An Evaluation of the Status of Distance Education Program in Public and Private Higher Education Institutions at Mettu Centers: A Comparative Analysis on Quality Issues

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.