The Importance of Synchronous Interaction for Student Satisfaction with Course Web Sites

As more affordable synchronous communications are becoming available, the use of synchronous interactions has not been noted in course Web sites as often as asynchronous communications. Previous research indicated that the integration of synchronous tools into course Web sites has made a positive impact on students. While most of the previous studies were limited to open-ended questions and qualitative inquiries, this study extended the study of synchronous interaction by performing a sequence of quantitative and in-depth data analyses to explore how important this factor is relative to other factors and how this factor affects satisfaction of students majored in Information Systems with course Web sites. In a sample of 102 undergraduate students who were taking classes offered by Department of Computer Information Systems, the 89 percent of those students were majoring in Computer Information Systems while the rest of them, except a few, were pursuing a minor in Computer Information Systems. Findings in this study suggest that improving student satisfaction with synchronous interactions will effectively raise their overall satisfaction with course Web sites. While the delivery of educational materials is undergoing a remarkable change from the traditional lecture method to dissemination of courses via Web-based teaching-support systems, improving student satisfaction with course Web sites is closely linked to quality of dayto-day teaching.