“HOME SWEET HOME”: PRECLUDING TWO SOURCES OF ACADEMIC STRESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGH DISTANCE /E-LEARNING

This paper compares student psychological cost—especially in relation to stress and anxiety caused by academic requirements—of traditional higher education with that incurred by distance/e-learning, with the two kinds of track found to have both similarities and differences. Two potential sources of academic stress are then investigated more thoroughly. The first consists of requirements for class participation, which can cause stress and anxiety in shy or introverted students who find it difficult to speak before or within groups. The second consists of conflicts between student expectations of the educational situation and actual teacher or classmate behaviours and attitudes, a potentially stressful mismatch which occurs most often in cross-cultural education. These two sources of academic stress are found to be much more prevalent in traditional education venues than in distance/ e-learning. It is suggested that students, especially international students and those with social anxiety, take these factors into consideration when choosing whether to enter a traditional higher education or a distance/ e-learning track.