Antecedents of students' perception of value and behavioral intentions in online education

Abstract

There has been a tremendous increase in the demand for as well as the supply of online education. As this growth trend continues, universities face the challenge of assuring high standards of quality in online education to both satisfy students and institutionalize the legitimacy of online degrees. While there is a growing body of literature that examines the dimensions of quality in online education, there is limited evidence with respect to how dimensions of quality, along with cost are related to students' perception of value and behavioral intentions. Building on the theory of consumer behavior and services quality literature, we propose a framework that links students' perception of value and behavioral intentions to dimensions of quality and cost of online education. We test this framework on a sample of data collected by surveying graduate students enrolled in an online degree program. Our empirical results are largely consistent with our framework.