Thesis advisor: Philip G. Altbach / The literature on Latin American higher education indicates the existence of a relationship between socio-economic status and college enrollment. One of the hypotheses of this study was that in Haiti, socio-economic status is related not only to college access but also to students' ability to enter their preferred field of study. As a result, students from higher socio-economic status were expected to report higher levels of satisfaction with their academic situation. In this quantitative survey study, an instrument was developed and administered to 742 college students in 5 different Haitian institutions in order to determine whether there exists this hypothesized relationship between students' socio-economic status and their satisfaction with their academic situation. Data analysis revealed a weak, negative relationship between students' socio-economic status and their satisfaction with their academic situation. No significant relationship could be established between socio-economic status and access to a preferred field of study, across all students. Instead the study found what seems to be a paradox: although a majority of students were not able to access their desired field of study, they showed a high level of satisfaction with their academic situation. This paradox is explained by the importance of intrinsic factors as well as job prospect in predicting students' satisfaction. Other findings include (a) a low level of participation for women in Haitian higher education, (b) a lower level of satisfaction for Haitian female science, engineering, and technology students, and (c) little differentiation in academic preparation between science, engineering, and technology students and the rest of the sample. Based on the research findings, the study concludes with policy recommendations to help Haitian higher education achieve its economic development mission. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

The study aimed to determine the drivers of student satisfaction with the services offered by a Caribbean university. The study, premised on the marketing concept of customer satisfaction, used the Expectation Disconfirmation Model, a widely used tool, to operationalise the study. The study sought to determine (i) the level of customer (student) satisfaction with the services offered by a Caribbean university; (ii) the factors that influence customer (student) satisfaction level with the services offered by a Caribbean university; (iii) to provide management of the Caribbean university with a means through which the business performance of the institution might be improved and (iv) to identify the conceptual link between a Caribbean university and students' perception of the service it offers. Weighted Importance Scores, Gap Scores, and Overall Satisfaction Scores were computed on the data obtained from 512 students across the two campuses of the university. The analysis revealed that the majority of students were more dissatisfied rather than satisfied with the services and service providers of the university and that students' overall view of the services was poor or fair and that of the service providers more fair than poor. There were, however, instances where students were satisfied or delighted with the services provided by the university. The study uncovered thirteen dimensions - Attitude, Setting, Tangibles, Deliverables, Copying Facilities, Ergonomics, Utilities Responsiveness, Reliability, Security, Communication, Value for Money, Credibility - which drove student satisfaction. Two emergent dimensions, “Value for Money” and “Credibility”, could be considered overarching drivers of students' satisfaction. The findings have implications for practice since it was able to leverage the marketing theory of customer satisfaction on students at higher education and use the Expectation Disconfirmation Theory to model and ascertain student satisfaction. The study was able to identify dimensions and concomitant factors of importance to students on which the university could direct improvement efforts. The study lays claim to originality owing to the uniqueness of the model and the sample used in the study to ascertain drivers of student satisfaction at higher education.

This case study explores what differences exist between two online course models by investigating the results of a student end-of-course evaluation survey and teacher communication logs in two online high school courses. The two course models were designed with different types and levels of interaction, one with high levels of student content interaction, the second with high levels of student-content and student-teacher interaction. The majority of research on interaction in online learning has been conducted with adult learners at the university level. There is far less literature focusing on K-12 online learning while investigating interaction, student satisfaction, and teacher time investment. This case study addresses this gap by exploring the results of 764 student surveys and investigating the teacher time investments of four teachers. In this study the students' perception of their learning experience in both models met the online program's acceptable levels. In some dimensions of the course evaluation, the interactive course had a higher rating that was statistically significant. The teacher communication logs showed a higher teacher time investment in the more interactive courses, with the highest time investment coming from reaching out to inactive students. Due to the shortage of available literature in K-12 online settings regarding interaction, student satisfaction, and teacher time investment, the author recommends additional research in these areas. By continuing to research and understand better about K-12 online learners, this understanding could influence the development of course interaction standards, assist designers in building better courses, and ultimately lead to higher satisfaction for students.

The higher education market is becoming much more competitive as more students are attracted to online courses and online degree programs. In order to remain competitive, higher education institutions must provide students access to online support services. However, an online student support services plan is an often overlooked component of an online initiative even though it is a critical factor in the overall success of an online program. This research specifically focuses on online student support services for students enrolled in fully online degree programs in an effort to identify the most important online student support services from students’ perspectives, students’ perceptions of quality of services offered and, correlations between perceptions of importance and satisfaction. This study employed a mixed method design. Data was collected through semi-structured phone interviews as well as through an online survey with Likert-type questions. Students’ perceived satisfaction and importance levels were explored by analyzing online survey items according to five areas. The five areas were: 1) Institutional Perceptions; 2) Academic Services; 3) Enrollment Services; 4) Student Services; and 5) Online Community. In total, 22 fully online degree students were interviewed and 206 fully online degree students completed and returned the online survey. Grounded Theory was used to analyze the interview data and the Rasch model was used to analyze the survey data. Pearson correlation results indicated that there were positive relationships between importance and satisfaction for each of the five scales analyzed in this study. However, despite the fact that there were small percentages of online survey participants that reported low satisfaction levels with services that were important to them, interview participants reported that they would like access to more online services that were not currently available to them, such as: internship programs, a writing center, professional tutors with content expertise, career services (expanded to include territories/regions of online students), and health services. Findings also indicated that online services could be improved by integrating more options for live interaction with online support services staff. Additionally, the results revealed that online degree student satisfaction is highly dependent on receiving timely responses from online services staff. This dissertation introduces the Importance, Quality and Satisfaction (IQS) Framework. This framework is formed by four domains: services, individuals, systems and environment. By implementing an IQS Framework, institutions have the opportunity to increase student satisfaction levels by providing higher quality and better delivery of their services, systems and environment.

The purpose of this research endeavor was to identify and apply effective strategies to evaluate the efficacy of a university-level general education hybrid nutrition course offered to distance education and on-campus students. A review of relevant literature indicated that student engagement levels, student characteristics, and the use of instructional technology are important to consider when evaluating postsecondary learning environments. Furthermore, the balance of asynchronous and synchronous learning activities within hybrid learning environments should be deemed suitable for the subject matter as well as the receiving student population. Finally, student perceptions and learning outcomes should also be assessed by hybrid course evaluations. The study described in this work established that a standardized general education hybrid nutrition course offered by Utah State University can effectively facilitate learning while generating positive student perceptions from the majority of enrolled distance education and on-campus cohorts alike. All course materials were available online, and were supplemented with weekly, synchronous recitation sessions. Interestingly, the learning outcomes and satisfaction rates of the two student cohorts were similar. However, notable differences in learning preference and performance were identified based on student age alone. Modifications to subsequent versions of the evaluated hybrid course were made based on the findings of the study. Other instructors and course design teams involved in postsecondary nutrition education may view this project as an outline for their own hybrid course development and evaluation efforts, although, limitations did exist and should be acknowledged. An experimental design exhibiting more control over potential extraneous variables, such as instructor, could offer more concrete evidence than the observational nature of the present study. Also, it appears that students' success levels in a given learning environment are not only influenced by instructional measures, but also by the personal and contextual factors of each individual student. Future evaluative efforts should place a greater emphasis on exhibited learning patterns, educational background, and academic discipline of students within the hybrid learning environment. Ultimately, the primary challenge of a modern-day hybrid course is to offer a cohesive and effective blend of uniformity, customization, flexibility, and instructional guidance based on anticipated needs of students.

This research involved an in-depth and holistic investigation into the use of Internet technologies in high school classrooms. Specifically, it combined studies of the physical and psychosocial learning environments operating within these 'technological settings' and investigated interactions among the selected physical and psychosocial factors in influencing students' satisfaction with their learning. Further, the study described how both the physical and psychosocial domains may effectively enable, or alternatively, constrain the teaching methodologies used in these classrooms. The study involved two phases of investigation. The first phase involved a broad examination of the learning environment as measured with a questionnaire containing items measuring aspects of the psychosocial learning environment and with ergonomic site evaluations using a specially designed worksheet and inventory for computerised classrooms. In the second phase of the study, interactions among the physical and psychosocial variables in these measures were explored through the use of selected and detailed case studies from the original sample. Case studies included a more detailed assessment of the physical classroom environment in tandem with classroom observations and student/teacher interviews. The study was conducted in Australian and Canadian secondary schools and so, offers additional insights in the different approaches to technology implementation and teaching practice. The results of the study reveal a number of statistically significant and independent associations between physical and psychosocial factors and further, between psychosocial factors and students' satisfaction with learning. These findings were complemented by similar qualitative findings from the case studies. These quantitative and qualitative results were used to inform a model for educational productivity for ++ / computerised classrooms. The model includes a number of important physical and psychosocial factors which when considered together, may influence student attitudes (and potentially other outcomes) in emerging networked and computerised learning environments.

The students' expectations must be met to ensure their overall satisfaction. Because of this student satisfaction has become a measurement tool with which the universities can compete against each other in order to attract potential students and also a higher level of internal and external funding. This thesis deals with students' overall satisfaction in tourism education at Dalarna University in Sweden. It is important to understand what it takes for the universities to be able to produce a motivated workforce for the communities and how satisfied students could help in achieving this goal. Sweden was selected because of the recent introduction of tuition fees, in 2010, which has made it even more crucial to understand the factors affecting students' satisfaction. The method chosen for conducting this study was a questionnaire where the students of Dalarna University were asked to rate different aspects of their overall experience on a Likert scale. The research was conducted via Facebook and email questionnaire. The results show different levels of satisfaction based on the tourism programmes and gender for example. The major finding from this research implicate that the social conditions and surrounding city categories are the most influential when it comes to the overall satisfaction of students at Dalarna University. The results give the university and the city of Borlänge an insight on issues that really matter to the students and how to improve them.

Colleges and universities worldwide have struggled to find a way to measure student satisfaction in online courses. This study examined the growth of math courses that are delivered in the online format. This study aims to address many gaps in the research literature concerning distance education using technology. In particular, it is the intention of this study to investigate satisfaction and performance of students as a result of taking online courses. There has been an expanding concern over whether students are satisfied and can perform well in courses taken in an online environment. Satisfaction and performance in distance education have always been examined in comparison with traditional education that implements instruction through face-to-face interactions. A careful examination of the research literature also indicates that researchers apply vastly different ways to measure satisfaction and performance. This situation may well be responsible for the inconsistencies among empirical studies in the research literature. The first purpose was to develop and validate an instrument that measures satisfaction regarding taking online courses. The second purpose was to predict student satisfaction (measured through the developed instrument) from the learning characteristics of an online environment. The third purpose was to predict student performance from student satisfaction (measured through the developed instrument) in an online environment. A deductive approach was adopted for this research project and utilized a quantitative research design including surveys. Survey data was collected from adult students who were students in the online College Algebra course at a certain Community & Technical College. The instrument was developed and found to be reliable through confirmatory factor analysis. Using multiple regression for the second question, it was found that age (of students) demonstrated statistically significant absolute and relative effects on satisfaction with online mathematics courses. In other words, satisfaction with online mathematics courses depended on age both individually and collectively. Lastly, using multiple regression and ANCOVA to answer question three, it was found that gains from pretest to posttest did not depend on individual characteristics, learning preferences, and online (learning) environment. Meanwhile, gains from pretest to posttest did not depend on satisfaction with online mathematics courses.

Of the many potential and espoused outcomes of higher education, it was satisfaction that rose to prominence for Alexander Astin, stating, “it is difficult to argue that student satisfaction can be legitimately subordinated to any other education outcome” (1993, p. 273). This high endorsement of the construct of satisfaction is backed by a plethora of arguments of its importance for college and university decision makers. A thorough and accurate rendering of student satisfaction measurement is requisite. To calculate student satisfaction as the magnitude of item endorsement leaves a measure that is sample specific. The goal of a universal and unidimensional measure is only advanced by determining which items do or do not contribute to a model of linearity and unidimensionality. This research utilizes the Rasch model to advance exploration of the variable of student satisfaction. Using data collected from the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory, analysis was conducted to determine if reported ascribed importance and experienced satisfaction adhered to the assumption of the Rasch model. Results suggest that student satisfaction and ascribed importance do adhere to these assumptions of measurement, but only after ordinal rankings of dissatisfaction are collapsed into a single entity. The determined separation of satisfaction and dissatisfaction likens Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory. Additional discussion and implications focus on contrasting analysis when applying the Rasch analysis relative to classical test theory, recommendations of modified instrument scaling to better capture the construct, implications for higher education, and heightened understanding of student satisfaction as a whole.

The aim of this study was to identify the reasons of parents&rsquo / preferring Curriculum Laboratory Schools (CLSs) for their children&rsquo / s education and to investigate whether the students attending Curriculum Laboratory Schools are satisfied with the physical, instructional and social opportunities (services) offered at these schools. The sample of the study consisted of 440 seventh grade students and 14 parents from seven curriculum laboratory schools in the province of Ankara. Two instruments were used for data collection / interview questions for parents and a questionnaire for students. To analyze quantitative data, descriptive statistics such as frequency analyses and percentages were conducted. The open-ended questions in the parents&rsquo / interview were analyzed through content analysis. The results indicated that parents preferred these schools for several reasons including convenient location, technological opportunities, physical conditions and instructional opportunities. However, the availability of the opportunities was not as defined in the CLS model. Nevertheless, the students who were attending CLSs were moderately to highly satisfied with the services provided in the CLSs.