Influence Of Tutors’ Instructional Practices On Students’ Academic Achievement In Distance Education Programme In The University Of Cape Coast, Ghana

Distance education has become an important complement of providing access to quality tertiary education. It is used as a means to build capacity worldwide through the use of technologies, either print, electronic or combination of them. Despite its prominence, distance education delivery has problems that raise issues of quality. This study sought to: assess the extent to which tutors‟ direct teaching practices influence students‟ academic achievement; establish the extent to which tutors‟ class climate management influence students‟ academic achievement; assess tutors‟ motivational teaching practices‟ influence on students‟ academic achievement and assess the usefulness of the modules and its influence on students‟ academic achievement on the distance education programme of University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana. The study hinged on the constructivist theory and employed the embedded mixed-method design which is a strand of the quantitative and qualitative method that integrates into a single study. The study was conducted in 23 study centres of the College of Distance Education, UCC, Ghana. The target population for the study was 6,313 made up of 5,644 Diploma in Basic Education Students, 661 tutors, a Provost, 4 Heads of departments (HoDs) and 3 Regional coordinators. Proportionate stratified sampling and simple random sampling procedures were used to select Students and tutors. The Provost, 4 Heads of department, 3 Regional coordinators were selected by purposive sampling. A sample size of 373 students and 249 tutors were used for the study.