What Factors Impact Online Education? A Factor Analysis Approach

Internet popularity is growing day by day, which directly or indirectly increases the potential for online study. Apart from this, the current era of COVID 19 has revolutionized online education to a greater extent. However, the usage of computers, software's and technological advancement has raised many questions about the effectiveness of online platforms and online study. This survey-based quantitative study aimed to investigate the factors that affect the success of the online study. A total of 690 participants have participated in the survey attending online classes from multiple institutions in India. After careful investigation, 673 participants survey that was complete in all aspects has been considered for analysis. These students were either graduate/post-graduate or doing graduation/ post-graduate. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire (see Annexure A). Exploratory Factor analysis (EFA) has been conducted to figure out the factors that have positively impacted the students' satisfaction with online study. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) has been performed to confirm the factors. Results of the structural equation modeling show that instructor quality, course design, ICT orientation, conscientiousness, open-mindedness, and agreeableness have a positive impact and extraversion has a negative impact on the satisfaction of the students. The neurotic type of personality has no impact on the satisfaction of the students.