Evaluation: Why Student Satisfaction Matters

I was recently part of discussion regarding the importance, or lack of, student satisfaction as a measure of the success of a DL course or program. Clearly, it is student "learning" where we focus the brunt of our evaluation efforts - and must do so lest we wish to face the woeful proposition of being admonished by our accreditors. But student satisfaction measures are not fluff. They can be clear indicators of whether or not an online class needs a major fix, and whether of not our training programs for online instructors need to be realigned. Through student satisfaction measures, we can learn much - such as whether or not an online instructor is communicating on a timely basis, whether or not appropriate support systems are in place for online students, and whether or not we may hope to retain the student as a consumer of our online programs. Student satisfaction has a dramatic impact on our marketing, our enrollment, our retention, and even our course quality - if we utilize the data to thoughtfully make course, program, and administrative improvements.