Graduate Students’ Satisfaction and Presence in Online Special Education

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Abstract

This study investigated the effects of graduate students’ satisfaction on their perceptions of teaching, cognitive and social presence levels in a fully online special education context. The qualitative results indicated that most of the students had mixed or both positive and negative satisfaction regarding their online graduate courses. Informed by the qualitative results, the quantitative results revealed that students with positive satisfaction only reported higher teaching and cognitive presence levels – not social presence - compared to the majority who had both positive and negative satisfaction. All these insights strongly indicate that intending to increase teaching and cognitive presence during the design, development and delivery of fully online graduate special education courses would increase student satisfaction.

Authors

• Kadir Kozan, Florida State University

• Secil Caskurlu, Florida State University

• Kharon Grimmet, Purdue University