THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL CAPITAL AND PERSONALITY TRAITS ON STUDENTS' E-LEARNING EXPERIENCE

摘要

E-learning has quickly become an important component in Higher Education. A recent study by Sloan Consortium shows that nearly thirty percent of higher education students take at least one course online each semester (Allen and Seaman 2010). However, most of the studies on online learning are descriptive and exploratory (Tallent-Runnels et al. 2006). In this study, we develop measurements for social capital in online classes and investigate its influence on students' learning experience. Further, though the relationship between personality and academic performance has of ten been studied in the psychology and education literature, the findings are mixed with few studies addressing this relationship in the e-learning context (O'Connor and Paunonen 2007). Our study attempts to fill the research gap by addressing the following research questions: Is social capital crucial for students' e-learning experience? Does personality influence students' learning experience in online classes? Will the existence of social capital further increase the satisfaction of those students who are more socially oriented?