Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

EdD

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies

Committee Chair

Randy Wiesenmayer.

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between levels of technical support and pedagogical guidance provided to faculty and student satisfaction in online courses. Online learning is a rapidly evolving area of education, yet compared to traditional face-to-face learning very little is known about pedagogical techniques and best practices. This study explores the relationships between two factors that have been demonstrated to influence faculty satisfaction, technical support and pedagogical guidance (the predictor variables), and student satisfaction (the criterion variable) in online courses. The study uses quantitative methods to determine if varying levels of predictor variable input are related to changes in the criterion variable.;In this study, 15 faculty members received varying levels of technical support and pedagogical guidance over a two year period. Student satisfaction surveys were administered to a total of 519 students in their online courses offered by these instructors. Data for two well recognized measures of student satisfaction, instructional design/organization and facilitation of discourse, were extracted from the completed surveys. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the nature of the relationships that existed between these two criterion variables (instructional design/organization and facilitation of discourse) and two predictor variables, hours of technical support and pedagogical guidance.;Regression analysis revealed that only 2.9% of the variance in student satisfaction with instructional design/organization can be accounted for by quantitative measures of technical support and pedagogical guidance provided to faculty. With respect to facilitation of discourse, only 1.8% of the variance in student satisfaction can be accounted for by quantitative measures of technical support and pedagogical guidance provided to faculty. These findings indicate that faculty development programs that are based strictly on hours of contact are not likely to be effective in producing high levels of student satisfaction in online courses. An in-depth qualitative approach, such as multiple program analyses, is suggested to unearth the relationships that exist between factors that promote faculty satisfaction and those that promote student satisfaction in online courses.

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