Academic Engagement and Perceptions of Quality in Distance Education

Students taking courses by distance learning were asked to complete the Academic Engagement Form and the Course Experience Questionnaire. Usable data were obtained from 238 students with a hearing loss and 166 students with no reported disability. Their scores on the two instruments were highly correlated and shared over 80% of their variance. However, they showed different patterns of relationship with background variables (age, faculty, gender, hearing status and prior qualifications) and made distinct contributions to students' ratings of their general satisfaction with their courses. The role of course tutors in supporting academic engagement was crucial to the students' perceptions of the academic quality of their courses, and this relationship mediated the association between the reported attitudes and behaviour of the tutors and the students' general satisfaction with their courses.