The Role of Quality in Online Higher Education

Abstract

Approximately 7.1 million college students have taken at least one online course (Allen and Seaman, 2014), which indicates an increase of 12% since 2011 (Wisloski, 2011). This study examines the generalizability and nomological validity of the E-S-QUAL scale, originally developed in 2005 by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Malhotra for assessing e- service quality in higher education. Data collected from online college students from a US university show satisfactory fit of the model to the data and indicate the 20-item E-S-QUAL scale can be adapted as a standardized method of online program quality assessment. Important impacts of the measure’s utility are discussed.