1 Students ’ Perceptions of Technology-based Marketing Courses

Distance education courses have been traditionally delivered via static print-based packages. However, advances in technology and greater use of multimedia in education have provided an opportunity for course designers to enrich students ’ learning experiences by providing technology-based learning resources that comprise a range of multimedia and online components. Driving forces including pedagogical, opportunistic, pragmatic, and psychological motivations have encouraged educators to adopt educational technologies for designing and delivering their courses. In this paper, the findings of two electronic surveys used to determine distance education students ’ perceptions of two marketing undergraduate courses that have recently been converted from a print-based to a technology-based course (comprising an interactive CD and a course homepage) are presented. The findings indicate that respondents enjoyed using the course CD, found the course CD to be easy to use and navigate, and agreed that the course CD had assisted their performance in the course. The findings also indicated that respondents perceived the multimedia elements that were housed on the course resources to be valuable in terms of achieving desired learning outcomes