Abstract
This study aimed to empirically examine the factors affecting full-time undergraduate students’ satisfaction and academic performance measured by grades using an existing large administrative dataset. The sample consisted of 21,662 undergraduate students who took online liberal arts courses offered by a large traditional Korean university in the spring semester of 2020. The theoretical framework of this study was formulated by selectively adopting and slightly modifying some of the factors from Choi’s conceptual model for adult dropout from online degree programs. The findings indicated that gender, previous GPA, campus, type of online course, the relevance of the course, adequacy of assignments and assessments, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-content interaction significantly affect students’ degree of satisfaction with online liberal arts courses. This study also found that students who considered the course less relevant to their goals or interests, had a low previous GPA, had frequent learner-instructor interactions, few learner-content interactions, and a low level of course satisfaction are more likely to earn a grade of B, C, or lower than to receive an A in online liberal arts courses.
Highlights
Since 2020, the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has made it difficult to offer traditional face-to-face courses to students in all types of academic institutions in South Korea
In terms of internal factors, this study focused on the adequacy of assignments and assessments, learner-instructor interaction, learner-content interaction, type of online course, and course relevance
This study found that all eight variables in the theoretical framework significantly affected students’
Summary
Since 2020, the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has made it difficult to offer traditional face-to-face courses to students in all types of academic institutions in South Korea. Most academic institutions have adopted distance education using information technology to develop online learning as the main mode of education delivery. This radical and sweeping change in education method has been quite difficult for many instructors and students in traditional academic institutions where teaching and learning are conducted in classrooms, largely because neither party had sufficient preparation to teach or learn effectively online before implementing distance education. Both instructors and students in traditional academic institutions seem to be adapting to some degree to this chaotic educational environment due to their real classroom experience.
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