Relative academic performance and its relation to facet and overall satisfaction with interactive telecourses

An investigation was conducted in which 288 undergraduate college students taking 17 live, interactive telecourses at 68 remote sites were asked to report their satisfaction with various aspects of their telecourses as well as their overall satisfaction with those courses. In addition, a measure of relative academic performance was calculated for each student in which performance in the current telecourse was compared to prior academic performance. Results showed that high levels of relative performance were associated with (1) student satisfaction with the technological aspects of the courses, (2) student satisfaction with the promptness of material exchange with the instructor, and (3) overall student satisfaction. Practical implications of these results are discussed. 1. The research reported in this manuscript was funded by a grant to the fourth author from the Indianapolis‐based Lilly Endowment Incorporated. This study is part of a larger series of investigations currently being conducted by the first and fourth authors.