Distance-Education: Satisfaction, Culture of Using Information and Communication Technology and Self- Instructional Learning

The purpose of this article was to measure guidance and high-school students'' satisfaction and success of distance- education schools in developing the culture of using ICT tools and the effectiveness of distance education in students'' self-learning. This was an evaluation study. The statistical population was all distance-education schools in Iran at 2012. A total of 42 schools were assessed in 6 provinces and 875 questionnaires were completed. Three questionnaires at Likert Scale were used. One scale consisted of 26 items to measure students'' attitudes towards distance education، another scale consisted of 9 items to measure students'' attitudes towards self–instructional learning and، finally، another consisted of 21 items measuring employees'' attitudes towards school success in promoting the culture of information and communication technology. Cronbach coefficient for the tools was 0. 63 to 0. 96. The face validity of questionnaires was desirable according to two of the most experienced professors in distance-learning. Results showed that distance education had been more successful in deprived provinces. Educational satisfaction was favorable in both groups of students but the high school students'' satisfaction was higher than guidance students''. Promotion of the use of educational technology was less than acceptable rate. The degree of failure was different in different areas due to their amount of access to facilities. Studying at distance- learning schools had a positive effect on students'' self-learning.