Critical Success Factors for Online Education: Longitudinal Results on Program Satisfaction

For the past 15-20 years, many researchers have investigated the differences (or lack thereof) between online and face-to-face (F2F) course delivery and student learning. Most of this body of research concerns an individual course, an individual faculty, or a particular technology or tool. However, we do not yet know much about the factors that an online degree program requires to succeed. Which factors have the greatest impact on student satisfaction with an online degree program? We collected data on seven potential critical success factors from 2009 to 2014 to measure their impact on student satisfaction. The final model shows course conduct, admissions, curriculum, and prior experience with online courses at that same location to be significant predictors of program satisfaction.