<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>As online learning becomes a recurrent component of higher education, there have been growing interests in the interaction between students and educational resources within digital environments so as to understand and facilitate students’ initiative in managing those resources. The present study is an explorative inquiry into the relationships between students’ self-reported preferences of study materials, their actual usage of those materials and their learning performances in online learning. It focuses on analysing the learning management system’s log files, test results and students’ responses to an evaluative survey of a bachelor business course at a large Belgian university, which was a blended course turned fully online due to the pandemic circumstance. The first research question concerns how preferences relate to the usage of materials. A cluster analysis was conducted to classify students based on their perceived interest and actual access to learning resources. The results show three clusters of students with different preferences and levels of usage towards the four types of study materials provided in the course. However, the majority showed strong favour for multimedia online learning, with Web lectures being prioritised both in perception and access behaviour, while discussion boards receive mixed opinions and the lowest actual participation. The second question follows these up by linking the preference–usage patterns with academic performances. A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to compare the learning performances of students with different preference–usage patterns. The results show no significant differences, which means the students’ preferences and/or usage of study materials has little to no impact on their learning performances in the online course.</p>
</abstract>

As online learning becomes a recurrent component of higher education, there have been growing interests in the interaction between students and educational resources within digital environments so as to understand and facilitate students’ initiative in managing those resources. The present study is an explorative inquiry into the relationships between students’ self-reported preferences of study materials, their actual usage of those materials and their learning performances in online learning. It focuses on analysing the learning management system’s log files, test results and students’ responses to an evaluative survey of a bachelor business course at a large Belgian university, which was a blended course turned fully online due to the pandemic circumstance. The first research question concerns how preferences relate to the usage of materials. A cluster analysis was conducted to classify students based on their perceived interest and actual access to learning resources. The results show three clusters of students with different preferences and levels of usage towards the four types of study materials provided in the course. However, the majority showed strong favour for multimedia online learning, with Web lectures being prioritised both in perception and access behaviour, while discussion boards receive mixed opinions and the lowest actual participation. The second question follows these up by linking the preference–usage patterns with academic performances. A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to compare the learning performances of students with different preference–usage patterns. The results show no significant differences, which means the students’ preferences and/or usage of study materials has little to no impact on their learning performances in the online course.

Measuring usage versus preferences for online study materials among business-majored undergraduates

European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

As online learning becomes a recurrent component of higher education, there have been growing interests in the interaction between students and educational...

Measuring usage versus preferences for online study materials among business-majored undergraduates

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Mar 30, 2023

Page range: 16 - 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/eurodl-2023-0002

Keywords
Online learning, Media preferences, Tool use, Access behaviour, LMS data learning

© 2023 Hoa Phuong Le et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Measuring usage versus preferences for online study materials among business-majored undergraduates

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Mar 30, 2023

Page range: 16 - 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/eurodl-2023-0002

KeywordsOnline learning, Media preferences, Tool use, Access behaviour, LMS data learning

© 2023 Hoa Phuong Le et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Online learning, Media preferences, Tool use, Access behaviour, LMS data learning