Motivations of the Online Student

The great end of education is, to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers, rather than fill it with the accumulations of others (Tyron Edwards 1809-1894) When courses are offered in online teaching mode we lose the constant feedback available during face-to-face classes. We report on the results of a study of one course taken online over three se-mesters. Problems were identified that appear to be associated with the motivation for students to choose the online course. Use of push technology to overcome these problems showed significant improvement in performance of the course. There is evidence that students are not able to per-form effectively in the unstructured online environment. Comparison with two other courses, de-livered face-to-face, indicates that students do not generally make use of the flexibility of online delivery. Evidence is presented that is consistent with students being motivated to study online by an increased ability to work “just in time”