Challenges, perceptions, and future preferences for post-secondary online education given experiences in the COVID-19 outbreak

To gain a better understanding of online education status during and after the pandemic outbreak, this paper analyzed the data from a recent survey conducted in the state of Florida in May 2020. In particular, we focused on college students’ perception of productivity changes, benefits, challenges, and their overall preference for the future of online education. Our initial exploratory analysis showed that in most cases, students were not fully satisfied with the quality of the online education, and the majority of them suffered a plummet in their productivities. Despite the challenges, around 61% believed that they would prefer more frequent participation in online programs in the future (compared to the normal conditions before the pandemic). A structural equation model was developed to identify and assess the factors that contribute to their productivity and future preferences. The results showed that lack of sufficient communication with other students/ instructor as well as lack of required technology infrastructure significantly reduced students’ productivity. On the other hand, productivity was positively affected by perceived benefits such as flexibility and better time management. In addition, productivity played a mediating role for a number of socio-economic, demographic, and attitudinal attributes: including gender, income, technology attitudes, and home environment conflicts. Accordingly, females, high income groups, and those with home environment conflicts experienced lower productivity, which indirectly discouraged their preference for future online education. As expected, a latent pro-online education attitude increased both the productivity and the future online-education preference. Last but not the least, Gen-Xers were more likely to adopt online-education in the post pandemic conditions compared to their peers.