Impact of online learning readiness on students satisfaction in higher educational institutions

Abstract

Recent pandemic has fueled the growth of online learning like never before among the students of all levels. It has opened up tremendous opportunity to evaluate teaching practices through empirical investigation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the learners’ readiness and their satisfaction towards online education. Online learning readiness is defined as skills needed by students to learn. It emphasises on self-learning management and understanding experiences of selflearning (Smith, 2005). Literature suggests that there are studies that explored the relationship between online learning readiness, academic motivation, perceived learning, cooperative working, achievement and continuation of education (Davis, 2006; Horzum, M. B., Kaymak, Z. D., & Gungoren, O. C.,2015). However, scholars paid less attention to the relationship between online learning readiness and student satisfaction among undergraduate engineering students. Research by Gunawardena and Duphorne (2000) has identified a direct connection between learning readiness and satisfaction of learning experiences. However, their study was on the adult who had undergone distance study through computer conferencing model. The present study considers a blended online learning model. Data were collected from 155 students who are studying an undergraduate course in Indian universities. The proposed causal relationship was examined with SmartPLS 3, as it is more suitable for the moderate sample size. The research showed a positive relationship between students’ online learning readiness and satisfaction. The findings demonstrated a significant relationship between the increasing levels of online learning readiness and student satisfaction. Administrators who are at the helm of responsibility of educational institutions should provide all the required facilities for the teachers to embrace online teaching. © 2021, Rajarambapu Institute Of Technology. All rights reserved.