Factors affecting student attendance at online tutorials in TU100 my Digital Life

The information Superhighway has opened up opportunities for people to learn at an advanced level without having to attend a higher education institution. There are a number of tools such as Blackboard which are used to provide online content and to allow students to collaborate both asynchronously and synchronously with their peers and with their Tutor. The Open University (OU) in the United Kingdom (UK) has a track record of utilising technology to allow students to participate in learning without formally attending classes in the traditional way. It has been possible for a number of years to utilise products such as Blackboard Collaborate to provide an online alternative to a traditional tutorial or seminar. The authors experience has shown that students are reluctant to utilise technology to collaborate in online activities as alternatives to the traditional tutorial or seminar. The motivational factor of using technology as part of the E-Learning experience does not appear to be working with low participation rates at on line tutorials from those who attend. This paper seeks to explore student attitudes to participating in online Tutorials on the Open University Course TU100 My Digital life through the use of a questionnaire based survey undertaken with the 2016-2017 module cohort. The paper attempts to interpret the empirical research in order to identify factors which are either encouraging or discouraging students from participating in online Tutorials on the TU100 course my Digital Life.