This document summarizes a study on students' expectations and satisfaction with online post-graduate courses. The study examined students' expectations across 9 dimensions and their satisfaction levels upon completion. It found that students had high expectations for resources and were most satisfied with the curriculum and faculty. Support services had the lowest satisfaction ratings. Dimensions of the course were highly correlated, and the study provides insights to improve weaker areas and guide online course design.

1. STUDENTS' EXPECTATION AND
SATISFACTION IN POST-GRADUATE
ONLINE COURSES
Susana Lemos
Neuza Pedro
Institute of Education - University of Lisbon
Rhodes, Greece, July 2012

2. 1. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE RESEARCH
 E-learning practices are now becoming a reality in
Portuguese Higher Education
 There is still reduced knowledge regarding this
experiences from students perspective
 Only a few studies have focused on students’ general level
of satisfaction and even less on their previous expectations
 There is still a gap in evaluation studies that identify the
advantages of a e-learning courses, through students point
of view.

3. 2. RESEARCH GOALS
To know the reasons by which students opt for a online program
To identify levels of students ‘expectations regarding the e-
learning Masters Degree
To analyze student satisfaction at a general level and
specific indicators
To understand how each dimension of the course relates to
another.
To identify the main strengths and weaknesses on the course
indicated by the students

4. 3. METHOD
Descriptive-correlational study
PARTICIPANTS
 Group of students who attended the first e-learning
post-graduate program in the University of Lisbon – a
Master degree in ICT and Education (N=33)
 Their ages varied between 28 and 55 years, and all of
them had Portuguese nationality
 39% had no prior experience in e-learning courses
 33.3% prior experience as students

5. 3. 1 METHOD
INSTRUMENTS
─ The study was based on student responses to online
questionnaires applied at the beginning and at the end of the
courses.
─ The questionnaires allows to collect data about:
• Students level of expectation
• A global satisfaction score
• A general satisfaction score (of each dimensions)
• A specific satisfaction score (of each indicator)
─ The 1st questionnaire was constituted by 9 dimensions
─ The 2nd questionnaire was constituted by 93 items
─ All of the items revealed high levels of consistency

6. 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
This presentation focuses on the first and second moments of
the research

7. Coordination
Course Faculty
Both constructs, Design and tutors
expectations and
satisfaction
were analyzed from a Technological Curricular
infra program
multi-dimensional structures
DIMENSIONS
perspective
and 9 dimensions
were considered: Support Resources
services
Evaluation Learning
system Methodologies

8. 4. RESULTS
STUDENTS EXPECTATIONS
General Expectations Highest Expectations Lower Expectations
Scale: 1 – 7
Favorable levels of ‘Resources’ ‘Course Design’
expectation Dimension Dimension
(m = 6.06) (m = 6.36) (m = 5.55)

9. 4.1 RESULTS
STUDENTS SATISFACTION
GLOBAL score (m= 3.71) GENERAL score (m= 3.77)
Favorable levels of satisfaction
Highest  (D4) - Curricular program  (D3) - Faculty and tutors
satisfaction
• D4Item6 – Easiness of
level
access to curricular content
 D5Item6 – Etical and legal
issues
Lowest  (D8) - Support services  (D8) - Support services
satisfaction
• D8Item6 – Centralization of
level
services that maintain the
technological infrastructures
 D6Item6 – Adjusted distribution
of time for completing tasks

10. 4.2 RESULTS
Expectations Satisfaction
The different dimensions present strong and positive correlation with each
other
Dimensions most strongly correlated:
Dimensions most strongly correlatd:
D2 – D3; D3 – D5; D3 – D8; D3 – D9;
D4 – D6 e D8 – D9 D2 – D6; D3 – D6; D4 – D5; D6 – D7;
D6 – D9 e D7 – D9
- Strong and significant correlations
were found between the curricular - Strong and significant correlations
program dimension and the were found between the learning
resources dimension methodologies dimension and
coordination, faculty and tutors,
- Highly significant correlations was also evaluation systems and infra-
found between infrastructures and structure
support systems

11. 5. CONCLUSIONS
– High level of student expectations and satisfaction
regarding the course.
– The students showed higher expectations for the
‘resources’ dimension – focusing on providing simple,
useful, diverse and attractive materials.
– High level of student satisfaction – not only in a global
perspective of analysis but also in a descriptive approach
when 9 dimensions were distinguished

12. 5. CONCLUSIONS
– The students were mostly satisfied with ‘curricular
program’ and ‘faculty and tutors’ dimensions and
specifically with indicators as
• ‘easiness of access to content’
• ‘ethical and legal concerns regarding resources used’
– The ‘Support services’ dimension revealed the lowest
level of student satisfaction
– The lowest satisfaction indicators levels were
• ‘Centralization of services that maintain the
technological infrastructures’
• ‘Adjusted distribution of time for task completion’

13. 6. CONTRIBUTIONS
– To understand the impact of the distinct dimensions of e-
learning courses in students’ expectacion and satisfaction.
– Each particular dimension needs to be seen through its
direct and indirect effect on student satisfaction.
– E-learning courses should be seen through a
multidimensional perspective.
– It is essential taking into account the dimensions and
indicators with the highest levels of expectation and
satisfaction.
• quality of faculty and tutors
• suitability of resources and curricular program.

14. 6. CONTRIBUTIONS
– Improvement of the dimensions and indicators with the
lowest levels of student satisfaction:
• support services.
– Aspects that need to be reviewed:
• student feedback
• appropriate workload.
• articulation between curricular units
• technical and academic support services
Construction of a guiding framework for e-learning
courses

15. THANK YOU
Susana Lemos (silemos@ie.ul.pt)
Neuza Pedro (nspedro@ie.ul.pt)
Institute of Education - University of Lisbon
ICITE 2012: International Conference on Information
Communication Technologies en Education
Rhodes, Greece, july 2012