Creation of the Remote Learning Best Practices Satisfaction Survey

This paper describes the development of a new measure of student online course satisfaction called the Remote Learning Best Practices (RLBP) survey. “Remote” learning encompasses asynchronous online courses and those with a synchronous virtual component such as lectures via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Unlike other instruments of its kind, RLBP creation was guided by a qualitative analysis of students’ reports of their course experiences. This unique methodology is to address that direct student input has not been a primary consideration in satisfaction survey development. Rational refinement of the initial item pool resulted in a 25-item scale with higher scores indicating stronger course satisfaction. RLBP factor composition favors the prominence of instructor presence and course design but downplays student interaction. Investigation of scale psychometric properties demonstrated a clear factor structure, strong reliability, and emerging evidence of construct validity. Results suggest the RLBP may add incremental value to a multi-measure approach of online course quality assessment.