An analysis of online communities of inquiry and student satisfaction

In an effort to assist students in acquiring the units they needed to graduate, the California State University 23-campus system began an online course program which allowed students from participating campuses to enroll in online classes offered by another participating campus. A solution to a fiscally-depleted system, previously forced to close numerous general education courses and deny students enrollment into the CSU higher education system, the 36-course online program was a test to determine if students would participate. Believing online teaching and learning may uncover new paths towards student persistence, which occurs when students are satisfied with their learning environments, this research set out to find the factors which significantly influenced students' satisfaction rates. This mixed study was designed to look for predictive variables using data collected from student surveys in conjunction with qualitative student interviews and was conducted at one of the California State Universities. The participants were students who were enrolled in one of six online courses being taught by instructors who, during the summer of 2012, were professionally-trained in redesigning their face-to-face classes into hybrid and fully online courses.