Using the Critical Incident Technique to Identify Factors of Service Quality in Online Higher Education

Service Quality In Higher Education

Following the general pattern set by service industries, the issue of service quality within the higher education sector has received increasing attention in recent years. In particular, there is a clear interest in developing information systems for monitoring students’ and groups’ activity in online environments, since it can contribute to improve learning processes and, therefore, the quality of the service being offered (Daradoumis et al., 2010; Juan et al., 2009b). Although debate has ranged over various issues, the most dominant theme is the development of valid, reliable and replicable measures of perceived service quality (O’Neill & Palmer, 2004). In the early stages, most models designed to evaluate PSQ focused exclusively on teaching and learning. In the last decade, though, several studies have approached the evaluation of university services from a broad perspective, considering not only the core service (the teaching) but the peripheral or auxiliary administrative and backup services as well (O’Neill & Palmer, 2004; Abdullah, 2005).