Perceptions of the quality and utility of online education in the People's Republic of China and the United States of America

THE PROBLEM. This study aimed to examine student perceptions of the quality and utility of online education in American and Chinese higher educational institutions. There were two problems in Chinese online education, which included the traditional face-to-face education took mainstream currently and Chinese online educational technology was not as advanced compared to the US educational system. There were two problems in the US online education, which included quality of online education and more adult student involvement.;METHOD. This study incorporated a two-group survey (quasi-experimental research) design with nationality as the most important independent variable with two values: China and the US. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to analyze data that was gathered from higher educational students in the United States and People's Republic of China.;RESULTS. The research questions that showed a statistically significant difference were: question 1 (perceived quality of online courses, US participants was rated higher than Chinese participants), question 2 (perceived quality of asynchronous online courses between students, US participants was rated higher than Chinese participants), 6 (student preference of the synchronous online courses, Chinese participants was rated higher than US participants), 8 (student perceptions of educational value of online education, as compared with traditional face-to-face education, Chinese participants was rated higher than US participants), and 9 (student perceptions of online education value as compared with traditional face-to-face education in society, Chinese participants was rated higher than US participants). In addition, answers from research questions 10 and 11 revealed that the higher educational online degree that most students would like to obtain in China was a professional degree, while in the US it was a Master's degree.