Constructs that contribute to student satisfaction for participating in graduate level courses delivered by full motion interactive fiber optic communications network

摘要

The purpose of this study was to measure constructs that contribute to graduate student satisfaction with interactive televised courses that have been taught via Iowa Communications Network (ICN). In this study student satisfaction with the instructor\u27s communication and teaching skills, accessibility of the instructor out of classroom, course management, course content, and quality of technology was measured by using the Student Satisfaction with ICN (SSICN) questionnaire. Students\u27 needs and their suggestions to improve the quality of education through ICN were identified through five open-ended questions. The population for the study was 690 graduate students who took ICN courses between spring 1996 and spring 1997. From the population, 300 students were selected by using stratified random sampling design. The SSICN questionnaire was mailed to students in the fall, 1997. Two follow-up contacts were made to non-respondents;Descriptive statistics were calculated for each item. Using t-tests to investigate the student satisfaction with each construct, student differences in ratings based on site-type and gender were explored. A correlation analysis was done to investigate the relationships between student satisfaction, age, and motivation. A content analysis of the responses to the open-ended questions indicated student satisfaction with their positive learning experience using interactive televised courses through ICN;The t-test analysis revealed that there were significant differences between male and female students in their satisfaction with accessibility of instructor out of classroom. However, no significant differences were found between male and female students\u27 satisfaction with the constructs when considering only students in the origination site. When considering only the remote site students, t-test analysis shows there were significant differences between male and female students based on their satisfaction with course management and accessibility of instructor out of classroom. This study did not show any significant relationships between student satisfaction, student\u27s age, and motivation for taking ICN courses;From the 150 students who responded to questionnaire, 19 students will not recommend taking ICN courses to other students. Most of those students (17) who did not recommend ICN course to others were from the origination site. Students in both site-types felt that technical problems affected their learning. Course management had the lowest satisfaction rating among all constructs. Students at the remote sites perceived that they did not have access to course materials and reserved material in the library;Students at the remote sites demanded more feedback from the instructors. Based on the results of this study several recommendations were made to improve the quality of the ICN delivery system. One important recommendation called for educators and program planners who deal with distance education at both origination and remote sites simultaneously to give greater attention to the particular needs and concerns of origination site students, and to assure that their needs are also being accommodated during course delivery.