Differences between cyber university students and offline university students in cyber classes on the students’ response and academic achievement.

Abstract

These days, more and more students in offline universities take courses in cyber universities. While there are needs to differentiate the classes according to the students` background, there are not many studies on the difference of cyber university students and offline university students who are enrolled in cyber classes. This study aims to investigate the students` participation, academic achievement, and responses to class contents and management in two different groups. Offline university students show higher participation and academic achievement than cyber university students, but they tend to focus on their final grades only while the latter use the online bulletin board as a place of interpersonal communication. Cyber university students show higher satisfaction than offline university students. Offline university students are not accustomed to the administration of cyber classes. Though the results may not be generalized to all classes and universities, this study shows that there are clear differences between on and offline university students. It is suggested that cyber classes for offline university students should be managed taking the results of the study into consideration.