PDGIA Virtual Conference 2021

The main purpose of this paper is to primarily address the question: What are the optimal proportions for in person (face-to-face) and online courses during the post COVID-19 pandemic era? A survey aiming at collecting data of proportions of online and face-to-face sessions at a one of the campuses of a private Canadian University was conducted, and data were collected and reviewed. The data analysis revealed similar proportions for the two formats. The second phase of the study is posed to include three stakeholders: students, professors, and administrators needed to optimize the percentages of online and in person sessions. The paper also highlights some attractive features of hybrid teaching format with 50% each for online and in person. It also includes reviews of research peer research articles to understand the scholarly works on conducted in the e-learning field. The paper concludes by recommending future research to investigate in more depth the concerns of the primary stakeholders. 

The second stage of this study intends to cover students enrolled in all four years of the BBA program at the university in question and compare their preferences for both online and face to face courses. The study will also cover several objectives such as whether the course delivery mode is independent of the year of study (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior). The future work will investigate whether the proportions of students who prefer online courses to those who would like to return to face to face courses are gender related. The next study phase is planned to be conducted when the students will resume their on-campus classes. We anticipate that the results of the latter will serve as the primary data needed to formulate a model aiming to propose an optimal combination of the three key stakeholders: students, professors, and institutions.