A study of learners\u27 perceived value and satisfaction for implied effectiveness of online learning systems

Online learning systems (OLS) have become center stage for corporations and educational institutions as a competitive tool in the knowledge economy. The satisfaction construct has received extensive coverage in information systems literature as an indicator of effectiveness but has been criticized for lack of validity; yet, the value construct has been largely ignored, although it has a long history in psychology, sociology, and behavioral science. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the value and satisfaction constructs in the context of OLS, and their perceived by learners relationship for implied effectiveness of OLS. First, a qualitative phase is employed to gather OLS values from learners\u27 focus groups, followed by a pilot phase to refine a proposed instrument, and a main phase to validate the survey. Responses were received from 75 students in four focus groups, 141 in the pilot, and 207 the main survey. Extensive data cleaning and exploratory factor analysis were done to identify factors of learners\u27 perceived value and satisfaction of OLS. Then, Value-Satisfaction grids and the Learners\u27 Value Index of Satisfaction (LeVIS) were developed as benchmarking tools of OLS. Moreover, Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques were employed to impute value from satisfaction scores in order to reduce survey response time. The results provided four satisfaction and four value factors with high reliability (Cronbach\u27s α). Moreover, value and satisfaction were found to have low linear and nonlinear correlations, indicating that they are two distinct uncorrelated constructs. This is consistent with the literature. Value-Satisfaction grids and the LeVIS index indicated relatively high effectiveness for technology and support characteristics, relatively low effectiveness for professor\u27s characteristics, while course and learner characteristics indicated average effectiveness. The main contributions of this study include identifying, defining, and articulating the relationship between value and satisfaction constructs as assessment of users\u27 implied IS effectiveness, as well as assessing the accuracy of MCDA procedures to predict value scores, thus reducing by half the survey questionnaire size