Faculty Perceptions of Technology Distance Education Transactions: Qualitative Outcomes to Inform Teaching Practices

Abstract

Understanding instructors’ perceptions of distance education transactions is becoming increasingly important as the mode of distance learning has become not only accepted, but preferred by many students. A need for more empirical qualitative data was evident as anecdotal information still dominates the research literature. Instructors’ perceptions of distance education transactions comprised of instructor, student, context and subject area, and technology experience and expertise guided the research design. The study focused on the faculty of an established distance learning program at a small Midwestern university. Qualitative interviews were gathered, coded and analyzed. Faculty who used technology were targeted. Faculty perceptions on course context, students, interpersonal and procedural transactions, learning and teaching transactions, and assessment transactions were gathered. The qualitative analysis provided rich data to further inform distance education programs’ administrative, technological, and andragogical needs. Recommendations for future study, including a model for transactional hierarchy, were proffered.