The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students

This study investigated the impact of face-to-face contact sessions and online discussion forums on the academic performance of students at an Open Distance Learning (ODL) university (N = 1,015). t-Tests for independent samples indicated that students who attended a written assignment preparation co...

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Autor principal:	Benjamin Olivier
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Athabasca University Press 2016
Materias:	contact sessions online discussion forums academic performance open distance learning Special aspects of education LC8-6691
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/93310540426c420ab5686976a3006c4c
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:93310540426c420ab5686976a3006c4c2021-12-02T18:03:01ZThe Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students10.19173/irrodl.v17i6.24931492-3831https://doaj.org/article/93310540426c420ab5686976a3006c4c2016-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2493https://doaj.org/toc/1492-3831This study investigated the impact of face-to-face contact sessions and online discussion forums on the academic performance of students at an Open Distance Learning (ODL) university (N = 1,015). t-Tests for independent samples indicated that students who attended a written assignment preparation contact session performed significantly better in the written assignment than those students who did not attend this contact session [t(813) = 4.64, p = 0.00]; students who attended an examination preparation contact session did not perform significantly better in the examination than those students who did not attend this contact session [t(892) = 1.12, p = 0.26]; while students who used an online discussion forum performed significantly better in the final examination than those students who did not use this forum [t(1,013) = 4.04, p = 0.00]. Reasons for these mixed results are subsequently discussed. The study also found that the attendance of contact sessions and the utilisation of an online discussion forum by students were extremely low, and possible reasons for this are also given. Implications for the use of contact sessions and online discussion forums to improve the academic performance of ODL students are also discussed. Benjamin OlivierAthabasca University Pressarticlecontact sessionsonline discussion forumsacademic performanceopen distance learningSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691ENInternational Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Vol 17, Iss 6 (2016)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	contact sessions online discussion forums academic performance open distance learning Special aspects of education LC8-6691
spellingShingle	contact sessions online discussion forums academic performance open distance learning Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Benjamin Olivier The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students
description	This study investigated the impact of face-to-face contact sessions and online discussion forums on the academic performance of students at an Open Distance Learning (ODL) university (N = 1,015). t-Tests for independent samples indicated that students who attended a written assignment preparation contact session performed significantly better in the written assignment than those students who did not attend this contact session [t(813) = 4.64, p = 0.00]; students who attended an examination preparation contact session did not perform significantly better in the examination than those students who did not attend this contact session [t(892) = 1.12, p = 0.26]; while students who used an online discussion forum performed significantly better in the final examination than those students who did not use this forum [t(1,013) = 4.04, p = 0.00]. Reasons for these mixed results are subsequently discussed. The study also found that the attendance of contact sessions and the utilisation of an online discussion forum by students were extremely low, and possible reasons for this are also given. Implications for the use of contact sessions and online discussion forums to improve the academic performance of ODL students are also discussed.
format	article
author	Benjamin Olivier
author_facet	Benjamin Olivier
author_sort	Benjamin Olivier
title	The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students
title_short	The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students
title_full	The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students
title_fullStr	The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students
title_full_unstemmed	The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students
title_sort	impact of contact sessions and discussion forums on the academic performance of open distance learning students
publisher	Athabasca University Press
publishDate	2016
url	https://doaj.org/article/93310540426c420ab5686976a3006c4c
work_keys_str_mv	AT benjaminolivier theimpactofcontactsessionsanddiscussionforumsontheacademicperformanceofopendistancelearningstudents AT benjaminolivier impactofcontactsessionsanddiscussionforumsontheacademicperformanceofopendistancelearningstudents
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The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students

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