Student Satisfaction in Traditional, Online, and Hybrid Continuing Education Courses

Book excerpt: Instructors at a provider of military continuing education courses transitioned traditional classroom leadership courses to fully online and hybrid formats that combined online and face-to-face instruction. No evaluation of student satisfaction during the transition was conducted using research-based practices. The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to examine student satisfaction of traditional, hybrid and online delivery of two military continuing education courses using research-based practices. This empirical study was grounded in Malcolm S. Knowles, Elwood F. Holton III, and Richard A. Swanson's adult learning theory as well as Terry Anderson's and Gilly Salmon's online learning theories. Data from 96 course evaluations from students who completed traditional, online, and hybrid versions of two military continuing education courses were analyzed. Kruskal-Wallis analyses of variance tests were used to examine student satisfaction ratings for significant differences.--Provided by publisher.