Faculty Perceptions of Student Performance in the Online Classroom

Abstract

With continually increasing enrollment, and colleges and universities struggling to meet the demand, leaders in education are turning to the web instruction to deliver instruction to students. In order to meet the needs of these online students, institutions of higher education need more data concerning the factors that influence students' decision to pursue online instruction. More importantly, factors that affect student performance in both traditional and online settings need to be understood in order to provide students with a more comprehensive educational experience. This study examines the factors that influence students' decision to seek online coursework over a traditional classroom setting. Additionally, this study explores faculty perceptions concerning the factors necessary to succeed in a web-enhanced environment, and similarly explores faculty perceptions as to whether online students' learning outcomes are the same as those of traditional students. This work correlates with the findings of previous studies, and contributes to the growing body of knowledge regarding the factors that affect student performance in both traditional and online settings.