Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 300 | Shaping Section | 2

Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 300 | June 9-15, 2023.

What do higher education students want from online learning?

By Felipe Child  | McKinsey & Company | June 7, 2023

Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article

New McKinsey research finds that most higher education students want to continue to incorporate at least some aspects of online learning into their education. However, a significant share of students are dissatisfied with the online experiences their universities offer, signaling that higher education institutions could benefit by evolving their online learning models.  Following are the findings of a survey of 7,000 students across 17 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East to know.

1. All students surveyed had moved to online classes during the pandemic, and almost 65 percent of them said they want aspects of their learning experience to remain virtual.
2. In order of preference, 11 learning features that should remain or become virtual, students identified these as the top three: recording classes and making them available to watch later, easy access to online study materials, and flexibility that enables students to work and study.
3. Many students still hesitate to enroll in fully remote programs, and students globally cited these top-three reasons: fear of becoming more distracted by studying online, getting bored if the learning experience is not motivating, and lacking discipline to complete the online program.
4. In 80 percent of the countries surveyed, students said the top reason they prefer face-to-face education is that getting help from instructors is easier through in-person rather than online learning.

Three tenets of successful online programs emerged:

1. The basics still matter. Features that have always informed the learning experience—such as timely content, course structure, and faculty relevance—are very important for students in every country surveyed in this study.
2. Expensive features are not necessarily valued. Online attributes that are expensive to implement, such as virtual reality (VR), simulations, and sophisticated visual content, are not ranked highly by most students. This finding could indicate that educational institutions and students are still figuring out how to use those technologies effectively. Nevertheless, investment in them is growing.
3. Student age and program type do not significantly influence the perception of online learning experiences’ quality. The survey found that what students value most in online learning did not vary significantly across age groups, field of study, or level of education (undergraduate versus graduate). 

Three steps that could help educational institutions to successfully transform their online education programs to boost student satisfaction and engagement are:

1. Listen to students, set transformation goals, and evaluate the broader online learning landscape.
2. Combine core attributes of an online program with differentiating elements.
3. Design an action plan and governance structure for implementation and adoption.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. New McKinsey research finds that most higher education students want to continue to incorporate at least some aspects of online learning into their education. However, a significant share of students are dissatisfied with the online experiences their universities offer.
2. Three tenets of successful online programs emerged from the study are:  the basics still matter, expensive features are not necessarily valued, and student age and program type do not significantly influence the perception of online learning experiences’ quality.
3. Three steps that could help educational institutions to successfully transform their online education programs to boost student satisfaction and engagement are:  listen to students, set transformation goals, and evaluate the broader online learning landscape; combine core attributes of an online program with differentiating elements, and design an action plan and governance structure for implementation and adoption.

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Topics: Education, Technology, Online Education