Improving the face-to-face tutorial system of distance education in Universitas Terbuka
Date
1994
Authors
Sari, Lisdiana
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Abstract
The effectiveness of the face-to-face tutorials of Universitas Terbuka in Indonesia was examined in this study. The grades on two courses of the students who engaged in intensive tutorials were compared to the grades of those who participated only one or two times per semester.
The data obtained in this study were gathered from questionnaires administered to 588 students from two Regional Centers in Jakarta and in Pontianak. The study also examined the relationship between students' frequencies of attending the tutorial and their achievement on Mathematics and Introduction to Basic Science (IAD) courses.
Five conclusions were reached:
1. The results indicated that there were four factors that influence students to attend the tutorial: the student's professional background, student's academic backgrounds, reasons to attend the tutorial, and tutorial behavior;
2. The results indicated that different learning outcomes of different subject matters were accounted for by different sets of predictors. For IAD, the variable, "encourage an intensive decision", made the highest contribution of eight variables, R=.979, f (64,76)= 26.86, p< .01, to predicting the variability in grasping the essence of the tutorial. The variable, "discuss the last exam", made the highest contribution of eleven variables R= .928, f(64,76)=7.34, p<.01, to predicting the variability in frequency of attending the tutorial. The variable, "to ask about some difficulty in the tutorial", made the highest contribution of two variables R= .541, F(65,75)= .48, p<.05, to predicting the variability in the student achievement on IAD.
For Mathematics, the variable, "to communicate with tutor", made the highest contribution of six variables R=.994, F(42,0)= .963, p<.01, to predicting the variability in frequency of attending the tutorial. The variable, "hesitate to study", made the highest contribution of four variables R=.964, F(42,0)=.098, p<.05 to predicting the variability in students' achievement on Mathematics. Only two variables contributed significantly to students' Mathematics achievement R=.844, F(42,0)=.028, p<.01. The variable, "the modules are too difficult", made the highest contribution to predicting the variability in students' achievement on Mathematics;
3. There were nine tutoring behaviour variables included in the analysis. The results indicated that the interrelationship among the variables was relatively high and positive. The correlation between student learning outcomes and two variables, frequency of attending the tutorial and ability to grasp the essence of the tutorial, was positive and significant (p< 0.5);
4. There were no significant differences in frequencies of attending tutorials and achievement levels either on IAD or on Mathematics;
5. The results indicate that male students showed better achievement results than did female students on both IAD and Mathematics.
The results found in this study are discussed in terms of implications both for improving the tutorial programs and for improving students' achievement levels at Universitas Tebuka. Recommendations for further research are provided.