An Empirical Comparison of the Academic Performance of Students in the Distance Learning and Traditional Classroom Environment

Abstract

The importance of distance learning programmes in tertiary institutions around the globe, cannot be over-emphasized, as it provides an alternative mode of obtaining a university degree, through the use of information technology. Currently, the world is operating in a technology and social media dominated era where millions of citizens can access limitless information. This study investigates the academic performance of graduates from traditional, and distance learning, modes of education in accounting and business administration courses, with the goal of determining the existence of differences in academic performance. The measure of academic performance considered in this study is the graduating Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of students. The results suggest that although marginal differences exist between the categories of students in performance, these differences are not significant enough to suggest difference in a performance due to the study mode, thus, this study concludes that performance of students in the selected courses is similar irrespective of the mode of education.