UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

NGUYEN HUU QUY

SOME FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENT SATISFACTION IN
E-LEARNING. A STUDY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN HO CHI
MINH CITY, VIET NAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

NGUYEN HUU QUY

SOME FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENT SATISFACTION IN
E-LEARNING. A STUDY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN HO
CHI MINH CITY, VIET NAM

ID: 22110050

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)
SUPERVISOR: Dr. Nguyen Dong Phong

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014

of modern education in Vietnam. The purpose of this paper therefore finds the factors
of student satisfaction with e-learning at Vietnam universities.
In order to do this, data of the quantitative survey is gathered from university learners,
having been experienced the e-learning method in one of the biggest cities, Ho Chi
Minh City. Then, the analysis is done via the SPSS software. Next, both the results
and the relations among the factors are explained.
The results are expected to support the proposed hypotheses. They are able to be
essential to provide universities, institutions, and colleges with more information
about the student satisfaction of e-learning in Vietnam. Limitations, discussions and
suggestions will be explained the results in research and practice.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………i
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………ii
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………….iii
List of tables………………………………………………………………………….vi
List of figures………………………………………………………………………..vii
Chapter I: Introduction………………………………………………………………..1
1.1 Background……………………………………………………………….1
1.2 Research problem…………........................................................................3
1.3 Research objectives……………….............................................................4
1.4 Scope of the research……………………………………………………..4
1.5 Significance of the research…………………………………………….....5
1.6 Organization of the thesis ………………………………………………...5
Chapter II: Literature review and hypothesis ………………………………………...7
2.1 Elearning…………………………………………………………………..7
2.1.1 Definition of e-learning………………………………………….7

Chapter V. Discussion, Implications, Limitation, and Conclusion…………………. 46
5.1 Discussion ………………………………………………………………. 46
5.2 Implications and suggestions……………………………………………. 47
5.2.1 Instructor capability…………………………………………… 47
5.2.2 Learner attitude toward computers……………………………..49
5.2.3 Technology dimension………………………………………....50
5.3 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….51
5.4 Limitaions…………………………………………………………….......52

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References…………………………………………………………………………....54
Appendix A. Questionnaire…………………………………………………………..60
Appendix B: Chart……………………………………………………………………67
Appendix C: Table…………………………………………………………………...70
Appendix D: Preliminarily research………………………………………………….73

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List of tables
Table 4.1.1: Description…………………………………………………………… 31
Table 4.2.1: Reliability Statistics…………………………………………………... 33
Table 4.2.2: Item-Total Statistics………………………………………………….. 33
Table 4.2.3: Reliability Statistics…………………………………………………....33
Table 4.2.4: Item-Total Statistics…………………………………………………....34
Table 4.2.5: Reliability Statistics………………………………………………….. 34
Table 4.2.6: Item-Total Statistics………………………………………………….. 34
Table 4.2.7: Reliability Statistics…………………………………………………... 35

country. The crucial of education and its delivery to the citizens is therefore
imperative. Moreover, modern society requires people to be able to study regularly,
continuously and all their life. In addition, its core is self-learning, self-striving ability
to improve specialty, professional skills and quality of life. E-learning is one of the
methods satisfying these demands. To build a successful learning society in Viet
Nam, the State and Party have concerned very much. According to the eleventh
Congress of Communist Party of Viet Nam (2011), promoting the study
encouragement movement, building a learning society, and expanding e-learning
mode would be goals of the State.
Vietnam’s movement toward a market-oriented economy and participation in
the World Trade Organization (WTO) have opened the doors to greater opportunities
as well as challenges for business. To be more precise, new markets for goods and
services exports, access to imported raw materials and technologies, and more
chances for international business co-operation are opportunities when Vietnam is a
market-oriented economy and a member of WTO. A more open market, however,
leads to stronger competition and to imposition of stricter business standards, such as
product quality and safety (Nguyen, & Nguyen, 2010). Among several challenges,
lack of knowledge about business management is possibly one of the most difficulties
for Vietnam. In addition, the rising demand of people in updating knowledge and
skills has been enormous since Vietnam opened its market. Vietnamese universities,

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hence, play an important role in providing qualified business graduates for the
Vietnamese labor market (Nguyen, 2009). Knowing the labor market’s need for
competent learners, the Vietnamese universities and colleges make constant efforts to
satisfy customers, especially students.
According to the education laws in 2012, higher education covers
undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Master degrees and doctor degrees belong to

information for education and training (Sun, Tsai, Finger, Chen, & Yeh, 2006).
Thanks to the progress of information and communication technology development, it
is impossible for people to deny the fact that e-learning is emerging as the paradigm
of modern education. As regards e-learning, it actually has some advantages,
comprising liberating interactions between learners and instructors, or learners and
learners, from limitations of time and space through the asynchronous and
synchronous learning network model (Sun et al., 2006). It is obvious that the
characteristics of e-learning fulfill the requirements for learning in a modern society.
However, some students feel unpleased and disappointed when experiencing elearning at Vietnamese universities, including: University of Science Ho Chi Minh
city, Ho Chi Minh city Open University, Hutech University, Ho Chi Minh city
University of Technology, and University of Information Technology.
The researches about student satisfaction are vital in ascertaining whether
colleges and universities are fulfilling their mission. It is well known that a qualified
graduate is the most crucial product of educational institutions. Satisfaction is a
relevant measure because many studies have showed that other factors being equal,

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satisfied individuals are likely to be willing to exert more effort than unsatisfied
individuals (Bryant, 2006; Ozgungor, 2010). Thus, satisfied students have ability to
make more effort to study by taking actions, including regularly attending their
classes and becoming more involved in their coursework.
Consequently, exploring the elements influencing the satisfaction of
Vietnamese students is a need for academics and university administrators as well.
For that reason, the purpose of this study is to investigate some important factors of
satisfaction of Vietnamese students. To be more specific, it examines the impact of
some dimensions, including instructor dimension, learner dimension, and technology
dimension on the e-learner satisfaction.
1.3 Significance of the research

introduction of the study. The second is the literature review and hypothesis. The
methodology is the following part. The next part is the research results. The final one
is discussions, implications, limitations, and conclusion.
ƒ Chapter 1 – Introduction
This chapter reflects the current situation of education in Vietnam, as well as
discusses about the existing researches in e-learning. As a result, it leads to propose
the research problem, research objectives and significance of this study also presented
in this section.
ƒ Chapter 2 – Literature review and hypothesis
In this chapter, the theoretical foundation of the research, including the
definition of each concept, namely, instructor capability, learner attitude towards
computers, technology quality, internet quality, and learner satisfaction in e-learning

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context, and their relationships in literature are presented or showed. From that, the
hypotheses are derived and proposed for this research.
ƒ Chapter 3 – Methodology
There is no doubt that chapter 3 describes the way of establishment of the
measures and conducting the survey. This part includes two steps, qualitative research
to modify draft measurement scale and quantitative research design to test the
hypotheses.
ƒ Chapter 4 – Research results
The findings of this research are showed in this chapter. The results are
exhibited corresponding to each step of the data analysis. As a result, the research
hypotheses are tested.
ƒ Chapter 5 – Discussions, Implications, Conclusion, and Limitations
The last chapter of this study discusses the research results by affirming the
exploratory values as well as connecting to the realistic conditions to suggest the

to understanding e-Learning success, such as the technology acceptance model (Ajzen
& Fishbein, 1977; Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989; Oliver, 1980), and the

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expectation and confirmation model (Bhattacherjee, 2001; Lin, Wu, & Tsai, 2005;
Wu et al., 2006).
2.1.2 The benefits of e-learning
Many articles have discussed about the benefits of e-learning (Liaw, Huang, &
Chen, 2007). According to Bouhnik and Marcus (2006), e-learning has some
advantages, including: freedom to decide when each online lesson will be learned;
lack of dependence on the time constraints of the lecturer; freedom to express
thoughts and ask questions without limitations; the accessibility to the course’s online
materials at students’ own election. Similarly, Capper (2001) explores the e-learning
benefits, such as any time, any place, asynchronous interaction, group collaboration,
new educational approaches. To be more precise, any time means that a participant
can access the learning program at any time, that is convenient for learners. Any place
is that the participants do not have to meet. Asynchronous interaction is understood
that interactions can be more succinct and discussion can stay more on-track. Group
collaboration means that electronic messaging creates new opportunities for groups to
work together by creating shared electronic conversations and discussions. New
educational approaches show that many new options and learning strategies become
economically feasible through online courses. They also can provide unique
opportunities and learners to share innovations in their own works with the immediate
support of electronic groups.
There are many innovations and improvements compared with traditional
forms of learning, e-learning promises to provide students with the perfect
combination of visual, audio and proactive. E-learning makes training to be more
effective for different learners, cut the cost of printing, publishing and distribution.

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mobilization potential of the community, to build social learning opportunity for
people of all abilities, all ages, anywhere can lifelong learning, appropriate to the
circumstances and conditions of each individual, contributing their knowledge and the
quality of human (Tam, 2013). E-learning is one of the training methods contribute to
achieving this goal.
With Vietnam joining the WTO and integration into the world economy
deeper, Vietnam's education is facing the challenge of training the future citizens have
sufficient ability, intelligence, self- school, in order to upgrade their environment
increasingly fierce competition. Forms of e-learning are not strangers around the
world. According to Elearn (2010), nearly 90% of universities in Singapore have elearning and this method used in USA is over 80 %. In Vietnam, the stormy
development of information technology leads to skyrocketing Internet users. Along
with this rapid growth, how to work, study, entertainment of Internet users in Vietnam
changed with the new formula. Today, in Vietnam, people can find e-learning
programs via three main channels, comprising: the courses from the universities, the
programs from overseas into Vietnam, and the courses established by companies.
The Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training also had many positive
moves to encourage bringing information technology into teaching, bringing the
knowledge of online learning to the managers, teachers who care about education and
students. Currently, the Ministry has built the e-learning website (el.edu.net) to
disseminate and access technology. Vietnam has turned open source software Moodle
to build and manage an online learning system. Moreover, the Ministry has used
technologies SCORM, recognized worldwide, to develop and cooperate in the field of
information technology (Thuy, 2010). The managers have been ongoing transferring
software of tool to create free lectures, reaching international standards. This helps to

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individual’s subjective evaluation of the various outcomes and experiences associated
with buying it or using it”. Similarly, Tse and Wilton (1988) defined the customer
satisfaction:” The consumer’s response to the evaluation of the perceived discrepancy
between prior expectations (or some norm of performance) and the actual
performance of the product as perceived after its consumption” (p.204).
As regards the context of education, student satisfaction refers to the
favorability of a student’s subjective evaluations of the various outcomes and
experiences associated with education (Oliver & DeSarbo, 1989). Since satisfaction is
based on experience, student satisfaction is constantly being by the students’ overall
experiences (Oliver, 1980) and, as Seymour (1993) noted, what happens to students in
the classroom and with their academic choices is not independent of all other
experiences on campus life and the combination of all experiences affects the overall
satisfaction with the university. According to Parasuraman et al., (1985, 1988),
customer satisfaction is based on the disconfirmation of consumer expectations in
what widely known: satisfaction occurs when perceived performance meets or
exceeds the student’s expectations and dissatisfaction results when there is a negative
gap between performance and expectation.
While student satisfaction is regarded as a short-term attitude resulting from
the student’s educational experience, perceived quality is a general perception often
affected by objective information and reputation and not necessarily tied to personal
experience. For government officials and administrators alike, program quality is
often linked to objective achievements, retention rare, time to graduate, enrollment

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trends, average starting salaries of graduates, percentage of students going to graduate
programs, and passing rates on professional consumer satisfaction (Letcher & Neves).
Similarly, Astin (1993) defines student satisfaction as the students’ perceived
value of their educational experiences at a university. According to Muilenburg &

- Accessible
- Helpful
- Provide feedback

ADVISING STAFF
- Accessible
- Reliable
- Helpful
- Responsive
- Understanding

STUDENT PARTIAL
COLLEGE EXPERIENCE
- Cognitive development
- Career progress
- Business skills

SATISFACTION

CLASSES
- Real-World relevance
- Course scheduling
- Projects/cases ( skills)

Figure 2.3.1. Partial model of student satisfaction and retention (Oscar, Ali, &
Erdener, 2005).
According to Oscar, Ali, & Erdener (2005), the model of figure 2.3.1 is
focused on the links between faculty, advising staff, and classes so that the
researchers can consider the impact of these critical factors on students’ experience
with universities, which in turn affects student satisfaction. In other words, they use

effectiveness

Figure. 2.3.2. A conceptual model of user’ satisfaction, behavioral intention, and
effectiveness toward e-learning ( Liaw, 2008).
Liaw (2008) proposes a conceptual model for investigating satisfaction,
behavioral intention, and e-learning effectiveness among learners (figure 2.3.2). The
figure shows that learners’ perceived satisfaction and perceived usefulness of a
product will be influenced by learners’ characteristics. In the conceptual model,
perceived satisfaction, perceived usefulness and e-learning effectiveness will also
affected by environmental characteristics. Moreover, the model shows that the
perceived satisfaction and perceived usefulness will positively impact learners’
behavioral intention of e-learning usage ( Liaw, 2008).

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Student selfmotivation

Student
learning style

Perceived
student
satisfaction

Instructor
knowledge and
facilitation

Instructor