Value-Satisfaction Grid of E-Learning Systems

This chapter provides the rationale of the first of three tools suggested in this book to assess value and satisfaction of e-learning systems in order to provide an assessment of the effectiveness of such systems. The other two tools are presented in the following chapter. The first tool proposed by the conceptual model is the Value-Satisfaction grid which aggregates the learners’ value and satisfaction with e-learning systems in order to indicate the learners’ perceived effectiveness of e-learning systems. The Value-Satisfaction grid also helps indicate the action and improvement priorities that are needed for the characteristics and dimensions of an e-learning system under study. A proposed method of aggregation of learners’ perceived value of e-learning systems and satisfaction with e-learning systems to construct the Value-Satisfaction grid and the two tools presented in the following chapter is also presented in this chapter. The understanding of the Value-Satisfaction grid provides the first building block toward a complete set of assessment tools of learners’ perceived effectiveness of e-learning systems. The development of this set of tools is a significant achievement as scholars have suggested that prior research in technology mediated learning (TML) lacked the overall system approach and concentrated only on one or two dimensions at a time (Alavi & Leidner, 2001a, p. 9).