Abstract:

The Covid-19 outbreak has led to the testing of distance education on an unprecedented scale around the world, proving its value and usefulness in dealing with crises. At the same time the capacity of the EdTech market is growing supported by the development of technologies used in online education. These trends lead to an expansion of factors that have not yet been studied, but which may influence consumer satisfaction with distance education. Understanding the significance of these factors is important to improve the quality of educational services provided.

Studies conducted to date on factors influencing satisfaction with distance learning demonstrate significant differences in the findings. Among the factors influencing customer satisfaction, some studies identify perceived usefulness, involvement in the process and belief in one's own contribution to success. In other papers, the following factors were noted as important: communication preferences associated with forms of communication in person and online, the reliability of technologies and the methods used to provide materials online. Obviously, the results of each study will differ due to the characteristics of the educational institution, the socio-demographic profile of students and cultural differences.

This research aims to assess the degree of influence of various groups of factors on overall satisfaction with education and distance education in particular. These factors were arranged in six main groups, including teaching activities, course factors, use of technology, organization of the learning process, learning environment and student motivation. The groups of factors were formed based on literature review and a series of qualitative interviews with Master's and MBA students of the Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov State University.

228 graduate students took part in a survey. The evaluation of the results was carried out on the basis of regression analysis (OLS) and factor analysis with correlation detection. As a dependent variable, the overall value of satisfaction with the educational service was used, and as an explanatory variable, an assessment of the level of satisfaction with the factor, which is presented in the format of an aggregated indicator of several survey items.

According to the results of the survey, it was also revealed that the quality of education in a distance format is perceived worse than the quality of education in general. The customer satisfaction index (CSI) value of MBA students was found to be lower than that of Master students (72% vs 74%). This small difference, which also occurs in the results of other CSAT and NPS indicators, tells us that MBA students are less satisfied with their studies in general and with distance learning than graduate students. It was also revealed that a significant majority of the surveyed MBA students noted an insufficient amount of practical information (60%) when studying in a distance format, which indicates their high expectations regarding the practical part of the training. Based on the analysis, recommendations were developed to increase the level of satisfaction of students of a higher educational institution for taking classes in a remote format and for promoting the course.

Keywords:

Distance learning, distance education, customers satisfaction, graduate students.