarifying student expectations specifically (Stodel et al., 2006).In the e-learning process, it is inevitable for students to encounter various barriers that may prevent them from learning. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand students' needs and expectations. As with any formal training programs, in e-learning, policies, procedures, and support offered to students should address students' needs and expectations (Kumarawadu, 2001). Failure to make e-learning process transparent may be disturbing for students in terms of communication. Therefore, open communication in line with the expectations of students in e-learning is very important (Frydenberg, 2002). Students have expectations for presentations of e-content, which is one of the important elements of the instructional process. For example, Carliner (2002) noted that e-learners expect to find abundant examples and exercises for the content.“People” is another significant component of e-learning environment. In this sense, students expect faculty to provide a satisfying and enjoyable learning environment (Kumarawadu, 2001). Instructors must keep in mind students' educational needs, relate students' personal experiences with the e-course, provide real-world applications, and allow students to work collaboratively. In the e-learning environment, students do not become self-sufficient until they are familiar with the system and gain experience. Hence, faculty are expected to help students to learn at their own pace until students show maturity of being familiar to the LMS.In e-learning, one of the most important factors affecting the experience of learners is the technical support provided to the faculty and students (Concannon, Flynn, & Campbell, 2005). Strother (2002) indicated that students choose e-learning because they receive fast and intensive technical support. MacDonald, Stodel, Farres, Breithaupt, & Gabriel (2001), reported that students, facing the e-learning environment first time, technical support to improve their learning. Arabasz and Baker (2003) highlight the importance of preparing technology infrastructure and techniques in which teachers and students should be trained in order to make e-learning effective. Therefore, technical training is required for instructors and students before e-learning process.There are many factors that affect e-learning process. Instructor, assessment and evaluation, communication, and technical support are among the leading factors. It is obvious that these factors influence the effectiveness of e-learning and may be related to different expectations of e-learners. Therefore, this study focused on examining the expectations of first year students enrolled in an e-learning program with respect to teaching-learning, instructor, assessment and evaluation, communication, and technical support. It is hypothesized that this study will reveal the expectations of community college students participating in the e-learning process. The findings of this study will provide insights about students' expectations by contributing to quality enhancement at the university where the study was conducted, and widespread implementation of e-learning programs. Since profiles of community college students are different from college and postgraduate students, e-learning in community colleges has to be examined accordingly. Although postgraduate students in e-learning programs know how to survive in e-learning and ensure success (Schaverien, 2002), high school students who have graduated recently and started community college do not have this qualification. Therefore, students enrolled in community college education have different expectations.The study was conducted in the beginning of 2007-2008 fall semester at a 2-year vocational postsecondary education program, equivalent to a community college in the United States. Participants were first year students majoring in computer programming and business administration. The number of registered students during the semester was 511. Two hundred fifty students were studying computer programming and 261 were in the business administration programs. Though all students were given questionnaire, only 138 of them were returned, a response rate of 27%.The demographic information of participants shows that 48.6% of them are male and 51.4% female, 10.9% of the students have been using computers for less than a year, 11.6% for 1-2 years, 23.2% for 3-4 years, 21% for 4-5 years and 29.7% for 6 or more years. Also, 21.7% of the students have been using the Internet for less than a year, 28.3% for 1-2 years, 22.5% for 3-4 years, 15.9% for 4-5 years and 8.7% for 6 or more years. The percentage of students who own computers at home is 90.6%, while 5.8% do not own computers at home. In addition, 87% of students have an Internet connection at home, while 8.7% do not. Those without computer and/or the Internet access at home indicated that they use computers at work, at a friend's office or home, or at Internet cafes.Distance Education Community College of Gazi University, with the opening of Computer Programming and Business Administration programs, began accepting students in the 2006-2007 school year. By supporting the course contents presented in the programs with texts, animations, and sound, e-learning programs through learning management system (LMS) are available to registered students. E-learners, by using LMS, might easily follow related course content, teaching staff and administrative announcements, academic calendar, evaluation results, and students' fees. E-learning contents are prepared for 14 weeks. All courses are open to students throughout the semester. Thus, e-learners might easily examine the topics that have been seen before and will be seen in the coming weeks. Students might interact with the faculty advisors individually, and assignments, discussions, chat, examination process may be conducted over LMS system. In addition to that, e-learners' homework, discussions, monitoring course content, activities such as participation in chat session, student assessment processes, and student announcements are followed easily. In the e-learning system, midterms and additional examinations approved by faculty advisors are carried over the LMS. As with other examples in the world, final exams are conducted face-to-face.Twelve open-ended questions were administered to students to determine expectations. Questions were related to e-learning activities, assessment and evaluation, instructors, communication, and technical support. Questions were administered at the beginning of the semester, since students needed time to become familiar with the system. Questions were revised by four e-learning experts to ensure content validity. Then, questions were finalized, considering the experts' feedback. Afterwards, to ensure the clarity of questions, two e-learners checked the questions and unclear items were revised. Students completed questions online by logging their usernames and passwords in the system. About completing questions, students were sent reminders three times.The purpose of the study was to identify community college students' expectations of the e-learning program. Thinking about three components of e-learning (people, process, and technology), a coding schema (Table 1) was developed on these components, which further grouped within more categories (instructional process, instructor, assessment and evaluation, communication, and technical support). Researchers of the study coded the data by using the coding schema. They first worked together to read the responses of students and divide each unit of meaning. Then they coded the data independently by identifying the responses. After the coding was completed, they compared their coding and their disagreement on categorizing responses was resolved through discussion.This section provides findings on expectations of community college students about e-learning program. The findings are organized under categories of instructional process, instructor, assessment and evaluation, communication and technical support. Students' expectations of e-learning programs were analyzed and coding totals and percentages were summarized in Table 2.Students' expectations regarding the instructional process are in first place with 40.14%. In particular, students' solution methods in the search for responses to the problems encountered in e-learning were coded frequently. Accordingly, the coding in the category of expectations regarding instructional process was collected under two categories: expectations related to study habits and study conditions (28.57%) and expectations related to e-course content and delivery (11.57%).The number of students per instructor, the lack of time spent in chat sessions by faculty members, and communication problems between instructors and students are among the factors affecting instructional process. Besides, according to students' responses, some of the factors affecting instructional process were cited as disintegration of attention in e-learning, no working habits in the evening hours, increasing responsibilities and demanding self-regulated learning, seeing themselves as teacher, and failure to follow a strict timeline to work and do homework. Some of the students' responses, such as “Unavailability of a person to get help when there is a problem or an unclear point during self-study is troublesome.” “The possibility of missing the important points while chatting, limited time for chats, unable to ask spontaneous questions while studying, delays in e-mail responses worries me.” and “I feel opportunities to ask questions are limited.” clearly show that students require immediate solutions when they get stuck during instruction.Students' responses on the structure of e-courses show that in addition to the text, images, animations, video, synchronous communication tools, and resources should be used frequently and that examples regarding course topics should be focused on detailed and descriptive information and resources. Students emphasize the importance of connecting with instructors, the need to spend efficient time in chat sessions, and a desire for more than an hour of chat time.According to 9.09% of the e-learners, teachers should actively engage in chat sessions. Most of the responses suggest that students expect more interest from instructors and more explanation about courses while communicating with instructors. In relation to the TC component, students' responses like “Especially for those who encounter such a system first time, I expect the faculty to be more tolerant and to provide me continuous information I want … and “Even if instructors reply to our messages, it is sufficient to us.” imply these kinds of expectations.Some of the responses confirm that students ask instructors to strictly participate the chat session hours and expect effective longer chat sessions. Responses like “It is not fair that some instructors kept us waiting for an hour in the chat sessions.” and “I think every student should prepare questions before class and every student must be given 5 or 10 minutes in every chat session” show that students want instructors more active and effective in chat sessions.E-learners' expectation rate about their own assessment of the success is 11.45%. In this situation, e-learners prefer face-to-face exams for either midterm or final exams. In the current system, students take online midterms of any courses whenever they want during the midterm week. The final exams are organized in two sessions with 4-5 course exams in each administered at campus at weekends. Responses suggest that some of the students are satisfied with this situation. Nevertheless, some students have fears, such as electrical shortage while taking exams. 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