Learning tool or potplant stand? Students' opinions of learning from a CAL program in a distance education context

Abstract

Although teaching institutions are continually moving towards electronic forms of delivering learning material, a study of first year adult distance chemistry students found that they had developed a successful learning profile based on their present printed learning material and were reluctant to consider the use of alternative methods of delivery. The reasons for this reluctance were explored by developing a Computer Aided Learning program, based on the students existing learning strategies, and offering it as an alternative to printed material. Although many volunteered to use the program only a third of these persevered with its use. Reasons for abandoning the program were generally associated with a fear that they may be wasting their time in having to learn a new method of study. However those that did use the computer program considered it to be a more efficient way of learning than from printed material.