An Exploratory Study of Learner Characteristics, Perception of Interaction, and Satisfaction in Online Consumer Finance Courses

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of learner characteristics on online interaction, the relationship between online interaction and learner satisfaction, and variances in online interaction across different courses. Three types of online interaction were studied: learner-instructor interaction, learner-learner interaction, and learner-content interaction. To achieve the goals of this study, a survey was sent out to students enrolled in three online consumer finance courses at a large research university. Findings reveal that females rated the instructor-student interaction higher than males. Student-content interaction correlated the most with learner satisfaction. Learner-instructor and learner-learner interaction varied significantly among the three courses, while no statistical difference was found in learner-content interaction across the courses. This study provides insights for instructors, instructional designers, and administrators to implement and improve their design of different types of interaction in online course to enhance learner satisfaction and the quality of online courses.