Internet Learning Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2012 | Page 46

Internet Learning—Volume 1—Number 1—Fall 2012

45

A Research Review about Online Learning: Are Students Satisfied? Why do
Some Succeed and Others Fail? What Contributes to Higher Retention Rates
and Positive Learning Outcomes?
George Lorenzo
The SOURCE on Community College Issues, Trends & Strategies
Abstract
What are the foundations of student satisfaction or dissatisfaction with online courses? Why do
online learners succeed and others fail or drop out? What kind of instructional designs,
pedagogical practices, and administrative standards contribute to the development of effective
online courses with high retention rates and positive student learning outcomes?
Plenty of valid, well-researched information and literature reviews, along with abundant
data accumulated through student/faculty surveys and online learning course evaluations, are
outlined and summarized inside numerous academic papers that attempt to answer such
questions.
This report is based on the author’s search and analysis of numerous scholarly academic
papers that addressed such questions and were published between 2004 and 2007.
KEY WORDS: student satisfaction; online learning; distance education; retention rates;
learning outcomes
A Word About Sample Size
good number of papers that were examined for this report relied on very small samples
as the basis of their findings, ranging from a very in-depth paper on students’
perceptions of online education based on interviews conducted with three students (Yang
and Cornelius 2004); to an informative paper based on the qualitative descriptions of six
professors and seven students’ attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of online learning in a
College of Education (Lao and Gonzales 2005); to a deep examination of the dynamics of online
discussions and their relationship to student learning outcomes in an online graduate-level
English grammar class comprising 15 students (Ho and Swan 2007). However, these types of
papers, which were based on relatively small samples, are not the focus of this report. Instead,
the findings synthesized and presented in this report are based on studies that garnered responses
from a minimum of 60 to more than 1,000 online learners.

A

Numerous Factors
It also needs to be noted that it is very difficult to speak singularly about online learning, as there
are numerous factors within different disciplines and course and program environments, along
with unique and varied dynamics pertaining to student demographics and psychographics,
instructional design and pedagogy, and much more, that reveal a wide variety of learning
outcomes and student perceptions and levels of satisfaction concerning online teaching and
learning.