Evaluating Students Satisfaction in Online Postgraduate Courses Through a Fuzzy Linguistic Approach

Background

Online university courses are beneficial both, for students and universities. Students may actively construct knowledge and deep understanding, and can take courses even from remote locations with generally flexible schedules within the guidelines of the teaching universities. Such universities can serve more students without having to physically accommodate them. That is why online university courses are considered an effective setting for computer-assisted collaborative work.

However, online education also brings new challenges. Traditional face-to-face education allows the instructor to observe and assess student understanding in the classroom in real time from direct verbal communication and non-verbal behavior. Besides, in real time, the teacher can modify their instructional methods and change these behaviors to obtain better levels of knowledge acquisition. Errors can be corrected, and questions and doubts can be answered and clarified immediately on the spot. However, in online education, it is very difficult for instructors to perceive these important non-verbal cues that indicate levels of understanding; such levels will depend on their communication, interaction and technological skills. The method of communication, in a way, becomes primarily writing (Robin et al. 2008).