Anxiety levels and factors which engender them among tertiary distance learners

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Abstract

This paper reports on a study of anxiety levels of distance learners and their opinions about factors which affect their anxiety towards studying by the distance mode. The study was prompted by two main reasons. First, anxiety has been found to have negative correlations with student’s achievement, as well as affective outcomes within conventional face-to-face education. There is a dearth of literature on this important psychological issue in distance learning. Second, the distinctive methods and nature of distance education are such that personal, psychological, environmental and other related factors play important roles in distance learning. Do these factors as well as the distinctive methods of distance education probably create other difficulties with studies which could lead to anxiety amongst distance learners?

Two instruments were developed and used to collect data from 222 distance education students at The University of Southern Queensland. They are the Affect Adjective Checklist on Distance Learning and the Student Opinionnaire on Factors which Affect Learning at a Distance. The data collected was analysed using the statistics of T-test, ANOVA, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation.

The results indicated that distance learners exhibit high level of anxiety toward their studies; and that the factors like Environment, Content of study materials, Time, Readiness, and Finance correlated significantly with both pre and post semester anxiety scores. The educational and research implications of the results were highlighted.