A Comparative Study On College Students’ Learning Satisfaction In Three Online Course Modes Of Web-based Autonomous English Learning

Since the 1990s,with the rise of online learning,the academia has begun to pay attention to online learning.Throughout the existing research,on the one hand,abundant fruits of the research on learning satisfaction influencing factors have been harvested;on the other hand,the comparison of course modes seem to remain at the stage of the comparison between the conventional offline classrooms and the online classrooms,and there lacks horizontal comparisons of different online course modes.However,in the current online English education market,various types of online courses have emerged constantly alongside the rapid development of information technology and growing demands of online learning.Therefore,the thesis is intended to explore the meaningful connections between course modes and learning satisfaction.Taking the three mainstream modes of online courses,that is,the "traditional-video","textaudio" and "short-video" modes as the research targets,the thesis attempts to establish a connection between online course mode and the online autonomous learning satisfaction,focusing on the following three questions: In what respects do the three online course modes differ from each other? When analyzed respectively from the five dimensions of "learner","teacher","curriculum","interaction" and "as a whole",are there significant differences in learning satisfaction between the three course modes? Are there significant correlations between learning satisfaction in the four independent dimensions and general learning satisfaction?In order to answer the above questions,the research makes use of the three research methods,that is,observation,questionnaire and semi-structured interview.The results show that:(1)The online courses of the traditional-video mode and the text-audio mode have a relatively complete structure and are closer to the offline courses in form while the courses of the shortvideo mode tend to be more relaxing and have more elements of entertainment.Correspondingly,the teachers of the former two modes are more often than not more professional and trustworthy while the teachers of the short-video mode feature more diverse backgrounds and sometimes may not even have the qualifications to teach.(2)There are significant differences in learning satisfaction among the courses of the three modes in the dimensions of "teacher" and "interaction",but there shows no significant difference in the dimensions of "learner","course" and "as a whole".(3)The general learning satisfaction is positively correlated with the satisfaction of all the four independent dimensions,among which the highest level of correlation occurs in the ‘learner’ dimension.In the subsequent interviews,the results further support the findings of the questionnaire and also provide reasonable explanations for the situations.Based on the above research results,the research puts forward some suggestions for future online English courses: Diversified teaching approaches and tools should be used more effectively to maintain learners’ attention;Courses of the traditional-video mode should make teaching contents more oriented towards learners’ needs of daily use;Courses of the text-audio and short-video modes should establish a clearer teacher-learner relationship;Regulators should formulate stricter codes of conduct to standardize the online education market.