Physical classroom environment and student satisfaction with courses

The higher education market in South Korea has matured over recent decades. Higher education institutions have invested in many areas to boost the student experience. Student satisfaction has been identified as a key variable in explaining the holistic evaluation of the course. This study aims to fulfil a void in research by developing a study model consisting of cognitive evaluation, affective evaluation and student satisfaction with the course. Furthermore, two constructs of classroom physical environments were added to measure the moderating effect of satisfaction’s antecedents. Results indicated that student satisfaction with a course was significantly explained by cognitive and affective evaluations. Affective evaluation played a mediating role between cognitive evaluation and students’ satisfaction with the course. In addition, the impact of cognitive evaluation was greater than that of affective evaluation. The cognitive and affective evaluation constructs in the proposed theoretical framework accounted for 56% of the variance explained in student satisfaction with the course. Moreover, results of the invariance test revealed that ambient conditions of the classroom and its spatial layout and functionality significantly enhanced the effects of cognitive evaluation and affective evaluation on student satisfaction with the course.