Changing Expectations in Online Classes

This is a multi-year (9 academic years) multi-course (10) study that presents students perceptions about the online and traditional components of ten Decision Science courses offered in a hybrid fashion in a small mid-western Jesuit Business School. In this study we will compare student perception about learning value and effectiveness of online teaching during two periods of time. The first set of student perception data is from the time period of 2008 till 2012 when the University just began online education initiatives. The second set of data is from the time period of 2012 till 2017. We believe that student perceptions will improve during the later time period as students are more and more prepared to take online classes due to the growing trend in online higher education as well as better preparedness in terms of being technologically savvy. The improvements could also result from more experienced faculty members who are constantly learning and improving online delivery of their courses. We will also compare whether there is any significant difference in the student perception between Undergraduate and Graduate students. The goal of our study is to enhance our own understanding about online teaching and improving our techniques. We also believe that the findings can contribute toward much needed ongoing research in the field of online and hybrid higher education.