Abstract
The emergence of newer World Wide Web-based technologies has resulted in increased offering of distance education courses in most academic areas. However, to a great extent, the choice of technology is governed by the availability of technology rather than by the appropriateness of the technology for the course being taught and for the learning outcomes. Although the importance of IT (Information Technology) in education is realized, a literature review shows that there is some disagreement on effectiveness of IT as a main educational tool, requiring further empirical studies. This paper discusses an ongoing empirical research in Web-based distance learning strategies that aims to identify the relationships between the course variables, student variables, instructor variables, and the appropriateness of the technology for the learning objectives. The research used the survey method, collecting data from two target populations: students who have taken distance learning IS (Information Systems) courses and faculty who have taught distance learning IS courses. Existing technologies for distance education have been identified and categorized as follows: (1) one-to-one (personal) communications; (2) one-to-many single media communications; (3) one-to-many one-way multimedia education/teaching; (4) educational software; (5) testing and evaluation; (6) multimedia discussion; and (7) single-media discussion. The survey forms are appended. (Contains 29 references.) (MES)