Evaluation of E-learning methods on satisfaction of graduate students of the Islamic Azad University units of Northwest of Iran

The advent of information and communication technologies, increasing access to computers in higher education and universities’ challenges such as increasing demand for education, the need for economic activities to provide new resources and the use of information technology to provide education services in the global market has caused universities to reconsider their traditional roles and create new organizational structures. E-learning is one of the advances of technology in education. Along with the growth of technology and its development in the field of learning, experts in this field conceived the idea that they can meet the educational needs of the learners by launching e-learning courses. Determining the level of student satisfaction is one of the most important indicators of achieving the desired quality. Studies also show that in order to continuously improve higher  education system, it is necessary to evaluate the quality of educational, research and welfare services. Due to the above-mentioned reasons, examining the readiness and potential of the e-learning system is inevitable. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluation the effectiveness of e-learning on the satisfaction of graduate students in Islamic Azad University.

The research method is mixed (qualitative-quantitative). In qualitative section, a theme-based questionnaire/focal group and in quantities section, a surveying type was used. The statistical population of the research in the qualitative section was experts in the field of e-learning, academic elites, professors and experts, 22 of whom were selected by non-random and snowball sampling. The selection criteria was having more than 10 years of experience and being excellence in education and research. The statistical population of the quantitative section were postgraduate students of university units in northwestern Iran, among whom a sample size of 219 was selected by stratified sampling. The data collection method was interview in the qualitative section. In the quantitative section a 45-item researcher-made questionnaire was used based on a 5-point Likert scale. Spatial and local research area included university units in northwestern Iran consisting of 14 units in 2018: Tabriz, Bonab, Maragheh, Marand, Khoy, Parsabad Moghan, Ardabil, Garmi, Khalkhal, Meshkinshahr, and Azarshahr. These units were selected because their instructors had the following academic degrees: professors, associate professors and assistant professors.

The results showed that all the components of the research was satisfactory and with the exception of user interface all features of e-learning were efficient.

Inspired by theoretical foundations, research background, as well as the results of qualitative data, it was observed that the effectiveness of e-learning method has an impact on students’ satisfaction and also student satisfaction affects many variables in northwestern university units in Iran. These include motivation in relation to the goals of the organizational excellence, learning in anywhere any time, participatory learning, self-assessment and self-directedness, improving the functions of the educational system that provide a high return on extracurricular learning.