Identifying the communication preferences of distance education students at the Unit for Open Distance Learning

Abstract

Distance education is the future of educating individuals everywhere, and to better understand distance education students the communication preferences play an important part in growing this phenomenon. Distance education could be sustained or built on by a better understanding of the communication preference of distance education students. This study is based on the evaluation of secondary data obtained from the Unit for Open Distance Learning (UODL) call centre at the North-West University. The objective of the study is to analyse the secondary data from phone calls, emails, faxes, SMSs and web responses received at the UODL call centre and to determine the communication preferences of the distance education student at the UODL. A literature review was conducted to clarify distance education, communcation channels and the UODL, as well as the importance of call centres in distance education, barriers in communication over distance and the structures of the UODL. In total, 268 693 phone calls, emails, faxes, SMSs and web response enquiries were evaluated. Conclusions and recommendations for possible solutions and forecasting were made based on the secondary data obtained.