Student Satisfaction with Academic Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Differences by Course Modality
Presented at the North East Association for Institutional Research (NEAIR) 2nd Virtual Annual Conference on November 16, 2021
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a myriad of unprecedented challenges for teaching and learning. Colleges de-densified their campus by requiring or incentivizing all or some of their students to take online or hybrid classes. This poster presents findings from a survey conducted at a highly selective liberal arts college in mid-spring 2021. I compared self-reported satisfaction levels of the following four groups: the Remote Cohort (i.e., students taking classes remotely from home), and three groups in the Residential Cohort—In-person Group (i.e., students who described their classes as being “entirely face-to-face” or “primarily face-to-face with occasional online interactions”), Residential Blended Learning Group (i.e., students who described their classes as being “a roughly even blend of face-to-face and online interactions”), and Residential-but-Online-Class Group (i.e., students who described their classes as being “entirely online” or “mostly online with occasional face-to-face interactions”). The final sample included 772 respondents. After controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, and class level, of the four groups, the Residential-but-Online-Class Group appeared to be least satisfied with the overall quality of academic experiences. The benefits of taking in person classes while living on campus seem to be apparent when compared with taking classes remotely from home, or taking classes on line while living on campus. Except for quality of teaching (on which the Residential In Person Group outperforms all the other groups), the Residential Blended Learning Group seems similar to the Residential In Person Group on satisfaction with academic experiences.