Continuing correspondence courses: part 1 of 2

By Ken Y-N ( July 26, 2011 at 00:19) ? Filed under Lifestyle, Polls

iShare got away from earthquake-related topics and instead took a look at continuting studying correspondence courses. The study was conducted in conjunction with Tokyo Legal Mind and their correspondence course program iCara powered by LEC.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th in July 2011 1,723 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.5% of the sample were male, 12.1% in their twenties and 87.9% in their thirties. All of them were businesspersons in fulltime regular employment.

The timing of this is rather apt for me as I have just started doing an online correspondence course on internet marketing. The course starts off with a 30-day build-your-first-business course, with tasks every day; today I have to write a 500 word product summary and a 250 word About page, so spinning this report out over two days will give me a bit of breathing space!

In Q2, doing a correspondence course while at school seems such an alien concept to me, but in Japan with cram schools being almost a necessity, more than likely most of the one in four who did correspondence courses as a child were studying for entrance exams.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever taken any correspondence course, online lectures, e-learning, etc? (Sample size=1,723)

?	All	Male N=1,356	Female N=367
Yes	34.1%	31.7%	43.1%
No	65.9%	68.3%	56.9%

Q2: Have you ever taken a correspondence course? (Sample size=1,723)

?	All	Male N=1,356	Female N=367
Yes, when at school (to SQ1)	17.2%	15.9%	22.1%
Yes, after graduating (to SQ1)	12.2%	11.7%	14.2%
Both at school and after graduating (to SQ1)	7.3%	5.8%	13.1%
No, never	63.3%	66.7%	50.7%

Q2SQ1: Did you ever continue a correspondence course right to the end? (Sample size=633)

Q2SQ2: Why did you decide to start these correspondence courses? (Sample size=257, multiple answer)

?	All	Male N=176	Female N=81
For test taking, advance to further education	31.1%	29.5%	34.6%
Felt interested, attracted to the topic	30.4%	25.6%	40.7%
Felt it might be necessary in the future	27.6%	26.7%	29.6%
Just because	16.0%	14.8%	18.5%
In order to advance at work, school	12.5%	13.1%	11.1%
Parents, friend, senior, colleague, boss, etc recommended it	11.7%	12.5%	9.9%
To find work, change jobs	8.6%	7.4%	11.1%
Work, school told me to do it	5.8%	6.8%	3.7%
People around me were doing it	3.9%	4.0%	3.7%
Other	1.2%	0.6%	2.5%

Q2SQ3: For how long since deciding to start study did you seriously study your correspondence course? If you did more than one, choose the shortest time. (Sample size=257)

?	All	Male N=176	Female N=81
Gave up immediately	10.5%	12.5%	6.2%
Three days	8.9%	9.1%	8.6%
One week	16.0%	18.2%	11.1%
One month	28.8%	29.5%	27.2%
Three months	22.6%	18.2%	32.1%
Six months	5.8%	4.0%	9.9%
One year	7.4%	8.5%	4.9%

Q2SQ4: Do you think one of the causes for not continuing the correspondence courses was the course materials, curriculum, etc? (Sample size=257)

Q2SQ5: What were the problems with the course material, curriculum, etc? (Sample size=79, multiple answer)

?	All	Male N=59	Female N=20
Textbook was difficult to understand	38.0%	33.9%	50.0%
Speed of marking papers, providing corrections, etc was poor	35.4%	30.5%	50.0%
Volume or frequency of delivery of textbooks was inappropriate	34.2%	33.9%	35.0%
Amount of relevant material was low	29.1%	28.8%	30.0%
Was insufficient support	22.8%	20.3%	30.0%
Duration of the course was inappropriate	12.7%	10.2%	20.0%
DVDs, other non-textbook was difficult to understand	11.4%	10.2%	15.0%
No expert lecturers in the curriculum	7.6%	6.8%	10.0%
Other	7.6%	8.5%	5.0%

Q2SQ6: Which of the following were mental, environmental reasons for not continuing the correspondence courses? (Sample size=257, multiple answer)

?	All	Male N=176	Female N=81
Fell behind on the course so became to much bother to keep going	37.0%	32.4%	46.9%
Wasn?t fun to study	35.8%	36.4%	34.6%
Had time but not the inclination to study	34.2%	33.5%	35.8%
Couldn?t make time to study	30.4%	26.7%	38.3%
Got busy at work, school, other activities	23.3%	23.3%	23.5%
Couldn?t stop playing about	14.0%	14.8%	12.3%
Didn?t feel it suited me	14.8%	14.2%	16.0%
Found something else I wanted to do	4.3%	4.5%	3.7%
Course was far much harder than I thought	7.8%	8.0%	7.4%
Other	7.4%	6.3%	9.9%

Q2SQ7: What kind of student are you? (Sample size=257)

?	All	Male N=176	Female N=81
Enthused by a professional lecturer rather than working under my own steam	65.4%	60.2%	76.5%
Enthused by working under my own steam rather than a professional lecturer	34.6%	39.8%	23.5%

Q2SQ8: When you started studying your correspondence course, did you set up a plan for studying? (Sample size=257)

?	All	Male N=176	Female N=81
Without setting a fixed study duration, study in free time	61.9%	61.9%	61.7%
Set a fixed study duration and then study in free time	25.7%	24.4%	28.4%
Set both a fixed study duration and study time	12.5%	13.6%	9.9%
Schedule a holiday and have concentrated study	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%

Read more on: club bbq,correspondence,icara,ishare

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