Students’ Self-Directed Online Learning Skills in Distance Higher Education: Students’ Voice and Faculty Members’ Supports

Abstract

This study aims to examine self-directed online learning skills of undergraduate students and the ways of support provided by the faculty members. In this mixed-method study, the participants consisted of 399 undergraduate students studying at a state university in Turkey during the 2019-2020 academic-year spring semester, identified using convenient sampling and 12 faculty members, determined by maximum variation sampling method. Data collection tools included Self-Directed Online Learning Questionnaire and a semi-structured interview form. Independent Sample T-test from parametric tests, One-Way Analysis of Variance for multiple comparisons and LSD test were performed for the quantitative data analysis. In addition, the qualitative data were analyzed via content analysis. Some of the findings show the students have the highest mean score at time management dimension and the lowest one at help-seeking dimension. Female students have higher scores in general, metacognitive skills, persistence, and environmental structuring dimensions. The sophomore students have significantly higher scores than the senior students in terms of metacognitive skills dimension. Besides, the faculty members support the students to get the self-directed online learning skills, especially metacognitive skills and help seeking. However, their supports are limited to some kind of encouragement at time management, environmental structuring and persistence dimensions. The results show the necessity to support students to have self-directed online learning skills and assist faculty members in developing their students skills.