ABSTRACT
Knowing about our students-their demographics, likes, dislikes-is useful in
any teaching situation. What are online students like? What do they enjoy about
online instruction, and what do they dread? How can I reach them when I am
advertising my program? Pertinent student information can help us preview
pitfalls, advertise our programs, and provide a useful benchmark to compare
with our own student populations. In Chapter 2 of Online Education: Global
Questions, Local Answers, I reported the results of a survey investigating
attributes of students in technical communication online distance courses. This
chapter is a replication of that study. Replicating any study in which time might
change the results is necessary; with online education becoming more common
and more accepted nationwide, as students become more comfortable in the
process, and as Internet use increases in every age group, our results might
change. Add in the explosion in online technical communication programs,
which multiplies the geographic range, the number of schools, and the student
populations they draw from, not to mention the growth in online technical
communication PhD programs, and we have an exigence for updating the data.
