Supplementary materials for PhD thesis “Perceptions of transactional distance: a comparative study of distance learning in the UK and Russia”

This dataset comprises the files contained on a CD-ROM which was attached to the thesis when it was submitted in 2007. It was uploaded to ORDO in 2024 for preservation purposes. For more information, please refer to the thesis  “Perceptions of transactional distance: a comparative study of distance learning in the UK and Russia” via ORO.

Abstract

This study addressed a need for more empirical comparative research on distance and e-leaming through exploring learner perceptions of transactional distance theory, one of the most influential theoretical frameworks in the field.

It investigated the role of different models of integrating the Web into distance teaching and learning, cultural milieu and institutional contexts in shaping learner experiences of distance study on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Management and Technology at of the Open University in the United Kingdom and the International Institute of Management LINK in the Russian Federation.

The results of quantitative data analysis suggested that the participants enrolled on different types of online courses and courses of similar content taught in different countries differed significantly on virtually all of the dimensions of transactional distance. The analysis of qualitative data supported the salience of cultural factors in shaping distance learner experiences. In their accounts of the challenges of learning at a distance UK students stressed the importance of independence and the need for flexibility in delivering course content, while their Russian colleagues suggested that formal nature of online discourse and insufficient number of face-to-face sessions created additional difficulties to their successful progress on the programmes under study.

Based on the findings of this project, a new conceptual framework of research into transactional distance was proposed which highlighted the importance of immediate course contexts, wider social factors and mediating effects of individual learner characteristics.

Drawing on the results of empirical work a new definition of the concept of transactional distance was provided, which conceptualised transactional distance as primarily a context-specific phenomenon.