Assessment of Electronic Education Student’s Perception of Effective Distance Education Components to Explain Satisfaction of Electronic Education

Abstract

Background: Satisfaction is one of the most common indicators of effective learning and many factors, such as interaction, flexibility, and feedback, are involved in the development of satisfaction. Thus, goals of this research was to determine electronic education student's perception towards effective distance education components and contribution of these components in explaining satisfaction of distance education. Methods: The current research used a survey method. The statistical population consisted of all electronic education graduate students (3915) of universities of Tehran, who took part in distance education in the academic year of 2014 to 2015. Overall, 390 students were selected by the random classified sampling method. For gathering data, 2 instruments were used. One for measuring effective distance education components and another for measuring satisfaction of electronic education. The first scale included 24 items with 3 dimensions, including interaction, flexibility and feedback, and the other scale included 20 items with one dimension, being satisfaction. Data were analyzed through the SPSS software, version 21, and statistical methods were used, such as variance analysis, one sample t - test, and multivariate regression analysis. Validity and reliability of both scales were confirmed through content, convergent validity, and reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.77 for effective distance education scale and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.85 for electronic education satisfaction scale). Results: The mean satisfaction of electronic education of female students (M = 14.44, p ≤ 0/001) was significantly higher than that of male students (M = 11.84 p ≤ 0/001) in all academic groups, including humanities, technical, and basic sciences. Also, data analyses showed that 46% of satisfaction variance could be explained by combination of interaction, flexibility, feedback, gender, and academic groups. Among them, flexibility contribution (Beta = 0.590, P ≤ 0/001) was more than interaction (B = 0.547, P ≤ 0.001) and feedback (B = 0.369, P ≤ 0.001). Conclusions: The research statistical model suggested that interaction, flexibility, feedback, and gender are positive explanations of satisfaction. Also, the research goal was approved, which means that designing effective distance education by proposed agents could lead to greater satisfaction of electronic education students.