IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i22p15678-d1275212.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving Massive Open Online Course Quality in Higher Education by Addressing Student Needs Using Quality Function Deployment

Author

Listed:
  • Hongbo Li

    (School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)

  • Huilin Gu

    (School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)

  • Wei Chen

    (School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)

  • Qingkang Zhu

    (Department of APP Research and Development, Baidu Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201210, China)

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are playing an increasingly important role in higher education. However, some MOOCs still suffer from low quality, which hinders the sustainable development of higher education. Course characteristics reflect students’ needs for online learning and have a significant impact on the quality of MOOCs. In the course improvement process, existing research has neither improved the MOOC quality from the perspective of student needs nor has it considered resource constraints. Therefore, to deal with this situation, we propose a student-needs-driven MOOC quality improvement framework. In this framework, we first map students’ differentiated needs for MOOCs into quality characteristics based on quality function deployment (QFD). Then, we formulate a mixed-integer linear programming model to produce MOOC quality improvement policies. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is verified by real-world data from China’s higher education MOOCs. We also investigate the impacts of budget, cost, and student needs on student satisfaction. Our results revealed that to significantly improve student satisfaction, the course budget needs to be increased by a small amount or the course cost needs to be greatly reduced. Our research provides an effective decision-making reference for MOOC educators to improve course quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Hongbo Li & Huilin Gu & Wei Chen & Qingkang Zhu, 2023. "Improving Massive Open Online Course Quality in Higher Education by Addressing Student Needs Using Quality Function Deployment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-14, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15678-:d:1275212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15678/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15678/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dominici, Gandolfo & Palumbo, Federica, 2013. "How to build an e-learning product: Factors for student/customer satisfaction," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 87-96.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roblek, Vasja & Meško Maja, 2015. "Designing Mobile Application for the Over the Counter Drug Marketing," Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference (2015), Kotor, Montengero, in: Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference, Kotor, Montengero, 10-11 September 2015, pages 213-219, IRENET - Society for Advancing Innovation and Research in Economy, Zagreb.
    2. Lahuerta Otero, Eva & Muñoz Gallego, Pablo A. & Pratt, Renée M.E., 2014. "Click-and-Mortar SMEs: Attracting customers to your website," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 729-736.
    3. Dabija, Dan-Cristian & Brătianu, Constantin & Dominici, Gandolfo & Vătămănescu, Elena-Mădălina, 2024. "Unveiling e-learning and knowledge sharing during the pandemic: From expert skills perception to student satisfaction," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Bacci, Silvia & Fabbricatore, Rosa & Iannario, Maria, 2023. "Multilevel IRT models for the analysis of satisfaction for distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Sanja Bauk & Jasmin Jusufranic, 2014. "Competitiveness In Higher Education In Terms Of The Level Of Students' Satisfaction With E-Learning In Blended Environment," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 10(1), pages 25-42.
    6. Joseph M. Mulwa & Hannington O. Owegi & Rael J. Too & Reuben W. Kikwatha, 2024. "Higher Learning Institutions Preparedness, Adoption and Implementation of E-Learning Programmes: A Conceptual Review," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(7), pages 2445-2452, July.
    7. Chen, Mu-Chen & Hsu, Chia-Lin & Huang, Chun-Han, 2021. "Applying the Kano model to investigate the quality of transportation services at mega events," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    8. Óscar González-Yebra & José Ángel Aznar-Sánchez & Juan Francisco Velasco-Muñoz & Belén López-Felices, 2023. "A methodological proposal for the sociocultural valuation of ecosystem services," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 69(2), pages 68-77.
    9. Muhammad Imran Hanif & Muhammad Ahsan & Muhammad Kashif Bhatti & Muhammad Sajjad Loghari, 2020. "The Effect of Electronic Customer Relationship Management on Organizational Performance with Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 10(5), pages 138-147.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15678-:d:1275212. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.