Students' and Instructors' Views of an Online Graduate Program of TEFL: Contribution of Motivation, Readiness, and Barriers to Satisfaction

Abstract

Satisfaction of online students is one of the important issues of online education, and identifying the predictors of satisfaction can improve the effectiveness and success of online education. This study thus aimed to investigate online students’ and instructors’ perceptions of the influential factors such as motivation, e-readiness, and barriers for online satisfaction and to determine the contribution of these factors to satisfaction. The participants were 114 online graduate students of TEFL and 5 online instructors at Iran University of Science and Technology. Four questionnaires on learning barriers, motivation, e-readiness, and satisfaction along with 4 open-ended questions were administered in this descriptive study. The results revealed that most of online students were satisfied with the online graduate program of TEFL as online instructors provided students with lesson summary and class material prior to the session, had interaction with students through social networks, and held the online classes after office hours. The results also showed that online students' motivation was mostly instrumental, and some were not completely ready for online education. The results of multiple regression analysis also indicated that the contribution of motivation to satisfaction was higher than that of readiness and barriers. Online instructors need to solve students’ educational problems to make them ready for online instruction and to foster students’ motivation, which are influential in enhancing their satisfaction with online learning programs.