FACTORS INFLUENCING THE QUALITY OF WEB-BASED COURSES

The growth of Web-based courses and degree programs over the past few years has been significant. Many institutions of higher education have already developed and are currently offering such courses and degree programs. It is essential to identify factors influencing quality and to utilize these factors in the development and delivery of online courses and degree programs. Two of the major stakeholders for quality of Web-based courses and degree programs are faculty and students. Analyses of data collected for this study reveals that both students and faculty who responded to the surveys were satisfied overall with the quality of online courses. The top two factors that were identified by students and faculty as highly correlated with the quality of Web-based courses were: i) the ability of students to get to know the instructor better than he/she would in the corresponding face-to-face class, and ii) the ability of the instructor to get to know the students better than he/she would in the corresponding face-to-face class