Student attitudes, learning effectiveness, and costs/benefits pertaining to military logistics courses offered in the residence, on-site, and satellite television modes of instruction

This descriptive study investigated student attitudes, learning-effectiveness, and costs associated with the residence, on-site, and satellite television modes of instruction for three courses offered by the US Army Logistics Management College. Attitudinal data were collected from 465 military and civilian adult learners pertaining to 13 subscales that measured student attitudes about instructor and instructional competencies. Additional data were collected and analyzed for the purpose of clarifying student perspectives pertaining to mode preference, training on the job, and broadcast television. In addition, the relative learning-effectiveness and the costs/benefits pertaining to the three modes of instruction were identified and analyzed.; It was hypothesized that (a) student attitudes would be equally positive towards satellite television when compared with the residence and on-site modes, (b) that learning-effectiveness would be equal among all three modes, and (c) that costs of course development, and (d) costs of course implementation would be equal among the three modes.; It was concluded that student attitudes towards all three modes were positive, however, attitudes towards the television mode were less positive than for the residence and on-site modes. While statistically significant differences were found for the main effects, it was concluded that they may not have been statistically practically significant. Consistent with previous research, it was found that adult attitudes towards instructional modes often may not matter when course need is strong, because the motivations associated with the higher exigencies of life may subsume modal attitudes.; Equal learning was achieved among the three modes with respect to knowledge, comprehension, and application level objectives. While learning of higher order skills was achieved in all three modes, it was achieved to a significantly lesser degree in the television mode, however, the differences were small enough to suggest that the effects may not have been significantly practically significant. Insufficient empirical data precluded any conclusions with respect to the costs of course development, however, it was found that over time, the television mode is less costly to implement.; Recommendations for further study include examining the effectiveness of different teaching methodologies for teaching higher order skills in distance learning programs, and investigating attitudinal and learning effects caused by differences in student perceived need for selected courses.