The Effect of University Student’s Perception of Rapport with Professors on Learning Participation and Satisfaction: Focused on Online Class in COVID-19

Abstract

Purpose: The pandemic situation has caused a variety of changes in many areas. In the field of education, real communication of emotion with students has become an issue. The purpose of this study is to examine the causal effect of rapport between professors and students, learning participation and satisfaction in online class under COVID-19 pandemic situation. Method: In order to conduct the research, the online survey was performed for two years university students in Seoul, and three hypotheses were proposed to identify the relationships among three variables such as rapport, participation and learning satisfaction. A total of 207 questionnaires were used for analysis. SPSS 21.0 was used to conduct analysis for hypothesis verification, and the demographic information of the sample was organized by frequency analysis. Also, exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were conducted to confirm the validity and reliability of each concept measurement item. Lastly, regression analysis was used to examine them. Results: The results of analyses are follows. First, rapport influenced positively learning participation. Second, rapport influenced positively learning satisfaction. Third, learning participation influenced positively learning satisfaction. This result was found to be the same as that of previous studies about learning participation and learning satisfaction. Conclusion: ‘Although it is a study only for two-year college students in Seoul, it has been recognized that students participation in learning is a major leading variable in improving learning satisfaction. In this study, building rapport between professors and students is an important factor to improve the quality of online class. Hence, professors should focus on how to build rapport effectively and universities should provide practical supports and programs to develop their skills to improve rapport level. It can have a positive effect on students satisfaction with the university and their academic achievement in the long term.