Student and parent satisfaction with online education at the elementary and secondary levels

The purpose of this study was to examine factors associated with student and parent satisfaction with online education at the elementary and secondary level. The study involved the development and validation of two questionnaires (student and parent) to determine factors related to satisfaction. The questionnaires were developed through a review of current literature concerning distance and online education and with feedback from administrators and teachers currently working in online education at the elementary and secondary levels; The student satisfaction questionnaire contained 27 items that were assigned to five hypothesized dimensions or factors: (a) school-level technology support, (b) school-level instructional support, (c) curriculum programs, (d) social interactions, and (e) overall satisfaction. The students who completed the digital questionnaire were enrolled in one of three different programs of online education; Results of a maximum likelihood exploratory factor analysis with oblimin (oblique) rotation supported the hypothesized factor structure. A multiple regression analysis also was conducted to determine which of the four specific factors identified by the exploratory factor analysis were related to overall student satisfaction with online education. The multiple regression analysis indicated that school-level technology support, school-level instructional support, curriculum programs, and social interactions were all significantly related to overall student satisfaction; The parent satisfaction questionnaire contained 28 items that were assigned to the same five hypothesized dimensions or factors (e.g., school-level technology support; school-level instructional support; curriculum programs; social interactions; and overall satisfaction). The parents who completed the digital questionnaire had at least one child who was enrolled in one of three different programs of online education; Results of a maximum likelihood exploratory factor analysis with oblimin (oblique) rotation supported the hypothesized factor structure. A multiple regression analysis also was conducted to determine which of the four specific factors identified by the exploratory factor analysis were related to overall parent satisfaction with online education. The multiple regression analysis indicated that school-level instructional support, curriculum programs, and social interactions were significantly related to overall parent satisfaction. School-level technology support was not significantly related to overall parent satisfaction