Psychological Distance between Students and Professors in Asynchronous Online Learning, and Its Relationship to Student Achievement & Preference for Online Courses

Relationships between students' perception of psychological distance with online professors and their academic learning achievement and their intention to continue online learning were examined. The courses selected for this study are two online courses: 1) 'English Grammar' and 2) 'TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) Preparation' offered by a campus-based, medium-sized university. This study employed a mixed-methods approach by conducting a survey as well as one-on-one interviews with students. Students who feel psychologically distant with the online professors show significantly lower degree of perceived learning achievement, and higher tendency not to take online courses any more. All the three scales measuring the psychological distance -mutual awareness, connectedness, and availability- with professors turned out to be significantly related with students' perceived learning achievement. According to the result of the interview data analysis, the student interviewees unanimously said that the university should limit the number of online courses that students can register in a semester to one or two courses. Most students regard low interactivity of online learning as inevitable phenomenon. There is a statistically significant difference in perceived learning achievement between the online preferred group and the offline preferred group. Also, there is a significant difference in connectedness and availability and no significant difference in the degree of mutual awareness between the online and the offline preferred group.