The chilly climate environment : what's happening outside the classroom?

There is a plethora of research concerning the chilly climate for students within the classroom. However there is an absence of literature investigating this phenomenon within distance education. This exploratory research draws from the theories of role strain, academic performance and coping and integrates these theoretical paradigms into the chilly climate, to develop a framework to conceptualise this phenomenon for distance education students. In addition, this paper theorises that women within distance education experience role strain and incorporates the actors for role strain into the chilly climate. The theory saturating the chilly climate is that women are disadvantaged through the lived experience of this phenomenon. Conversely, this research proposes that the independent variable to the overall GPA for women within distance education is the coping strategy chosen by the student. The quantitative analysis indicates that women are outperforming men in GPAs above a credit average. In addition, women studying internally are outperforming their distance education counterparts. This paper intimates that the chilly climate is more complex for women within distance education and it is proposed that Higher Education Institutions recognise that this phenomenon exists and implement marketing strategies that are designed to dissipate the chilly climate environment.