Abstract
This dissertation draws on five years of research examining course design and student satisfaction in asynchronous online courses. The study investigated the relationship between course content and student satisfaction in asynchronous online courses at The University of Texas at Tyler. A mixed-methods design combined qualitative inductive coding of online course content with quantitative analysis of student evaluation data across 20 asynchronous online courses taught by nine faculty experienced in online instruction. Results indicated measurable relationships between instructional content variables and student evaluation scores. Dialogue and Ordinary Conversation, content categories identified through emergent coding of course materials, demonstrated positive predictive relationships with overall evaluation scores. Skilled Conversation and Curated Multimedia demonstrated negative relationships. Ridge Regression models accounted for about 40% of the variance in overall course evaluation averages. These findings align with the Community of Inquiry framework and the Interaction Equivalency Theorem by suggesting that structured interaction with course content and visible instructor presence may influence students’ perceptions of course quality. Implications include guidance for faculty designing online courses to balance disciplinary rigor with conversational instructional elements such as dialogue-focused content and instructor presence within course materials. Future research could examine larger samples and incorporate qualitative student feedback such as open-ended evaluation comments or student interviews to further expand understanding of content-driven satisfaction in asynchronous online learning environments.
Date of publication
Spring 2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/5048
Committee members
Dr. Yanira Oliveras, Dr. Woonhee Sung, Dr. Gary Miller
Degree
EdD School Improvement
Recommended Citation
Dillingham, Scott, "THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ONLINE COURSE CONTENT DESIGN AND STUDENT SATISFACTION IN ASYNCHRONOUS UNIVERSITY COURSES" (2026). Education Theses and Dissertations. Paper 39.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/5048