A Little Knowledge Goes a Long Way: Student Expectation and Satisfaction with Hybrid Learning
Open Access
- Author:
- Barrett, Kassandra Elisabeth
- Area of Honors:
- Marketing (Behrend)
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Mary Beth Pinto, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Michael Edward Brown, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- hybrid
e-learning
blended learning
student satisfaction
preconceived expectations - Abstract:
- Providing hybrid courses is becoming an increasingly popular trend in higher education today. In 2002, Dr. Graham Spainer contended that “hybrid instruction is the single greatest unrecognized trend in higher education today.” (El Mansour and Mupinga) The research in this study answers the following questions: (1) What were students’ preconceived and informed expectations regarding hybrid learning? (2) How satisfied were students with the hybrid course? (3) What factors were related to satisfaction with this hybrid course? Secondary research was conducted and primary data was collected in the form of survey responses from 44 students that were enrolled in an upper level marketing course that was modified and transitioned into a hybrid learning format. Students were given three surveys; the first was a pre-course survey that focused on “preconceived expectations” and was given before the students were made aware of the hybrid delivery format, the second focused on “informed expectations” and was given after students were told they were going to be taking a hybrid course had reviewed the syllabus, the third survey given at the end of the course measured perceived performance. Independent samples t-tests were run to test for significant differences between preconceived and informed expectations, the results of which showed significant difference for 11 expectation items (p < .05). Student satisfaction with the hybrid course was neutral with a mean of 2.98 on a 5 point Likert scale and a standard deviation of .862. A Pearson Correlation was run on the perceived performance survey responses to measure the degree of association between all survey items and satisfaction, 21 of the 41 expectation items were found to have significant correlation with satisfaction.