世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare got away from earthquake-related topics and instead took a look at continuting studying correspondence courses. The study was conducted in conjunction with Tokyo Legal Mind and their correspondence course program iCara powered by LEC.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th in July 2011 1,723 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.5% of the sample were male, 12.1% in their twenties and 87.9% in their thirties. All of them were businesspersons in fulltime regular employment.

The timing of this is rather apt for me as I have just started doing an online correspondence course on internet marketing. The course starts off with a 30-day build-your-first-business course, with tasks every day; today I have to write a 500 word product summary and a 250 word About page, so spinning this report out over two days will give me a bit of breathing space!

The second half of the survey starts off with the subset of the sample who managed to continue correspondence courses all the way to the end.

As you can see by comparing the results of Q2SQ8 from the previous part and Q2SQ14 in this part, it was those who set a definite duration for their studying that tended to see things through to the end. This is what I am hoping is going to happen with my course too.

Note that attending lectures for correspondence courses includes watching on DVD or online, not just, or not at all attending in person.

Research results

Q2SQ9: Why did you decide to start these correspondence courses? (Sample size=376, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=276	Female N=100
Felt interested, attracted to the topic	35.4%	31.9%	45.0%
Felt it might be necessary in the future	35.1%	36.2%	32.0%
For test taking, advance to further education	26.3%	25.7%	28.0%
Work, school told me to do it	18.4%	21.0%	11.0%
In order to advance at work, school	12.5%	12.7%	12.0%
Just because	9.6%	9.8%	9.0%
Parents, friend, senior, colleague, boss, etc recommended it	8.2%	8.0%	9.0%
To find work, change jobs	8.2%	8.7%	7.0%
People around me were doing it	1.6%	1.8%	1.0%
Other	2.4%	1.4%	5.0%

Q2SQ10: Do you think one of the causes for continuing the correspondence courses was the course materials, curriculum, etc? (Sample size=376)

	All	Male N=276	Female N=100
Yes (to SQ11)	49.2%	47.1%	55.0%
No (to SQ12)	50.8%	52.9%	45.0%

Q2SQ11: What were the good points with the course material, curriculum, etc? (Sample size=185, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=130	Female N=55
Textbook was easy to understand	63.2%	67.7%	52.7%
Volume or frequency of delivery of textbooks was appropriate	50.8%	51.5%	49.1%
Speed of marking papers, providing corrections, etc was good	36.2%	36.2%	36.4%
Was sufficient support	31.9%	30.8%	34.5%
Duration of the course was appropriate	27.0%	22.3%	38.2%
Amount of relevant material was high	21.6%	20.8%	23.6%
DVDs, other non-textbook was easy to understand	21.6%	20.8%	23.6%
Expert lecturers in the curriculum	11.9%	12.3%	10.9%
Other	2.7%	1.5%	5.5%

Q2SQ12: Which of the following were mental, environmental reasons for continuing the correspondence courses? (Sample size=376, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=276	Female N=100
Could make time to study	31.9%	31.9%	32.0%
Was fun to study	21.5%	21.4%	22.0%
Had the inclination to study	20.5%	19.2%	24.0%
Could keep up with the speed of the couse	17.0%	14.5%	24.0%
Could think it suited me	13.8%	14.1%	13.0%
Course was not as hard as I thought	8.8%	8.7%	9.0%
Wasn’t busy at work, school, other activities	7.7%	8.3%	6.0%
Didn’t have something else I wanted to do	3.7%	4.0%	3.0%
Cleanly broke away from playing about	1.1%	1.4%	0.0%
Other	22.1%	21.0%	25.0%

Q2SQ13: What kind of student are you? (Sample size=376)

	All	Male N=276	Female N=100
Enthused by a professional lecturer rather than working under my own steam	53.5%	51.4%	59.0%
Enthused by working under my own steam rather than a professional lecturer	46.5%	48.6%	41.0%

Q2SQ14: When you started studying your correspondence course, did you set up a plan for studying? (Sample size=376)

	All	Male N=276	Female N=100
Without setting a fixed study duration, study in free time	38.3%	40.6%	32.0%
Set a fixed study duration and then study in free time	35.4%	33.3%	41.0%
Set both a fixed study duration and study time	24.7%	23.9%	27.0%
Schedule a holiday and have concentrated study	1.6%	2.2%	0.0%

The final question was for both groups who had taken any correspondence courses.

Q2SQ15: If you were to take a correspondence course in the future, what would be the most important point when selecting? (Sample size=633)

	All	Male N=452	Female N=181
Realistic curriculum	39.5%	38.5%	42.0%
Sufficient study materials	22.9%	23.7%	21.0%
Word of mouth, evaluation	14.1%	14.4%	13.3%
Can attend lectures from specialists	10.4%	10.0%	11.6%
Sufficient support (24 hours support, etc)	3.9%	4.0%	3.9%
Pass rates, number of students	3.6%	4.0%	2.8%
Other	5.5%	5.5%	5.5%