Students' Perceived Difficulty and Satisfaction in Face-to-Face vs. Online Sections of a Technology-Intensive Course

Literature Review

Concerns about a low level of satisfaction and retention rates in online courses and programs have been growing (Bawa, 2016). Protopsaltis and Baum (2019) reported that although overall outcomes were similar between online and face-to-face courses, some students may not be prepared and ready for online learning. Protopsaltis and Baum emphasized the importance of frequent and meaningful student-instructor interactions for increasing the quality of online education and improving learning outcomes and student satisfaction. Likewise, Chitkushev et al. (2014) also found that student course satisfaction was strongly correlated with student satisfaction with instructors. While being convenient is one of the primary reasons for students’ level of satisfaction with online courses, students are dissatisfied with the lack of interaction (Cole et al., 2014). In their systematic literature review, Muljana and Luo (2019) revealed factors contributing to online student retention, which included institutional support, the level difficulty of the programs, promotion of a sense of belonging, facilitation of learning, course design, student behavioral characteristics, and demographic variables such as age, gender, and grades.