Abstract
PurposeIn response to coronavirus disease 2019, California State University Long Beach (CSULB) announced mandatory online course conversions on March 12, 2020. The College of Business designed a Student Online Learning Experience Survey to explore learners' experience, needs, expectations and challenges in the online learning environment.Design/methodology/approachThe time-sensitive survey questions were administered using Qualtrics with Institutional Review Board approval. The authors used 5-point Likert scales to rate students' experience and satisfaction and performed statistical analysis. They assessed students' written comments to further corroborate statistical findings.FindingsThe results identify students' satisfaction are highly correlated to content coverage and interaction of online learning technologies. A combination of BeachBoard, Zoom, e-mails and publisher's website is valued most by the learners. Project-based experiential design is ranked #1 by graduate students. Noticeably, the upward trend of satisfaction with online modality from sophomore to senior is probably attributable to learners' maturity and number of years studied at CSU system. Overall, students generally dislike proctoring devices due to concerns of privacy, inequalities, mental stress, etc.Practical implicationsThe evidence-based results offer innovative pedagogical recommendations for business education in higher education.Originality/valueWhile prior studies examine student perceptions and satisfaction within the online education system, the study aims to deeply investigate the students' experience after a large-scale two-week institutional emergency course conversion mandate. This study systematically reviews students' experience with four aspects of online learning: (1) the adequacy of instructional designs; (2) the effectiveness of technology; (3) the appropriateness of the online learning material and (4) the integrity of online assessment and testing tools.
Highlights
The evolvement of web-based technology, growing competition among higher education institutions, and learner acceptance of distance learning has fostered widespread support for the online teaching and learning paradigm (Dykman and Davis, 2008; Beaudoin, 2016)
Our study contributes to extant online learning in higher education and adds to the current body of research in the following ways: (1) The student-centered survey assesses learners’ experience, identifies needs and obstacles, and evaluates expectations, (2) The timesensitive results enable us to evaluate the readiness of College of Business (COB) online course conversion, (3) The demographic data enable us to explore what influences students’ online learning experience and (4) Higher education institutions can emulate our evidenced-based findings to promote and foster innovative pedagogical advancement and support students’ lifelong learning mindset
1) The content coverage is better in online courses 2) The interaction of various learning technologies is better in online courses 3) The recorded lectures audios or videos are better in online courses 4) Online quizzes and/or exams are better in online courses 5) Online assignments and/or projects are better in online courses 6) Online submission processes are better in online courses
Summary
The evolvement of web-based technology, growing competition among higher education institutions, and learner acceptance of distance learning has fostered widespread support for the online teaching and learning paradigm (Dykman and Davis, 2008; Beaudoin, 2016). Our study contributes to extant online learning in higher education and adds to the current body of research in the following ways: (1) The student-centered survey assesses learners’ experience, identifies needs and obstacles, and evaluates expectations, (2) The timesensitive results enable us to evaluate the readiness of COB online course conversion, (3) The demographic data enable us to explore what influences students’ online learning experience and (4) Higher education institutions can emulate our evidenced-based findings to promote and foster innovative pedagogical advancement and support students’ lifelong learning mindset. Survey results 3.1 Instructional modality Our survey starts by assessing student satisfaction with hybrid/online/face-to-face learning Students rate their opinions about instructional design options on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly dislike) to 5 (strongly like). Based on your overall education experiences, what is your opinion about the following instructional formats?
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