Perceived service quality factors in online higher education

In recent years, the offer of higher-education programs under online modality has grown significantly. This situation has generated the need to evaluate the quality of these services, whose conditions and characteristics do not correspond to those of the traditional face-to-face modality. This article identifies and describes factors underlying the quality of the service perceived by students enrolled in an online higher-education program. Based on a literature review and a field work with students, an information-gathering instrument was developed using a qualitative phase. Next, field work involved collecting data from 120 students enrolled at a public university in Colombia (South America). Data were analysed through exploratory factor analysis using unweighted least squares extraction and Varimax rotation. Five factors explaining 60.335% of the total variance were identified: (1) Teachers, (2) Support academic resources, (3) Administrative support, (4) User interface and (5) Course enrollment. Further research is recommended to understand possible specificities in other online settings.