Distance Education Pre-Class Survey

Dear Student- As you probably know, distance education is a relatively new, experimental form of instruction. Since this distance ed course differs from more traditional courses, we would like to collect some information on the effectiveness of the course as the semester progresses so that we can design distance ed courses in the future that will best benefit students' needs.

One of the important dynamics of the effectiveness of any course and instructional technique is the students in the course, and their skills and expectations at the beginning of the semester. Therefore, we would like to begin by collecting some basic information about you and your expectations for the course. This information will be kept confidential (I will see it, but will not pass along any individual's responses to Professor Schlais. He will see a summary of responses). The data you have provided will only be used to see what relationships exist between student dynamics and the effectiveness of distance ed as a course delivery format.

To reply to this questionaire, please reply/extract to this E-mail. You may indicate your response to questions 1-6 by simply typing the number of the response that best represents your answer (e.g.--if you have a fair amount of experience with using computers, just type '5' at the end of Question #1). In the comments section, the space should automatically expand to fit the length of text you type in.

If you have any questions or problems responding this survey, please feel free to call or E-mail me. Thank you for your assistance.

Tom Creed, Professor of Psychology
Saint John's University
Collegeville, MN 56321

(320) 363-3133
-------------------- Please complete the following survey -------------------

Name:
Age:
Campus:
Year in school:
Major:

  1. How experienced are you with using computers? 
           1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9
                        A fair                Very
      None              amount            experienced

    Comments (Please include a very brief description of your computer experience):

  2. How experienced are you with using E-mail? 
           1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9
                        A fair                Very
      None              amount            experienced

    Comments:

  3. How comfortable are you using a computer as a learning tool? 
           1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9
      Not               somewhat              Very
     at all           comfortable         comfortable

    Comments:

  4. How much experience have you had with distance education? 
           1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9
                   A fair               Very
      None              amount           experienced

    Comments:

  5. How important is the traditional classroom arrangement (students/teacher in that same room) to you as a learner? 
           1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9
      Not               somewhat              Very
     at all            important           important

    Comments:

  6. If you had a choice, what format would you prefer for this course? 
           1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9
   Very much            doesn't          Very much
prefer taditional        matter        prefer distance
     format                                   format

    Comments:

  7. Besides this course, what other demands do you have on your time (job, family, etc.), and to what extent do these demands limit the amount of time you can devote to this class?

  8. Is there anything else that you think it would be of value for me to know about you with respect to my understanding your performance/satisfaction with this distance ed course?