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STUDENT SATISFACTION TOWARDS E-LEARNING

Many of multinational organizations and educational institutions are using information technology currently. Information technology has changed the instructing and learning process in educational institutes. The concept of Electronic Learning changed the traditional way of learning and instructing. In this age of information and technology Electronic Learning has appeared as a new interactive learning environment. Number of E- learning degree programs are increasing day by day. Concept of E-learning is not new, it has been in use from many years. According to (Wang, 2003) E- learning is most significant evolvement of communication and information technology. E-learning can be anything i.e. open-learning, online learning, web-based learning, and virtual education. Main source for provision and implementation of virtual education is internet. E-learning enable students to get required knowledge without attending any class. Comment by John Theodore: Please have all the elements specified below in each of your submissions Comment by John Theodore: NCU REQUIREMENTS IN SUBMISSIONS OF ASSIGNMENTS IN ADDITION TO APA REQUIREMENTS NCU Cover Sheet to be placed on the top of each submission. It can be found in the University Resources and Dissertations. Organization of the Content Place an Introduction heading when you start the first page (Page 1). Under the heading place your introductory paragraph(s). Place a Summary and Conclusions heading after you finish the main part of the content. Summarize the content and conclude it with your opinion. Place a Reference heading. Be sure that the references are in the form of Hanging Indentations which means that the second and subsequent lines are five spaces to the right. Citations Place citations in every important/key area in the content of the submitted work. Identification of submitted assignments Your last name, your initials, prefix and number of the course, number of assignment: Smith, J. HRM 5000-8, #1 Comment by John Theodore: Activity Description In this assignment, develop a research outline using the NCU Library, and include an APA reference list of initially identified cited articles for report inclusion. Referring to the proposal submitted in an earlier assignment, develop an outline for your final paper that contains four major sections: - Introduction - Literature Review - Findings  - Future Research Within each section, insert subheadings that provide the skeletal outline of your paper. Detail as many subheadings as possible to illustrate a clearly organized structure to your research paper. Each subheading should have a minimum of three paragraphs (a paragraph should contain approximately 150 words) and should be organized in a logical fashion. Take your time on this assignment and do it right so you do not waste time later when you finalize your research paper. Length:  3-5 pages not including title and reference pages Your paper should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts that are presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy. Upload your assignment using the Upload Assignment button.

Number of tools used in E-learning for example interactive TV for providing lectures, audio and video broadcasting, and so on. According to (khan, 2001) online education, computer mediated learning, online education and etc. all are synonymous of electronic learning. The most substantial benefits of E-learning are easy interaction with instructor and with other learners (Pei-Chen, Ray, Glenn, Yueh-Yang and Dowming, 2006). Most of higher educational institutions are offering their courses through online education paradigm. For example MIT is offering several courses online. E-learning is one of best approach to deliver education in online context. Students are one of the key stakeholders of a university or any educational institute so it is very critical to know about student’s satisfaction, because this can be helpful in tracking performance of an educational institution plus it can depict the list of improvements to increase performance and effectiveness of an institute.

Arbaugh & Duray,( 2002) mentioned in their research that growth rate of E-learning is 36% with number of failure cases. The main factor of E-L implementation failure is the student’s satisfaction. There are number of factors that are affecting student’s satisfaction towards E-learning. The most important factors are students, instructor, their interaction, interface of E-L environment and technical assistance. The student is the main factor, specially his attitude towards E-Learning. If teacher is enable to provide timely response, student will not feel comfortable in online environment and it majorly depends on teacher attitude towards E-Learning. Easy to use interface for online education is very important for students. They feel good and relaxing in learning with new tools and method. Students of higher education are more concerned to quality of course content.

Research Focus:

The aim of our research is to obtain a general view of students’ expectations of, and experiences in e-learning and to analyse how it affect their satisfaction. By means of in depth interview and focus group, we will investigate those expectations and experiences contributing to perceived learning achievements and course satisfaction.

Literature Review:

Education quality:

Education is substantial for survival of knowledge, learning and research. The educational systems which are effective can increase their students learning and performance. Quality education cannot be provided without continuous assessment of an educational system. Quality education includes attributes like healthy learners, ready to learn and participate, safe environment with adequate resources; student centred teaching approaches, relevant course material, positive outcomes, positive participation in society (UNICEF, (2000)). For students, university is best place which can provide them opportunities for developing skills, personal growth and for finding their personal potential (Palli and Mamilla, (2012)). From student perspective quality education is something which adds more value, knowledge to their learning experience and prepares them for future careers. Students want to enhance their competencies to get their dream job. Students are customer of universities, universities can achieve a competitive advantage by satisfying their student’s needs and concerns (Kevin and Dooyoung, (2002)). Comment by John Theodore: Literature Review is based on the research questions asked by the researcher

Student satisfaction and E- learning:

Globalization is a process which affects nearly all fields or areas of human life, education is one of them. Many top institutes from west open their branches in different developing countries of the world (Chinnammai, 2005). Due to technology advancement on learning has changed the whole form of traditional learning. There are number of factors which can affect student satisfaction for E-learning like: Course design, learning material, and electronic course environment. Brophy (1999) considered that the learning material is a major factor for facilitating meaningful learning. The quality of the learning environment and the ease of using online learning management system also contribute to the success and course satisfaction of an e-learning course(Chang & Tung, 2008; Shee & Wang, 2008) and performance (Lee & Lee, 2008). Interaction between instructor and student also play great role in building student satisfaction. These all factors also affect student’s expectation and his educational experience for particular degree program.

Palacio, Meneses and Perez (2002) concluded in their findings that it is very important for researcher to find out what are students expectations before going to university. Understanding student’s expectation can be useful in knowing student perception of quality and standards. Students feel more satisfied, when find a match between their expectations and the service provided, or if service quality is beyond their expectations. Students feel dissatisfied when they receive services less than their expectations, or when there is a Gap between expected service and real service experience (Petruzzellis, Uggento, &Romanazzi, ((2006). Form this we can conclude student’s expectations also play key role in determining their satisfaction or dissatisfaction toward particular educational institute. Higher education institutes now trying to match student’s expectations with their experiences to make them satisfied. Because dissatisfied students can leave out the university.

Research Problem : Comment by John Theodore: The Statement of the Problem indicates the need for research and the Purpose of the Study presents what the researcher intends to do about the problem.

To explore the student expectations and experiences regarding E-learning and their effect on student’s satisfaction.

Objectives of the Research:

· To explore the expectations of students before joining and after joining E-learning degree program.

· To understand the awareness among students of E-learning degree program regarding their expectations and experiences.

Findings : Comment by John Theodore: The Findings include the results of the Purpose of the Study done by the researcher.

Introduction:

In this chapter we will be analysing the data we gathered from crucial themes. These themes would emerged from focus group discussions that will be conducted for data collection. These all themes would represent different types of thoughts, knowledge and observations which participant showed during the focus group discussion. Our main purpose will be to collect information from students regarding their understanding of why they selected E-learning/ online education for their Master degree. On the base of their responses we will find out their expectation and experiences regarding E-learning. Furthermore the idea of an ideal university will be discussed from student’s perspective, purpose would to find out what comes to student’s mind when they think about an ideal university. All the findings of the focus groups will be analysed on base of different set of themes

Findings of the Research

All the end results of the analysis will be outcomes of open coding. Themes will be recognized on base of the similarity of responses given by respondent. The transcripts will be studied repeatedly for development of these themes. This process will be continue until all themes would not emerged.

Future Research:

The sample size of our research will be small and we have only limited number of respondents. More ever further improvements can be made in this research by increasing sample size, by examining specific courses or best-practice examples and so on. Similarly a quantitative analysis can be conducted based on the findings from research

References:

Petruzzellis, L., D’Uggento, A. M. & Romanazzi, S. (2006). Student Satisfaction and Quality of Service in Italian Universities, Managing Service Quality, 16 (4). 349-364.

Pozo-Muñoz, C., Rebolloso-Pacheco, E., & Fernandez Ramirez, B. (2000). The ‘Ideal Teacher’. Implications for student evaluation of teacher effectiveness. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 25(3), 253-263.

Chinnammai S (2005). The effects of globalization on education and culture. Paper delivered at the ICDE International Conference. November 19-23, 2005. New Delhi.

Kevin. E. and Dooyoung, S., (2002), “Student Satisfaction: an alternative approach to assessing this important concept”, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management Vol. 24, No. 2.

UNICEF (2000). Curriculum report card. Working Paper Series, Education Section, Programme Division.

Chang, S. C., & Tung, F. C. (2008). An empirical investigation of students’ behavioural intentions to use the online learning course websites. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39, 71–83.

Lee, J. K., & Lee, W. K. (2008). The relationship of e-learner’s self-regulatory efficacy and perception of e-Learning environmental quality. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 32–47.

Brophy, J. E. (1999). Teaching. Educational practices series (Vol. 1). International Academy of Education & International Bureau of Education. <www.ibe.unesco.org> Retrieved 19.02.09.

Arbaugh, J. B. (2000). Virtual classroom characteristics and student satisfaction with internet-based MBA courses. Journal of Management Education, 24(1).

Khan, B. H. (2001). A framework for web-based learning. Engelwood CliVs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Wang, Y. (2003). Assessment of learner satisfaction with asynchronous electronic learning systems. Information & Management, 41(1), 75–86

Denzin &Y.S.lincoln(Eds.). (2000). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks,CA:Sage

L.Morgan, D. (1997). Focus Groups as Qualitative Research. A Sage university paper Volume 16 of Qualitataive Research Methods. SAGE Publications.