Abstract—This study is based on the separation of teachers
and learners caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the
implication of Moore’s Transactional Distance Theory, which
proliferated for nearly 30 years but has been inconsistently
validated empirically. The quantitative approach was employed,
with questionnaires distributed based on the learners’
perspectives. The subjects of the study include 153 respondents
from computer science department of an Indonesian public
university. Three key tenets of transactional distance include
dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy were specifically
addressed and validated as significant predictors in this study.
The findings elucidated an inverse relationship between
dialogue and learner autonomy respectively with transactional
distance, and a less rigid course structure capable of
contributing to lessen the perceived degree of transactional
distance in the e-learning environment. Furthermore, this study
discovered that e-learning satisfaction and internet connection
speed had an impact on the extent of transactional distance.
Index Terms—Computer science students, COVID-19,
E-Learning, higher education, transactional distance.
The authors are with the College of Education, National Chung Cheng
University, Min-Hsiung, Chia-Yi, Taiwan (e-mail: maurishsrb@gmail.com,
grcyjc@gmail.com).
Cite: Maurish S. R. Batita and Yau-Jane Chen, "Revisiting Transactional Distance Theory in e-Learning Environment during COVID-19: Perspective from Computer Science Students," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 548-554, 2022.
Copyright © 2022 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).