Academic success, persistence and satisfaction with online learning during a global pandemic

Abstract

Online learning has become much more common over the last few years, but it became particularly prevalent when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented in person course instruction at universities and colleges. Despite the research on online learning, there is still a great deal of uncertainty that surrounds the components that contribute to effective and productive online learning. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relationship between past predictors of online learning in the context of a global pandemic. A total of 119 undergraduate students completed measures on self-efficacy, preparedness for online learning, lifestyle suitability, persistence, satisfaction, and the impact of COVID-19 on online learning. As expected, correlations and regressions showed that self-efficacy was positively associated with the three outcomes of academic success, persistence, and satisfaction. Despite being correlated, preparedness for online learning was not a significant predictor of academic success, however, it was a significant predictor of satisfaction. Similarly, lifestyle suitability did not predict persistence, but did show correlations that suggested trends for future research. Lastly, correlations showed that the impact of COVID-19 was negatively associated with many of the predictors, providing possible trends that require further investigation. Overall, this study highlights the importance of further examining the relationship between online learning predictors and the impact of the pandemic, but also suggests directions for institutions, professors, and students to take to improve future online learning outcomes.