Transactional Distance’s Influence on Students’ Social, Cognitive, Teaching Presence, and Academic Achievement

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study aimed to investigate how different levels of transactional distance impact students’ perceptions of social, cognitive, and teaching presence, as well as their academic achievement. The research involved 72 students from a state university’s education faculty and used a 3 × 2 factorial design, with structured, semi-structured, and unstructured online environments provided, all with a “high” dialog dimension according to transactional distance theory. These environments were established based on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Over 15 weeks, students in the three experimental groups received education through these online environments. The study found no significant difference in academic achievement scores or community of inquiry scale scores among the groups. Students reported positive perceptions of the online environments they were in. The satisfaction they experienced in the online environment was influential in the absence of differences in academic achievement scores and community of inquiry scale scores among the groups. In conclusion, high dialog, provided at different levels of transactional distance, effectively eliminated potential differences arising from the structural dimension among the groups. If dialogue is kept at the maximum level in online environments, transactional distance that may arise from the structure dimension can be prevented.