Typology of college student perception on institutional e-learning issues - An extension study of a teacher's typology in Taiwan

Recently, e-learning in Taiwan's higher education faces new challenges as the Ministry of Education begins to loosen its control over degree-awarding programs. Studies on stakeholder perceptions toward important e-learning issues become critical at this juncture for policy makers to make viable investment decisions toward e-learning programs. Although a typology of teacher perception with corresponding strategies in e-learning has been studied, the student perspective is missing in the teacher-student dynamics. To comprehend the teacher's and student's perceptions on institutional concerns toward e-learning issues, this study thus develops a student typology based on the methodology and questionnaire items used in a previous study on teachers. Two totally distinct groups of students, namely the skeptics and the optimists, are identified in the cluster analysis using four higher-level issue constructs emerging from a factor analysis of 30 variables. The findings on student typology and comparisons with teacher typology are then summarized along with strategies in the discussion and implications. This study should provide school policy makers a comprehensive insight on stakeholder perceptions for better e-learning decisions.