Factors that influence decision-making over online and face-to-face examination preparation training courses

Distance education has become a widely used means in both campus and training institutions. Yet, a huge gap still exists between the market shares of online courses and traditional classroom courses. This study seeks to investigate the factors that influence students’ decisions of not accepting online courses over traditional classroom courses. The researchers conducted interviews and questionnaires to survey 318 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) students and nine interviewees. The main findings are as follows: 1) in general, students are more likely to select traditional courses over online courses; 2) external factors such as price, characteristics of instructors and courses, and internal factors like gender and age play an essential part in decision making; 3) incorporation between digital techniques and online courses is too insufficient to maximise the effectiveness of online courses. The researcher believed the biggest obstacle is that the training agency lacks careful consideration from the perspective of students.