Students' satisfaction with the hybrid learning system : Lebanese context

Abstract

It is said, any newly implemented system will have some challenges to encounter and tune. In this research study, we did address the students’ experience and satisfaction with the newly implemented hybrid learning system in distressed countries like Lebanon where different challenges are more significant due to the lack of proper IT infrastructure, poor internet connection, and challenging economic conditions. The aim of this study is to determine the level of students’ satisfaction with the implemented hybrid learning system within the Lebanese private sector universities and to explore the key factors that most affect students’ satisfaction with the current hybrid learning model implemented in Lebanon, that is forced by the COVID-19 pandemic and other social and economic challenging conditions. The research process has been done in two steps. The first step covered the most convenient literature review that helped us better understand the key measurable variables affecting students’ satisfaction with the new learning method, then the second step followed was the quantitative approach, where a well-structured questionnaire was prepared and distributed to address the key factors influencing students’ satisfaction from both the social and educational perspectives. Note that, a convenience sampling method was used, where a total of 232 students from five selected universities did participate in the study. This study found that the learning method efficacy, university support, students’ adaptation, and social influence factors do have a significant effect on students’ satisfaction with the implemented hybrid learning system. The learning method efficacy factor did show the highest impacting weight whereas the social influence found to be the least impacting among the 4 identified factors. In addition, no difference in opinion detected among the different gender groups. However, graduate students did show a higher level of satisfaction than under-graduate students. This study did only cover the private sector universities in Lebanon where public sector universities might need to be included in future studies with a wider sample size. In presence of all the challenging conditions that Lebanese students are experiencing due to the bad economic, political, and health conditions, this study will help universities to better identify the main factors that do influence students’ satisfaction with the hybrid learning method so that a proper decisions and actions can be taken to better address the students’ needs while ensuring the required level of learning among Lebanese universities.