Abstract

Online education is electronically supported learning that relies on the Internetfor teacher/student interaction and the distribution ofclass materials. Online education has become a viable and exciting method for instructional delivery in the global business society that runs on a 24/7 schedule (24 hours a day/7 days; a week) because it provides students with great flexibility. Online data collection in academic research might be replacing paper-and pencil surveys or questionnaires in the nearfuture. The paper concludes that while online surveys can access large and geographically distributed populations and achieve quick returns, they may no longer be as universally appealing as was once believed. One of the major challenges facing the e-learning researcher is how to analyze the electronic data such as discussion board messages and emails, and then how to understand the implications of this analysis for teaching and learning. Such analysis enables researchers to act upon the situation in order to improve itfor the learners, as well asfor themselves (Lally, 2000). This is particularly challenging when the messages are not only numerous, in the region ofhundreds or even thousands, for a specific research study, but also because they can be both very complicated and very lengthy. Although toolsfor analyzing communication patterns have been developed in other disciplines, for example in applied linguistics, they are generally based upon the analysis oflarge bodies oftext. Key words: Data gathering, analysis, online and education