University Students' Attitudes Towards Interaction in Distance Education

Almuhanna, Manal Abdulrahman

doi:10.21608/edusohag.2023.296532

University Students' Attitudes Towards Interaction in Distance Education

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Manal Abdulrahman Almuhanna

Department of Educational Technologies - College of Education - King Saud University - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

10.21608/edusohag.2023.296532

Abstract

The Study aimed to identify university students’ attitudes towards interaction in distance education, by identifying their opinions, difficulties limiting their interaction and suggestions for improving it. To achieve this, the descriptive survey method and questionnaire were used for data collection, sample of 335 university students, 48 of whom from Saudi universities and 287 from outside Saudi Arabia. Results showed that the sample generally strongly agreed with the sentences of the three axes of the study, where the general mean of their opinions on interaction (4.32), the difficulties of interaction (4.37), and suggestions improving interaction (4.54). One prominent result was that interaction helps students understand information and develop discussion skills; the most difficulties limiting interaction were lack of body language and difficulty of feeling impressions of students and professor. Students agreed on many suggestions to improve interaction, including calling them by their names and allowing them to participate through presentations. Results also showed differences between the responses towards interaction in distance education due to gender variable in favor of the male sample. The study recommended the need to provide specialists in educational technologies to help professors design electronic courses remotely.

Keywords