Physical classroom environment affects students’ satisfaction: Attitude and quality as mediators

Abstract

Boosting student satisfaction with courses is undoubtedly a key challenge for higher education institutions. Our research was designed to understand better the role of the physical classroom environment, attitude toward the course, and perception of the quality of the course in forming student satisfaction with the course. Responses to paper-based surveys were collected during classes from students majoring in hospitality and tourism in 5 high-level universities in South Korea. We analyzed 401 responses by using a series of multiple regression analyses based on forward selection. The results showed that air quality, odor, noise, and equipment/amenity are essential physical classroom environment factors in determining attitude, perception of quality, and satisfaction. Attitude toward the course completely mediates the effect of odor on satisfaction, and quality partially mediates the impact of equipment/amenity on satisfaction. Overall, in this study we identified the salient role of certain features of the classroom physical environment in building students’ satisfaction with a course via attitudes toward, and evaluation of the quality of the course.