Influence of overall course quality on student satisfaction and university image

Abstract

With the COVID-19 crisis that forced most governments in the world to temporarily suspend face-to-face teaching at universities, distance learning (DL) has been gaining prominence as a viable alternative. This is not a new modality. Studies focused on the quality of teaching, student satisfaction with the course, or how the university's image is formed are indispensable to the development of distance learning. In this study, we sought to answer whether perceived quality influences the university's corporate image and whether overall satisfaction is a mediator of this influence. The methodology used for these tests was the survey, analyzed by CFA and SEM-CB. The results indicated that perceived quality has a strong influence on corporate image and that overall student satisfaction is a mediator between perceived quality and corporate image. Theoretically, this is an interesting finding because it ensures a direct relationship of perceived quality and corporate image intensity, and it proves the mediation of satisfaction. In practice, it demonstrates to administrators that investing in the quality of a course involves satisfying the students, generating increments in the corporate image, and attracting new students.