Assessment of the Level of Satisfaction with Online Teaching and Learning among Faculty and Students at Selected Health Sciences College, Puducherry

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted educational processes all over the world. It had also affected the medical schools, where the question of maintaining academic continuity was a great challenge.¹ Because of this, a large number of academic institutions all over the world have been making an effort to implement cutting-edge technology as the main mode of delivering online instruction is online learning by utilizing online platforms such as Zoom, Google Classroom and Google Docs, among many others.²

However, health care instructors and students face a number of difficulties when they have a transition from traditional learning to fully online instruction.³ In order to operate the programme effectively, it is crucial to comprehend learners’ contentment with online learning.⁴

Online learning is bringing about pedagogical changes in the way we teach and learn. As a substitute for top-down lectures and passive learners, educators are using an interactive, team-based approach where students and teachers jointly design the learning process. From being the “sage on the stage” to being “the guide on the side,” the Instructor’s position is evolving.⁵

It should not come as a surprise to researchers that describing the components of satisfaction has grown considerably more dynamic and difficult. The construct has a variety of aspects, most of which get more academic as a course goes on. Given that they have begun providing online training to their students, university faculty members are eager to discover how to enhance learning outcomes through online instruction.⁶

However, students have more discretion over the course content and schedule to suit their own learning needs and level of freedom.⁷

However, this unexpected and rapid shift has raised concerns about the caliber of instruction, students’ academic achievement and student happiness because there is a lack of knowledge or guidance on the best online teaching practices for teachers.⁸

A wide range of factors, such as feedback, flexibility, workload, technology support, instructor pedagogical skills and student participation in online conversations, are considered when defining satisfaction with online learning. Student interactions with teachers, other students and the course material all have a big impact on how satisfied they are. As a result, learning experience happiness rises with many Students satisfaction with the learning process increases when additional forms of interactivity are introduced into the learning environment. When they engage in organized extracurricular activities on top of their academic schedule, students are happier. The informal contacts between teachers and students are equally important to the learning process.

Here in this study, the researcher was interested in evaluating the level of satisfaction of both faculty members and students who were involved in the online teaching and learning.

The study design was a descriptive cross sectional research design that was conducted among Health Sciences faculty members and students. A total of 27 faculty members and 380 students participated in the study. The study was approved by the Institutional Human Ethics Committee (Ref No. KGNC/ IHEC/2023/002). Written informed consent was obtained from the study participants.

Online Course Satisfaction Survey (OCSS)⁹ was used to assess the satisfaction of the students where a 5 Point Likert scale, that ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree was used.⁹ It consisted of various subscales namely Instructor, technology, setup, interaction, outcomes and overall satisfaction items. The reliability of the tool was r=0.91 which was tested by test re test method. Online instructor satisfaction survey¹⁰ was used to assess the satisfaction of the faculty by using 5 Point Likert scale, that ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree. It consisted of various subscales namely Students, Instructor, Institutions and overall satisfaction. The reliability of the tool was 0.85.

The satisfaction scales for both faculty members and students were mailed to the participants through Google forms. The forms were filled by the participants and returned by mail. 380 students filled up the forms and submitted them and out of 35 faculty members, 27 faculty members responded.

The data was analyzed by using SPSS software version 20. Descriptive statistics-percentage, mean and standard deviation was used to analyze the data.

Out of 380 students, 1[0.3%] had less satisfaction 34 [8.9%] were moderately satisfied and 345[90.8%] were highly satisfied with online learning (Table 1). Majority of the students 214[56.7%] agreed that in online learning, there was a clear delivery of content by the instructor. Majority of students 202 [53.2%] agreed that the assignments were clearly communicated by the instructor in online learning. And majority of students 200 [53%] felt that online discussion were interactive and effective. Most of the students 200 [53%] agreed that they were satisfied with online session. Students expressed satisfaction with online learning as compared to in-person sessions, with 176 [46.7%] agreeing to it.

Regarding the level of satisfaction among faculty members with relation to online teaching, 78% of them expressed moderate satisfaction while only 7% expressed high satisfaction (Figure 1).

Figure 1:
Overall satisfaction of the Faculty towards Online teaching and learning.

A majority of the faculty members 16(55.2%) firmly agreed that the absence of in-person interactions with students was a result of online instruction. The majority of faculty members 8[27.6%] strongly agreed that motivating students in online learning is more difficult than in traditional teaching. The majority of faculty members 11(93.9%) strongly agreed that technological issues made online instruction frustrating. Nine faculty members (37.9%) concurred that preparing for an online course on a weekly basis required more time than for an in-person course.

Evaluating professor and student happiness was the primary goal of the study. According to the results of the current survey, vast majority of students expressed great satisfaction with online instruction. This study suggests that because online learners are typically thought to be self-motivated, they inevitably grow more content with their education.^11–13

The study findings are supported by a similar study, where the students were satisfied with the communication and flexibility afforded during online learning.¹⁴

In terms of faculty satisfaction, the majority of the faculty members were only moderately satisfied mainly due to the technical difficulties, longer duration for preparation and motivating the students through online was challenging. This is consistent with a similar study where the areas of dissatisfaction expressed by faculty was due to heavy workload, technical problems and longer preparation time.^15,16

Online learning has shown to be an effective and practical way to provide curriculum during COVID-19. Online learning ability to offer effective communication and flexibility has been connected to rising student satisfaction. On the other hand, technical support and the excitement of the students increased the level of faculty satisfaction with online instruction. The challenges cited by faculty were increased effort, lengthier preparation times and technical issues.

I would like to acknowledge Ms. Aarthi G, Ms. Aarthi K, Mr. Adaikalairenish S, Mr. Anbukarasi R, Mr. Arul Kumar K, Ms. Aruna N for the compilation of data and analysis.