Webinars and Social Network in Distance Learning: Students’ Views

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this study is to present students’ views concerning the attendance of conference and/or seminars via Internet (webinars) and also how online social network are used in distance learning. Study Design: Descriptive quantitative research. Especially, a survey using questionnaires and interviews for data collection. Place and Duration of Study: University of Ioannina, one academic year, 2012-2013. Methodology: A questionnaire was firstly addressed to a small self selected group of undergraduate students at the beginning of the academic year (mid‐November) as pretest. Then the questionnaire was revised and the final version of the questionnaire was addressed to all undergraduate 210 students attending the 3 rd year of their undergraduate studies. This questionnaire was delivered at the beginning of spring term. Interviews were taken in spring semester (mid‐April) for evaluation of the answers in the questionnaire. Moreover, a revised questionnaire for a postgraduate group students (20 self selected students) from the School of Education was given in mid spring semester. Results: 18.29% of undergraduates use webinars. 84.28% of them believe that attending seminars via Internet (webinars) may contribute to the enrichment of the educational process and facilitates distance learning. 56.89% of undergraduates prefer to attend conferences and/or seminars with physical presence, since interaction amongst