Student Satisfaction of Online Courses for Educational Leadership

Abstract

This survey research was completed at a regional university to determine students’ satisfaction of online courses in a principal and superintendent certification program in one educational leadership department. This study explored the students’ satisfaction of course components: instruction, communication, assessment, leadership, teamwork, professionalism, and respect/diversity. The findings on the first cohort survey with a hybrid format of course delivery, the 2005 baseline, showed a positive satisfaction with overall means between 3.79 and 4.48 on a five point Likert-scale with a 5 meaning strong agreement with satisfaction. The lowest area of satisfaction was the category of cohort teamwork (M = 3.79) and the highest area of satisfaction was the category of assessment (M = 4.48). The most recent group of students (2009) with a totally online delivery format completed the survey and showed an overall positive satisfaction with overall means between 3.77 and 4.30 on a five point Likert-scale with a 5 meaning strong agreement with satisfaction. The lowest area of satisfaction was the category of teamwork (M = 3.77) and the highest are of satisfaction was the category of instruction (M = 4.30).