Abstract—As digital learning continues to spread and gain in
popularity and acceptance, it is essential for both the providers
and the users to understand the factors that impact student
satisfaction and performance in online courses.In this study
student evaluation parameters from 93 online graduate courses
with total of 4920 student enrolments were analyzed for their
interdependences as well as their correlation with student
performance measured through final grade distributions. The
results show that student course satisfaction is strongly
correlated with students’ instructor satisfaction, while the
students’ course satisfaction is moderately correlated with
student satisfaction with facilitators. There is a positive
correlation between students’ final grade distribution and their
overall satisfaction with the course as well as between the
students’ final grade distribution and the satisfaction with the
instructor. On the other hand, the correlation of the students’
satisfaction with the facilitators did not have statistically
significant correlation with the final grade distribution. The
results point to the critical importance of the instructor of
record in online courses and to the significant impact of the
students’ satisfaction with instructor’s performance. Moreover,
the same factors have statistically significant impact on the
performance of students in the class, together with the student
perception of the overall academic quality of the course. At the
same time, the data show that facilitators have a significantly
lower impact than the instructors to the students’ overall
educational experience in online courses.
Index Terms—Digital learning, online courses, course
evaluations, instructor, evaluations, facilitators.
The authors are with Metropolitan College and The Center for Reliable
Information Systems and Cyber Security, Boston University, Boston, MA
02215 USA (e-mail: LTC@bu.edu, zlateva@bu.edu, vodenska@bu.edu).
Cite: Lou Chitkushev, Irena Vodenska, and Tanya Zlateva, "Digital Learning Impact Factors: Student Satisfaction and Performance in Online Courses," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 356-359, 2014.