Exploring Factors Affecting Graduate Students’ Satisfaction toward E-Learning in the Era of the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Background: Shifting the educational system from a traditional to an online context during COVID-19 necessitated several considerations to assure students’ satisfaction with e-learning. Aim: This study aims to explore the factors influencing students’ satisfaction with e-learning during the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, it tests multiple mediations, student factors, and system quality between students’ satisfaction and each course evaluation and instructor’s performance. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, 258 undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in online courses at multiple Malaysian universities were recruited using non-probabilistic purposive sampling. Data were collected using a questionnaire that assessed four factors that influenced students’ satisfaction with e-learning during the COVID-19 crisis (i.e., instructor performance, course evaluation, student factors, and system quality) and analyzed using the partial least squares route structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Results: The results indicated that the four factors were significantly associated with students’ satisfaction with e-learning during COVID-19. Student factors and system quality were the most factors predicting students’ satisfaction with e-learning. Findings indicate statistically significant relationships between the instructor’s performance, student factors, course evaluation, and system quality on students’ satisfaction. Furthermore, the results depict that both course evaluation and system quality serially mediate the relationship between instructors’ performance and students’ satisfaction. Conclusion: This study finds that improving and enhancing student factors and system quality is critical for students’ satisfaction with e-learning. Furthermore, e-learning platforms should contain new advances of computer-mediated technologies that enable collaboration, which is a critical factor in the success of e-learning systems.

Rasch Modeling and Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis for the Usability of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…From December 2019 to 5th September 2022, a total of 600,366,479 have been confirmed to be infected with the COVID-19 pandemic; among them, 6,460,493 died, as reported by the WHO [ 8 ]. Despite vaccination, further course of the COVID-19 pandemic is uncertain, and pandemic-induced stress has resulted in significant psychological repercussions [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. In the literature, a number of studies tried to measure such post-traumatic psychological repercussions using the IES-R, a self-administered scale to assess PTSD after a traumatic event through measuring the symptoms of intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal [ 5 , 47 , 49 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ].…”

“…Therefore, it is clear from the statistics that although vaccinations and precautions have been taken over the world, the future course seems uncertain [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Pandemic-induced stress has resulted in significant socio-economic and psychological repercussions [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].…”

A cross-sectional study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological outcomes: Multiple indicators and multiple causes modeling

“…Insomnia was assessed using the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) [53,54]. The 7-item selfreport index ranged from 0-28 and was used by the scoring system to evaluate the severity of insomnia as follows: no significant insomnia (0-7), subthreshold insomnia (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), moderately severe insomnia (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21), and severe insomnia (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28) [33,43,55].…”

“…The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to be an extreme health emergency [1] because the number of infected people exceeds 600 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including more than 6 million deaths worldwide up to October 12, 2022 [2]. Moreover, COVID-19 has caused disorder on the world's healthcare infrastructure, daily wellbeing and routine, business, transportation, lifestyle, freedom of movement, education, distribution of medical properties, and economy [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. For these reasons, it is critical to understand how the population has responded to this significant crisis [9].…”

A qualitative exploration of university students’ perspectives on distance education in Jordan: An application of Moore’s theory of transactional distance

“…It has been over two years since the greatest global disruption of education due to the coronavirus disease-2019 crisis. Most campuses of various educational institutes were closed and switched to online distance education mode, starting a new era in educational history (Barakat et al, 2022;Ellakany et al, 2022;Mohammed et al, 2022). Developed countries were more prepared for the unprecedented transition in many terms, such as quality of internet services, technical competencies of instructors, and the experience in online education during the pre-pandemic era.…”