Distance Education References

Napaporn SRICHANYACHON1, n. (2014). THE BARRIERS AND NEEDS OF

ONLINE LEARNERS. Turkish Online Journal Of Distance Education (TOJDE),
15(3), 50-59.
This study focused on the barriers that affect Distance online barriers in Thailand. Some
comparisons were possible barriers with their background specifically related to gender,
computer ownership, and monthly allowance. None of these factors were significant in the
study. The study primarily revealed that the higher the computer aptitude, the more likely
that a student can be successful with engagement in DE. This finding is due to the learner
having fewer barriers to learn online than students with a low computer aptitude. The study
revealed that more problems with using online technology had a greater impact on success
than personal problems for learners.
This finding of this study correlates to the fact that when students understand how to use
technology, they can operate more fluidly and simultaneously focus on the content without
secondary distractions.

OFULUE, C. (2011). SURVEY OF BARRIERS AFFECTING THE USE OF
INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTS) AMONG
DISTANCE LEARNERS: A Case Study of Nigeria. Turkish Online Journal Of
Distance Education (TOJDE), 12(3), 142-154.
The case study is about how developing countries face challenges with Open and
Distance Learning (ODL) due to several barriers. This study highlights that the barriers
includes affordability of purchasing technology, the amount of bandwidth available, and the
perseverance to find technologies to overcome the barriers for ODL. Nigeria ICTs such as
computer, Internet, and mobile telephony for contributing to the ODL platform are primary.
The barriers highlighted are negatively impactful to the possibilities for learners in these
nations to effectively interact with developed nations with consistency.
The problems faced by developing nations experience an international divide to the
possibility of building and collaboration more globally. As a result, the learners borders are
not getting flatter and thus their exposure to gain new ideas for improvement for their nation
remain limited.

Muilenburg, L. Y., & Berge, Z. L. (2005). Student Barriers to Online Learning: A factor analytic
study. Distance Education, 26(1), 29-48.
This study was conducted in the U.S. and focus on the barriers to student online learning.
The eight factors highlighted were administrative issues, social interaction, academic skills,
technical skills, learner motivation, time and support for studies, cost and access to the
Internet, and technical problems with the computers. The study revealed that the primary
barrier to students learning online was the lack of social interaction, and learner motivation
followed closely behind. Less important barriers were technical problems and cost or access
to the Internet. Participants rated the lack of technical or academic skills very low on the
scale for obstacles to learn.
The highest rankings to the detriment for U.S. learners are both dealing with the learners
figuring out how to socialize in others ways outside of the formal setting for educational gain
and learner motivation, which is an intrinsic, will that one must have or attain to be
successful with DE. It was not surprising that academic or technical skills ranked low in the
study. My thought is that technologies are so mainstream in society that almost every learner
can have some access to technology even if it is at the public library.