American Marketing Students’ Attitudes towards Online Classes

A sample of 304 American marketing students from four regionally diverse universities provided insight regarding their attitudes towards online education. Positives included scheduling flexibility, opportunities to take more classes offered by their own and by other universities, and the elimination of time and cost constraints. Most disconcerting was the absence of studentteacher interaction. Traditional and hybrid offerings were generally deemed to be superior to those courses using the “delivered entirely online (DEO)” format. Students need to be made more aware of the advantages of online education from both an educational and a temporal perspective. A meaningful segment is comprised of those students who have yet to take an online course and tend to exhibit more reluctance towards online education. Another constituency that needs to be targeted so as to change the existing negative perceptions is the employers who look to higher education institutions for students with the skills needed to help their organizations achieve their own goals. Another key group comprises prospective faculty, many of whom have yet to fully embrace this evolving paradigm germane to the delivery of the educational product