What Influences User Satisfaction in Virtual Learning Communities? The China Experience

Virtual Learning Communities(VLCs) are increasingly being used in lifelong learning, however, little is known about what factors affect user satisfaction in VLCs in China. This study analyzes user satisfaction of the VLCs, represented by ZhiHu, Wiki, Guokr and MOOC etc, by analyzing the data of 1140 valid questionnaires collected from universities and colleges. The aims of this study are twofold: (1) to investigate what a cohesive set of factors influence the satisfaction of VLCs, and (2) to discuss the implications for theory and practice, as well as suggestions for future research. The results show that learning outcome expectation, flow of experience, sense of belong, perceived usefulness, perceived interaction and perceived openness all have significant positive impacts on user satisfaction.