Enrollment in online education is growing steadily through the years. According to National Center for Education Statistics (2002), in 1999-2000, enrollment of students for online courses grew by 57 percent.
Due to the growing number of students taking online courses, concern on student retention becomes a mounting concern. Studies have been conducted to look into the factors that could increase or retain online students' satisfaction.
Factors in Increasing Online Student Satisfaction
There are basically three factors that could increase online student satisfaction. The first, and a very important factor in increasing the satisfaction of online students is the sense of belongingness. The second essential aspect in retention of online students would be the quality of online instruction. Lessons taught online should be comparable if not better than those offered in the classrooms.
And the third factor in gaining student satisfaction is addressing concerns in a timely manner. This means if students have complaints or general concerns raised, they should be looked into and addressed by the institution as soon as possible.
Creating a Sense of Belongingness in Online Courses
Among the three factors, the most critical is the sense of belongingness. According to Pallof and Pratt in their work Lessons from Cyberspace Classroom (Jossey-Bass, 2001) “Affiliation is a key to the development of a learning community.” Therefore, being accepted as part of the group is the key to online education.
This is because studying online has one main disadvantage – it does not allow face-to-face interaction. Therefore, it is hard to determine a student’s views or feelings toward certain online instructions. Creating an atmosphere of belongingness will enable the student to open up more to the teachers or other online students.
In order to achieve this sense of belongingness, it would be a good idea to create a forum where only the faculty and the students can access. This online forum would have to be divided into several major topics. Some of the topics could include: Requests, Queries, Suggestions Advice and Assistance.
This forum is one way of forging ties among students and teachers. It encourages a sense of community among students and teachers. If students are confused with a certain topic, they could post their questions regarding the topic to eliminate confusions. Teachers or fellow students then can answer them. Asking questions should be encouraged unless the questions are highly irrelevant. This way, there is interaction among students and teachers.
A forum should have a moderator that would determine the validity of discussions or if the questions are relevant to the topics. Each student should be given a chance to be heard. Communication should be encouraged. A sense of friendliness among the participants should be the standard. Since every participant has idea on the lessons or topics being discussed in the forum, this should not be a problem.
Also, the teacher should recognize the fact that student's needs are unique. Their capacity for learning differ. Therefore, adjusting the teaching strategy to fit a person’s need would be essential to the continuous satisfaction of the student in online studies.
Basically, encouraging the student to open up more, injecting confidence in their abilities through promoting a sense of belongingness would be the main method to increase online student satisfaction.
Gwendolyn Cuizon - Gwendolyn Cuizon is a seasoned freelance writer and a published book author. She holds a degree in BSC-Accounting. Her penchant to acquire ...
