Higher education in the United States has a long history. Until the mid-1970's, higher education was primarily a not-for-profit industry. The rise of for-profit educational institutions (FPEIs) in the United States has created competition for traditional not-for-profit educational institutions (NFPEIs). As the growth of FPEIs continues, educational organizations are adopting businesslike approaches and quality measures to retain students. Measuring student satisfaction is one method for determining service quality, and can provide valuable insight into the students' expectations and perceived service quality. The recent introduction of an FPEI's audio production program in the Central Texas region has created competition for an already established NFPEI. In an attempt to find out whether expectation, satisfaction, or service gap differences exist between the programs, student satisfaction feedback was solicited from audio production enrollees at both institutions via the Noel-Levitz® Student Satisfaction InventoryTM. The instrument was used as a comparative tool at the program level and included 10 additional audio-production items. To aid in understanding how the local programs compare to one another, results were compared between the programs as opposed to using the national institutional-level benchmarks provided by Noel-Levitz®. Results indicate similar expectations in terms of priorities, but students at the FPEI have higher expectation levels overall. The satisfaction priorities had similarities as well, but students at the FPEI reported lower satisfaction in general. Finally, service gap measures indicated greater service gaps at the FPEI than at the NFPEI.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the preferences of online students for technology-based learning environments (TBLEs) as influenced by the level of social presence in the online courses the participating students have taken. This investigation was centered around utilizing TBLEs and methods for establishing social presence in online classes (MESPOC) survey instruments to obtain the preferences of current online students at public university in the state of Texas. This study assumed a qualitative research structure comprising analysis of the data obtained on the TBLE and MESPOC instruments followed by semi-structured interviews with some of the survey participants. The results of the studies indicated that an individual’s preferred online learning environments impacted satisfaction in an online course. Moreover, the study, also explored the students’ preferences when it comes to the organization and facilitation of online courses.

The residential meal experience has certain unique characteristics that can be attributed to both the socio-demographic profile of the student and the type of food service provided. These characteristics result in specific expectations that should be satisfied to meet the organisational and financial goals of the service provider and the University. The main challenges include addressing cultural diversity of captive consumers and providing for the specific needs of Generation Y. Globally there is an increased effort to determine the level of satisfaction of students with their meal experiences, in order to improve the food service provided. Limited research within the unique multi-cultural South African context; the changing demographic profile of Pretoria University students since 1996, and the increase in negative media reports regarding foodservice provided on campus motivated the urgent need for an investigation. The aim of this study was to describe the satisfaction of the University of Pretoria‟s residential students regarding their meal experience in terms of the food itself, the service and the ambience, in order to provide the University‟s Department of Residence Affairs and Accommodation with recommendations to improve the meal experience offered by taking into account the demographic profile of students. To obtain the relevant data to meet the stated aim, focus group discussions in which probing questions were asked of the participants were conducted in order to develop a questionnaire. Self-administered questionnaires were issued to a stratified random sample of 878 respondents from 22 responding residences. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and the chi-square test. - vi - Results indicated that most respondents were satisfied with the meal experience. Respondents were most satisfied with the ambience and least satisfied with the food. Respondents were most satisfied with the sensory and portion size attributes, but least satisfied with the price attributes of the food. Respondents were most satisfied with the tangible and empathy attributes of the service and most satisfied with the cleanliness and neatness attributes of the ambience. Food was ranked as most important followed by service and ambience. Freshness, nutritional value and cost (value for money) were ranked the most important attributes of food. Operating hours and cleanliness (neatness) were ranked most important for service and ambience respectively. The food dimension was identified as a priority for improvement, specifically with respect to: the price of both booked meals and commercial items, regular incorporation of new menu items, healthy/nutritious food and variety of fruit and vegetables provided. Apart from the food attributes the availability of stock at item sales and the operating hours in general, were identified as attributes of the service requiring improvement. In addition, statistically significant relationships were found between satisfaction and specific profile characteristics such as ethnic group, gender and the number of years using a specific dining hall. The results of the open-ended question confirmed the findings of the rest of the questionnaire. This study has contributed to the limited literature on student satisfaction regarding their meal experiences at residential dining halls. Valuable recommendations for improvement of the residential meal experience were provided. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Consumer Science / unrestricted

This paper presents an exploratory study of a web-enhanced televised class encouraging learner-learner interaction in small online groups. The purpose of the study was to examine whether various interactions among students in small groups could substitute for one-on-one interaction between the instructor and each student and lead to high levels of perceived class interaction and student satisfaction. It was found that perceptions of overall class interaction and student satisfaction seem to be positively affected by small group interaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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Preloading student satisfaction and success factors into an online program orientation course can strengthen the potential for student retention and success. A 100% online graduate nursing orientation and guidance program was developed. Access to peer support, faculty advisor, and university resources were provided within the course using the same learning management system as the program. Students were taught the basic structure of courses (including discussions, quizzes, and dropbox) to ease the stress of the first few weeks of class. Graduate study requirements and expectations were explained along with the differences between online and face-to-face study. Guidance was provided to assist students in balancing work, life, and study. Students report decreased anxiety and increased comfort with graduate online education, increased self confidence, and feelings of support.

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