Abstract
This study examines how technological and relational factors independently and interactively predict the perceived learning success of doctoral students enrolled in online-based leadership programs offered in the United States. The 73-item Online Learning Success Scale (OLSS) was constructed, based on existing instruments, and administered online to collect self-reported data on three primary variables: student learning success (SLS), relational factors (RF), and technological factors (TF). The SLS variable focuses on the gain of knowledge and skills, persistence, and self-efficacy; the RF on the student-student relationship, the student-faculty relationship, and the student-non-teaching staff relationship; and the TF on the ease of use, flexibility, and usefulness. In total, 210 student responses from 26 online-based leadership doctoral programs in the United States were used in the final analysis. The results demonstrate that RF and TF separately and together predict SLS. A multiple regression analysis indicates that, while all dimensions of TF and RF are significant predictors of SLS, the strongest predictor of SLS is the student-faculty relationship. This study suggests that building relationships with faculty and peers is critical to leadership doctoral students’ learning success, even in online-based programs that offer effective technological support.
Highlights
Student learning success (SLS) is everyone’s business in higher education
Faced with the increasing importance of distance learning as a preferred means of obtaining a degree at the graduate levels, including the doctoral level (National Center for Education Statistics, 2018), all higher education institutions and programs must consider the impact of technology and relationships, individually and interactively, within the online environment
The intent of this study was to determine how technological factors (TF) and relational factors (RF) related to the student learning success (SLS) of students engaged in the U.S doctoral leadership programs
Summary
Student learning success (SLS) is everyone’s business in higher education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2018), 31.7% of students enrolled in degree-granting postsecondary institutions in 2016 were engaged in distance or online education, either partially or fully. For graduate students, this percentage increased to 36.8%. Despite the fact that online-based learning creates different challenges to the learning success of students than face-to-face learning (Kennedy, Terrell, & Lohle, 2015; Lambie, Hayes, Griffith, Limberg, & Mullen, 2014; Rockinson-Szapkiw, Wendt, Whighting, & Nisbet, 2016), the impact of technology on doctoral SLS has not been fully explored
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