| Abstract: | The central intention of this research was to evaluate the status of distance education program
on quality issues of Higher Education Institutions (H EIs) [Public and Private H EIs] at Mettu
town Centers, Ilu Abba Bora Zone. To attain this objective, comparative case study research
method was employed. The subjects of the study were 11 3[1 00 students, 3 center coordinators
and 10 tutors from both HE Is]. To select the target HE Is, availability sampling technique was
used to select public H EI (Jim ma University/JU ), simple random sampling technique was
employed to select the private HE Is (St. Mary’s University-College/SM U C and Rift Valley
University-College/RVU C), stratified sampling followed by simple random sampling (lottery
method) was used to select the students, and availability and purposive sampling techniques
were employed to select center coordinators and tutors respectively. To gather the necessary
data, questionnaire, interview, document analysis and observation checklist were used. The
gathered data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis.
The result of the study showed that with statistically significant difference between the students’
satisfaction about center coordinator services of JU and private HE Is, students of private HE Is
were more satisfied than public H EI with totally no online registration service in both groups.
Students at private H EIs were relatively at higher position in engaging tutorial session and
teaching-learning process than JU . In both groups, the instructional interactions between tutees
and tutors (part timer from anywhere) on tutorial session seems low with tutees who get little
opportunity to discuss except on tutorial days. Concerning modules, quality of the modules of
private H EIs looks more or less at better position than modules of JU . The study also shows that
with statistically non-significant difference between the two groups, stagnantly both groups used
very less technology based learning materials and instructional teaching-learning process,
which inhabit the quality of distance education program. Evidence showed that students’
assessments in both H EIs were only focused on assignment (30%) and final exam (70%), with
poor instructional interaction and less transparency feed-back/evaluation system made by nontutors
of the institutions, and the HEIs haven’t made progressive shift to the current instructional
implementation. Assessment and evaluation techniques were given less emphasis to the student centered
instructional methodology, which has considerably negative impact to the quality of
Ethiopian H E Is of distance education program. Thus, based on the findings of the study,
implications were pointed to mitigate the aforementioned problems. |
