French Students Enrolled in Distance Learning: Highly Motivated But Less Satisfied?

International audienceThe anticipated benefits of using emerging technology tools to facilitate learning have in recent years increased the expectations of the development of distance learning in higher education. Studies in various countries show, however, that the profile of distance learning students differs from traditional students' characteristics. There are generally older, more employed and more highly motivated but with a lower parental educational background even if these features appear to change with the development new technologies in training. This paper aims to identify some barriers to the development of distance and e-learning from the students' point of view. More precisely, we seek to compare the satisfaction of students enrolled in French universities according to their type of learning (face-to-face versus distance), their learning strategies and their educational background. We use a national, representative survey on the living conditions of students in France carried out by the National Observatory of Student Life in 2013. 20,000 university students, mostly enrolled in traditional learning studies, were interviewed. About 600 students were enrolled in distance learning. Satisfaction will be measured by different indicators: student interest in course contents, student impressions of educational quality of the course, availability of teachers, university resources for academic success, personalized career guidance. Our preliminary results suggest that distance learners are less satisfied although French universities offer a vast range of emerging technology tools