An Examination of the Factors Leading to Students' Preference and Satisfaction with Online Courses

This paper presents the results of a one-year study of undergraduate business students' preference and level of satisfaction with online instruction at one university. A questionnaire was voluntarily completed by 305 undergraduate business students during the 2019-2020 academic year. Multiple regression analysis revealed that prior experience with online courses, ease of communication, personal benefits--convenience of taking online courses and expectation of improving GPA were positively associated with satisfaction in online courses relative to face-to-face courses. Learning benefits from online courses such as availability of course materials did not have a significant relationship. Satisfaction was positively related to preference for online courses. Demographic factors such as age and gender had no significant effect on satisfaction with online courses.