The relative importance of distance education challenges to instructors in higher education – A ranking-type Delphi study

Abstract

The many challenges faced by instructors in distance education have been extensively documented in current literature. Nevertheless, the relative importance of such challenges has not been researched to the same extent. As instructors and institutions face limitations in terms of time and budget, the ability to effectively prioritise challenges becomes increasingly vital. This paper aims to investigate the relative importance of various distance education challenges to instructors. For this purpose, a ranking-type Delphi study of 90 instructors was conducted at a Swedish higher education institution of technology. In total 26 unique challenges were identified, out of which the top 13 challenges were further ranked by instructors. The ranking revealed that pedagogical challenges were regarded as being of highest relative importance, whereas technological and organisational challenges were of lesser significance. Instructors rated the following challenges as the most significant: lack of student responsiveness, diminished collaboration due to social distancing among students, substantial upfront course design investments by instructors, and limitations in instructor accessibility. These rankings were found to be largely consistent across different instructor characteristics. The findings of the study indicate the importance of investing in faculty training and support functions within higher education institutions to ensure the quality of distance education.