Integrating ICT into higher education: what onsite and online students are thinking about it

Abstract

For the past two decades, information and communication technologies (ICT) have transformed the ways professors teach and students learn. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of onsite students (hybrid or blended mode) and of those taking the same courses on the Internet (online mode). To guide the study, a moderator-type theoretical research model was developed, out of which nine hypotheses were formulated. The model was tested in a field experiment. To collect data, we used a multimethod approach, that is, a Web survey involving open- and close-ended questions. The sample was formed of 313 onsite and online students from eight undergraduate and graduate courses offered at the Faculty of Administration of a large Canadian university. The quantitative data analysis was performed using a structural equation modeling software, that is, Partial Least Squares (PLS); the qualitative data were analyzed following a thematic structure using QSR NVivo. In this paper we present a summary of the quantitative results (close-ended questions) supported and enriched by the qualitative results of the students (open-ended questions).