Browsing by Author "Mattern, Emilie"

The coronavirus outbreak disrupted life around the globe in 2020, which led to the suspension of face-to-face teaching. Based on previous research, it is clear that student participation in face-to-face lectures has a positive impact on their academic performance. Now, however, we find ourselves in a situation where it is not even physically possible to attend lectures. This raises the question of how distance education has affected the level of students’ academic performance and how do students experience distance education. The aim of this mixed methods study is first to quantitatively identify the effect of distance education on the level of students’ academic performance when compared to the results of normal course implementation. The results were obtained by examining the exam results and the course assignment results of a total of 728 students over a three-year period from the same course, two of which were implemented normally and one remotely due to the coronavirus outbreak. The preliminary analysis of the first phase raised the need to examine these results in more depth through qualitative analysis. The aim of the qualitative analysis is to find out how students experienced distance education in the Quantitative research methods 1 course. This second phase of the study consisted of eight students, whose exam results were also reviewed in the first phase of the study. Staying true to the mixed methods’ Explanatory Sequential Design, the final phase of the study sought to explain the results of the quantitative phase with the help of the qualitative results. In other words the students’ experiences sought to explain the fluctuation of the level of students’ academic performace. The quantitative part of the study showed that distance education had a positive effect on the level of students’ academic performance. A statistically significant positive correlation was found when examining the overall exam grade, the exam question scores regarding the lectures and exercises, and the course assignment results. The qualitative part of the study showed that students associated both positive and negative experiences regarding distance education. Positive experiences were related to the utilization of lecture recordings, the choices of the lecturer, and the benefits of a distance exam, while negative experiences were related to a lack of interaction, challenges in organizing one’s own work, and IT related probelms. This study shows that it is in the interest of both students and the university to provide lecture recordings regardless of how the course is organized.