Perceptions Of Undergraduate Business Students Toward Online Courses In Higher Education Expanded And Revisited: Do Gender, Age, And/Or Past Experiences Make A Difference?

This study analyzes the perceptions and preferences of a group of undergraduate business students with respect to taking on-line or distance education courses. In this last decade, distant learning programs have become very popular, and the number of offerings continues to increase.  The growing popularity of this medium for instruction is due to a combination of factors.  Technological advances have made the availability both economical and practical. The economic advantages of distributing scarce resources, geographically and temporally, to students in remote locations provide a broader market for distance education. Additionally, the increasing demand from students to acquire education at times that are convenient given their busy schedules and personal commitments makes distance education attractive to working learners (Roberts 1998). The new opportunities distance learning has provided have enabled students to create an atmosphere for learning at home. The distance debate usually focuses on issues related to student learning and outcomes and student attitudes as compared to traditional classroom-based settings (Phillips, 1998; Webster & Hackley, 1997).  This study attempts to address these and other topics such as what is distance learning, what are the advantages and disadvantages, and what changes can be made to improve this type of learning.  This research is intended to give students a realistic expectation of what to anticipate from distance learning courses based on information we have found and studies we have done.  It is important that students have a realistic perception of the distant learning experience

Have Basic Mathematical Skills Grown Obsolete In The Computer Age: Assessing Basic Mathematical Skills And Forecasting Performance In A Business Statistics Course

The purpose of this study was to measure the comprehension of basic mathematical skills of  students enrolled in statistics classes at a large regional university, and to determine if the scores earned on a basic math skills test are useful in forecasting student performance in these statistics classes, and to determine if students’ basic math skills have changed over time. The results showed that 22 percent of the students’ final grades in business statistics courses were explained by their scores on this skills test.  These findings may be of use to statistics faculty in identifying students who experience difficulties in these courses in the future.  The current students’ scores were compared to scores from a test previously given to students in 1992/1993.  The students from the first group had significantly higher scores than the current group of students.&nbsp

The Online Classroom: Differences In Perception Between Business Students And Non-Business Students

The authors discuss the results of a questionnaire given to 893 undergraduate college students regarding distance-learning courses, which reveal a number of differences in perception between business and non-business students.  The authors suggest possible reasons for these differences, and make recommendations to university administrators and faculty as to what could be done to help reduce or limit these differences.  The results of this study should be of interest to university administrators, faculty members, and students who plan to offer, teach, or take online courses in the future.  In addition, this information may be helpful to university administrators in deciding which types of courses at their universities might be offered online.  Faculty who are considering teaching one or more online courses may find the results of this study helpful in structuring these online offerings.  This research is intended to give students a realistic expectation of what to anticipate from distance learning courses based on information we have found and studies we have done

How did they get here from there? Detecting changes of direction in terrestrial ranging

Efficient exploitation of large-scale space is crucial to many species of animal, but the difficulties of studying how animals decide on travel routes in natural environments have hampered scientific understanding of environmental cognition. Field experiments allow researchers to define travel goals for their subjects, but practical difficulties restrict large-scale studies. In contrast, data on natural travel patterns are abundant and easy to record, but hard to interpret without circularity and subjectivity when making inferences about when and why an animal began heading to a particular location. We present a method of determining objectively the point at which an animal’s travel path becomes directed at a location, for instance a distant feeding site, based on the statistical characteristics of its route. We evaluate this method and illustrate how it can be tailored to particular problems, using data that is (a) synthetic; (b) from baboons, where travel is from a single sleeping site in an overlapping home range, and (c) from chimpanzees, where sleeping sites are unlimited within a large territory. We suggest that this ‘change- point test’ might usefully become a routine first step in interpreting the decision- making behind animal travel under natural conditions

Business Faculty and Undergraduate Students\u27 Perceptions of Online Learning: A Comparative Study

In this paper, the authors compare business faculty and undergraduate students\u27 perceptions of online learning. Specifically, a survey was given to a convenience sample of 893 undergraduate students (of which 890 were usable) at two regional universities in the southern United States; a modified version of the survey was mailed to a random sample of 1,175 business faculty members throughout the United States. Comparison of the results from each group showed that a number of differences in perception exist, due, perhaps, to the heterogeneous points of view and motivations for online learning between faculty and students. Since many universities are still deciding the extent of their offerings of such courses, this information may be helpful to university administrators in deciding which types of courses at their universities might be offered online. Faculty who are considering teaching one or more online courses may find the results of this study helpful in structuring these online offerings. The results of this study should assist students in gaining a realistic expectation of what to anticipate from online learning courses based on information we have found and studies we have done. It is important that students have a realistic perception of the online learning experience

Student Perceptions Of The Online Classroom: An Update

In this paper, the authors compare perceptions of 2001-2002 undergraduate students toward online courses, with the attitudes of undergraduate students matriculating in 2005. Specifically, a questionnaire developed and used in a study during the period 2001-2002, in which there were eight hundred ninety-six (896) undergraduate students at two medium-sized southern universities, was again given to six hundred twenty-six (626) undergraduate students at these same two universities in 2005. The results suggest that students continue to have questions about the overall appeal of online courses, despite the fact that three to four years have elapsed. The results of this study should be of interest to university administrators, faculty members, and students who plan to offer, teach, or take online courses in the future. This information may be helpful to university administrators in deciding which types of courses at their universities might be offered online. Faculty who are considering teaching one or more online courses may find the results of this study helpful in structuring these online offerings. This research is also intended to give students a realistic expectation of what to anticipate from online courses, based upon information we have found and studies we have done

Faculty Perceptions Of Distance Education Courses: A Survey

This paper discusses the results of a study of the perceptions of a national sample of business faculty members from various business disciplines regarding distance (online) education and teaching distance education courses.  In the past few years, distance learning programs have become very popular, and the number of offerings continues to increase.  However, distance learning courses offer significant differences from the classic classroom environment.  The results of this study suggest that the offering of online courses in business is still in the early or developmental stages, and that only a small percentage of the respondents indicate that they would teach online courses in the future

Wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) remember single foraging episodes

This study was supported by grants from Zürcher Hochschulverein, Schweizerische Akademie für Naturwissenschaften, Stiftung Thyll-Dürr, and Stiftung Annemarie Schindler, to R.N.Understanding animal episodic-like memory is important for tracing the evolution of the human mind. However, our knowledge about the existence and nature of episodic-like memory in non-human primates is minimal. We observed the behaviour of a wild male chacma baboon faced with a trade-off between protecting his stationary group from aggressive extra-group males and foraging among five out-of-sight platforms. These contained high-priority food at a time of natural food shortage. In 10 morning and eight evening trials, the male spontaneously visited the platforms in five and four different sequences, respectively. In addition, he interrupted foraging sequences at virtually any point on eight occasions, returning to the group for up to 2 h. He then visited some or all of the remaining platforms and prevented revisits to already depleted ones, apparently based on his memory for the previous foraging episode about food value, location, and time. Efficient use of memory allowed him to keep minimal time absent from his group while keeping food intake high. These findings support the idea that episodic-like memory offers an all-purpose solution to a wide variety of problems that require flexible, quick, yet precise decisions in situations arising from competition for food and mates in wild primates.PostprintPeer reviewe