Measuring Student Expectations and Their Effects on Satisfaction: The Importance of Managing Student Expectations

Appleton-Knapp, Sara L.; Krentler, Kathleen A.

doi:10.1177/0273475306293359

Cited by 252 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In this context, expectations of students are high and include, for example, flexibility and choice in the delivery of education, and a two way communication process between themselves and the university (Davies, 2002). Due to this increase in expectations it is possible that the actual performance of the higher educational institutes is below the expectations of the students, resulting in dissatisfaction (Appleton- Knapp & Krentler, 2006;Bitner & Hubbert, 1994). Important to note is that the observed results are very robust.…”

Section: Conclusion Further Research and Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 95%

The effect of an academic dismissal policy on dropout, graduation rates and student satisfaction. Evidence from the Netherlands

Sneyers

Witte

2015

Studies in Higher Education

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This paper examines the effect of the introduction of an academic dismissal (AD) policy (i.e. an intervention which can lead to compulsory student withdrawal) on student dropout, student graduation rates and satisfaction with the study program. Using a Difference-in-Differences type of estimator, we compare programs that introduced an AD policy with a control group of programs which did not employ an AD policy. The robustness of the results is tested by a propensity score matching. The outcomes suggest that the implementation of an academic dismissal policy results in a higher first year dropout rate, and a higher student graduation rate. The results also indicate that, on average, student satisfaction decreases due to the introduction of an AD policy, while student satisfaction regarding program feasibility increases when an AD policy is employed. JEL-Classification:I21; I22

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Section: Conclusion Further Research and Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 95%

The effect of an academic dismissal policy on dropout, graduation rates and student satisfaction. Evidence from the Netherlands

Sneyers

Witte

2015

Studies in Higher Education

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“…This exercise could help professors adjust unrealistic expectations and review learning objectives. At the end of term, professors could examine if the course has met the goals of the course (Appleton- Knapp and Krentler, 2006). This procedure could also be beneficial for reducing the probability of students experiencing dissatisfactory studentprofessor encounters.…”

Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Which classroom service encounters make students happy or unhappy?

Voss

Gruber

Reppel

2010

International Journal of Educational Management

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PurposeThis paper aims to explore satisfactory and dissatisfactory student‐professor encounters in higher education from a student's perspective. The critical incident technique (CIT) is used to categorise positive and negative student‐professor interactions and to reveal quality dimensions of professors.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory study using an online application of the well‐established CIT method was conducted. The study took place at a large European university. A total of 96 students took part in the study on a voluntary basis and reported 164 incidents. Respondents were aged between 19 and 24 years (x=23.2) and slightly more female students (52 per cent) filled in the online CIT questionnaire than male students (48 per cent). On average, every student provided 1.7 incidents.FindingsThe results of the critical incident sorting process support previous classification systems that used three major groups to thoroughly represent the domain of (un)satisfactory student‐professor encounters. The results of the CIT study also revealed ten quality dimensions of professors, corroborating previous research in this area.Research limitations/implicationsOwing to the exploratory nature of the study and the scope and size of its student sample, the results outlined are tentative in nature. The research study also only investigates the experiences of one stakeholder group.Practical implicationsGaining knowledge of students' classroom experiences should be beneficial for professors to design their teaching programmes. Based on the results, universities might consider the introduction of student contracts or student satisfaction guarantees to manage student expectations effectively.Originality/valueThe paper was the first to successfully apply an online version of the CIT techniques to the issue of higher education services. This paper shows that the CIT method is a useful tool for exploring student‐professor encounters in higher education. The paper has hopefully opened up an area of research and methodology that could reap considerable further benefits for researchers interested in this area.

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“…Similarly, Appleton- Knapp & Krentler (2006) suggest that students' satisfaction with their educational experience should be a desired outcome, in addition to learning and knowing what attributes of professors are desired by students, may improve the overall education process (Faranda & Clarke, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the characteristics of effective professors: the student's perspective

Gruber

Reppel

Voss

2010

Journal of Marketing for Higher Education

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ABSTRACT. Increasingly, higher education institutions are realizing that higher education could be regarded as a business-like service industry and they are beginning to focus more on meeting or even exceeding the needs of their students. Recent research findings suggest that the factors that create student satisfaction with teaching ("teaching satisfiers") may be qualitatively differently from the factors that create dissatisfaction with teaching. Thus, this research uses the Kano Methodology to reveal the characteristics of professors that students take for granted ("Must-be factors") and that have the potential to delight them ("Excitement factors"). Kano questionnaires containing nineteen attributes of effective professors taken from previous studies and focus group discussions were handed out in two marketing courses to 63 postgraduate students enrolled in a service marketing course. The Kano results corroborate previous US findings that revealed the importance of personality in general and support studies that stress the importance of professors creating rapport with their students in particular.Keywords: Student Satisfaction, Educational Services, Quality Attributes, Effective Professors, Kano Methodology CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE PROFESSORS 2 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUNDIncreasingly, higher education institutions are realizing that higher education could be regarded as a business-like service industry and they are beginning to focus more on meeting or even exceeding the needs of their students. Watson (2003) and Narasimhan (2001) for example maintain that fee-paying students expect "value for money" and behave more like customers. As students are increasingly seen as customers of higher education services (e.g. Arambewela et al., 2005;Maringe, 2005), their satisfaction should be important to institutions that want to retain existing and recruit new students (Helgesen & Nesset, 2007). Study results indicate that the recruitment of students is several times more expensive than their retention (Joseph et al., 2005).Universities should therefore try to monitor students' levels of satisfaction and decrease sources of dissatisfaction if possible in order to retain students (Douglas et al., 2008). Similarly, Appleton- Knapp & Krentler (2006) suggest that students' satisfaction with their educational experience should be a desired outcome, in addition to learning and knowing what attributes of professors are desired by students, may improve the overall education process (Faranda & Clarke, 2004).Given the need for more research on classroom service encounters , this research study is exploratory in nature. This paper explores how students perceive the attributes of professors and how satisfied they are with them. In particular, the research examines which attributes of professors are likely to cause satisfaction and which dimensions predominately lead to dissatisfaction. Knowing what students regard as satisfactory and dissatisfactory attributes helps professors improve the classroom experience either by improv...

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Measuring Student Expectations and Their Effects on Satisfaction: The Importance of Managing Student Expectations

Cited by 252 publications

References 32 publications

The effect of an academic dismissal policy on dropout, graduation rates and student satisfaction. Evidence from the Netherlands

The effect of an academic dismissal policy on dropout, graduation rates and student satisfaction. Evidence from the Netherlands

Which classroom service encounters make students happy or unhappy?

Understanding the characteristics of effective professors: the student's perspective

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