Students’ Perception of Course Experience and Satisfaction in Different Subject Areas at the Indian National Open University

Abstract

Self-reporting by students about their course is an important indicator of teaching quality in higher education. This is rather  mportant in the context of distance education as these students are independent learners and self-regulate their studies. The present study reports the findings of a survey conducted online with distance students of Indira Gandhi National Open  University (IGNOU) to examine their perception and satisfaction with the course they are studying. The Couse Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) of Ramsden (1991) was administered to a randomly selected 315 undergraduate distance students from one regional centre (Delhi region). Results showed that distance students from science departments were found having lesser score on good teaching, appropriate workload and generic skills scale as compared to students from arts/humanity and social science departments. Science students were also found less satisfied with their courses as compared to students from arts/humanity and social science departments. Teaching, assessment and workload were negatively perceived by students of the science discipline, though appropriate assessment was negatively perceived by students of alldisciplines. Above all, distance students’ perception of their courses was found strongly related to their satisfaction of the course. The results are discussed in relation to students’ learning and course design.