Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies: Home

Abstract:
Distance education at the tertiary level is increasing at an alarming rate in Ghana although it took off in the late 1990s. In order to support students to succeed in their academic pursuits, the Universities had adopted face-to-face tutorial sessions to supplement the independent study. This study addresses two such institutions in Ghana - University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The study adopted the cross-sectional descriptive analytical survey research design using a multi-staged sampling method. In all, 120 distance education students responded to the questionnaires. Data was analyzed using both descriptive statistics and narratives. The major findings were that weekend tutorials, regional study centres and availability of modules were not the most vital needs of the distance students as they prefer face-to-face to online support. Also, direct phone calls and text messaging were the most preferred means of communication within the tutorial support system. Students would like tutorials to run throughout the academic year. They prefer at least between five to six 'Tutorial sessions' per course per semester. It was concluded that tutorial sessions are vital to the sustainability of the distance education programmes in the two universities as it gave the students opportunity to interact with peers and tutors in improving their learning and academic work.

Keywords: distance education, tutorials, tutorial needs, distance education students, teaching and learning needs

Download full paper