Impact of Communication Apprehension and Communication Skills Training on Interaction in a Distance Education Course

The importance of providing students with skills necessary for success in distance education classrooms is uncontested; however, few universities have done so. This case study sought to answer two questions: (a) What was the impact of communication apprehension (CA) on distance education students who experience the trait; and (b) What was the impact of a skills training session on interaction in a distance education course? Findings indicate that communication apprehensive students could not be motivated to interact regardless of interventions; however, non-CA students did benefit from the skills training session. An outline for a recommended skills training session based on recommendations from the literature and this study is included along with implications for educational practice. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. This article is available in Journal of Applied Communications: https://newprairiepress.org/jac/vol84/iss4/1 Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 84, No. 4, 2000 / 7 Impact of Communication Apprehension and Communication Skills Training on Interaction in a Distance Education Course Kathleen Dodge Kelsey Kathleen Dodge Kelsey is an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University, Department of Agricultural Education, Communications, and 4-H Youth Development. Funding for this study was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, Higher Education Challenge Grants Program. The author is not a member of ACE at this time. Abstract The importance of providing students with skills necessary for success in distance education classrooms is uncontested; however, few universities have done so. This case study sought to answer two questions: (a) What was the impact of communication apprehension (CA) on distance education students who experience the trait; and (b) What was the impact of a skills training session on interaction in a distance education course? Findings indicate that communication apprehensive students could not be motivated to interact regardless of interventions; however, non-CA students did benefit from the skills training session. An outline for a recommended skills training session based on recommendations from the literature and this study is included along with implications for educational practice. Interpersonal interaction in the learning context has been touted as the Holy Grail of effective education. Scholars (Bandura, 1977; Dewey, 1938; Holmberg, 1983) have demonstrated the importance of interaction theoretically and empirically in that learning is positively correlated to interaction. Nevertheless, there are a number of learners who choose not 50 / Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 84, No. 4, 2000 lematic, however, given at least one of the findings of this research. The orientation of programs differed somewhat with one half of the programs focusing predominantly on professional skills and the other half focusing on both professional and critical skills. Any accreditation process, then, would need to be flexible enough to accommodate both orientations, yet at the same time, be specific enough to be meaningful. Because this survey studied only the southern states, a national survey is necessary to ascertain whether a consensus of agricultural communications faculty supports accreditation. Should such a survey indicate national support for an accreditation process, then additional research focusing solely on standards needs to be conducted.