An experiential learning perspective on students' satisfaction model in a flipped classroom context

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in the flipped classroom model, and many flipped programs have been funded and implemented to explore the effectiveness of this new model. However, previous studies centering on comparative assessment have indicated that it is not always entirely successful in terms of promoting students' performance and/or satisfaction, which warrants further research on the contributing factors and driving mechanism accounting for students' perceptions of flipped settings. In order to fill this gap, in this study, a students' satisfaction model for the flipped classroom was constructed based on the experiential learning theory. A total of 178 undergraduate students in Mainland China participated in 32-week College English flipped classes, from whom 146 valid questionnaires were obtained. The proposed research model was evaluated through longitudinal surveys followed by the structural equation modeling technique. The results indicated that, compared with the designs of Personalized Learning Climate, learners' Prior Learning Experience is a far more significant antecedent for predicting their satisfaction. Furthermore, Perceived Quality (with five first-order dimensions) and Perceived Value are two vital mediators to student satisfaction. The implications of this study are also discussed.