Abstract
Few empirical studies in higher education consider the importance of the physical environment on students’ satisfaction with the learning environment. The present study first examined the effects of a move to a new campus on students’ satisfaction with the physical and learning environments. Then, it examined how students’ satisfaction with a physical environment affects students’ satisfaction with the learning environment. It was hypothesised that the move to a new and modern university campus with better study facilities would increase students’ satisfaction both with the physical and learning environment, and that these two would be linked. Results contained 771 students’ assessments of the Bachelor Evaluation Questionnaire, which included students’ satisfaction with five aspects of their learning environment as well as five items assessing satisfaction with the physical environment. Findings showed that students were overall more satisfied with the physical environment in the new campus than in the old campus. These differences were even greater when comparing only students in their last study year than students of all study years. Furthermore, results showed that students’ satisfaction with lecturers and teaching was predicted by increased satisfaction with classrooms. The implications of these findings for the need to design physical learning environments are discussed.
Highlights
Learning environment research has often focused on social or psychosocial environments, rather than on physical environments [1]
Even though research on the influence of physical spaces in students’ learning in higher education is scarce [4], it is known that the spaces where students learn have an impact on their satisfaction with the learning environment and even with how they perceive the quality of learning [14]
Regarding the role of campus and physical environment aspects on students’ satisfaction with the learning environment, we found that comparing evaluations from all years, the change in campus did not predict higher satisfaction but that different aspects of satisfaction with the physical environment did
Summary
Learning environment research has often focused on social or psychosocial environments, rather than on physical environments [1]. The evaluation of physical learning environments can especially be of relevance when new buildings, that intend to support teaching and learning, are designed [3]. Most of the existing research focuses on primary and secondary schools [4] and the implications of buildings and use of space in higher education on teaching and learning outcomes are not well explored [5]. The current paper provides insight for future evaluations of higher education learning environments by analysing the relationships between students’ reported satisfaction with the learning environment and their evaluation of different infrastructure conditions in two different physical environments
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