The Influence of Online Presence on Learner Satisfaction and Learning in Higher Education

Abstract

In this study, the influence of the community of inquiry (CoI) presences on learner satisfaction levels of students attending an online graduate course at a private university in Istanbul, Turkey was analyzed. Forty-eight students who are taking a master's degree course participated in the study. The purpose of the study was to analyze the relationship between CoI online presences -which are categorized as teaching, social, and cognitive presences- and learner satisfaction. In order to analyze the data, correlation analysis, and descriptive statistics were conducted. Thematic qualitative analysis was also employed to analyze the answers to two open-ended questions in the survey. Forty-eight graduate students (26 female and 22 male) participated during the 14-week semester of Fall 2020. The findings of the study show that presences have a statistically significant impact on learner satisfaction. When they are compared, teaching presence has the most important role in learner satisfaction and performance in a learning environment during the pandemic. Accordingly, findings suggest implications for creating online collaborative courses. They also indicate that teachers’ positive attitude towards the course and participants and up-to-date course content might increase learner satisfaction.