The Impact of Organizational Efficacy and Flexibility on Small Business Performance.............1

There is little research comparing the perceptions of university students who have been, and have never been, exposed to online classes. We show that about half the students surveyed, who have never taken online classes, have done so intentionally. We measure the perceptions of both groups of students along ten dimensions. The three dimensions along which the exposed students had a significantly favorable perception were a) the extent to which online classes utilize teaching materials personally created or structured by professors, b) the extent to which students feel frustrated by technology, and c) the benefit of interactions with fellow classmates. INTRODUCTION Research into online education at the university level and the perceptions of its many stakeholders—students, professors, administrators, staff, and publishers—is rich in interesting and useful insights. The first instigators were administrators and faculty; the former seeking higher enrollment at lower cost; the latter intrigued by new technological opportunities, not to mention the promise of flexible teaching schedules and mobility. This is exemplified by one of the authors teaching his online courses one semester while traveling to San Francisco, Germany and Morocco. In the limiting case, the online instructor would not have to reside in the same city, or even the same country, as the physical location of the campus would require for traditional courses. This flexibility was considered to be equally applicable as a benefit to the student body. In fact, one would suppose that students prefer this mode of learning over the traditional face-to-face mode. In this paper we shall investigate these expectations and related hypotheses. Research on student perceptions has revealed results in a variety of areas. One area focuses on student perceptions of useful and challenging characteristics aimed at improving online learning in general (Song, et.al., 2004). Another looks at student perceptions in particular courses, such as accounting (Flynn, et.al., 2005) and computer programming (Maltby & Whittle, 2000). Schmidt assessed student perceptions and learning outcomes of traditional face-to-face versus online teaching (2002). Osborne compared student perceptions with faculty perceptions(2009). The existing research is basically aimed at improving the design and delivery of online teaching. It is clear that some students have resisted taking online classes; but the evidence is, for the most part, anecdotal. There are a few references in the literature (such as Muilenburg & Berge, 2004) to students who have never taken online classes, but the researchers’ focus has ISSN: 2163-9280 Spring 2013 Volume 12, Number 1 117 been on students who have never had a chance to take such classes. The implication is they should be given the opportunity, viz. “...they may be especially pleased with this pedagogy as it accommodates their learning-style preferences” (Cicco, 2009). One should not assume, however, that students who have not taken online classes have done so because of a lack of opportunity; again, we decided to investigate the characteristics of the group who chose not to take online courses. Little research has been done on the perceptions of such students regarding online classes. Likewise, do we not know much about how the above perceptions compare to those who have taken on-line classes. This study aims at filling this gap in the context of undergraduate education at the Craig School of Business (CSB) at California State University, Fresno.