How to build an e-learning product: Factors for student/customer satisfaction

The increasing use of web technologies has changed the way business is done, including in the field of education. In the last decade, the development of electronic learning (e-learning) systems became crucial to meet students’ demand. In this study, we adopt a relationship marketing perspective and apply the Kano Model to propose a way to build a non-academic e-learning course that can achieve student satisfaction. We measure the relevance of e-learning requirements from university students’ perspective to identify their expectations about e-learning courses and obtain relevant characteristics that can help to plan an e-learning product capable of achieving high customer satisfaction. Our study is based on interviews of 239 students from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Palermo. Through surveys, we measure users’ satisfaction of e-learning courses and classify quality attribute expectations into Kano Model categories. The indexes we create reveal key elements that can increase or decrease customers’ perceived satisfaction of e-learning courses. This study has specific value for academics who work on new product development in the field of customer satisfaction. Highlighting the correlation between the classification of expectations and satisfaction level, we find practical implications for educational institutions and/or other companies interested in developing and selling e-learning courses based on students’ needs using a customer-oriented approach.