Mapping the Relationship between Virtual Supervision, Online Program Quality, and International Student Satisfaction in COVID-19 Pandemic World: Does E-Learning Quality Mediates the Relationship

The COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically changed all spheres of humans and caused the interruption of educational settings around the globe. It necessitated the rapid transition of virtual supervision and online service delivery internationally. The present study constructed a model using equity theory and the D&M (DeLone and McLean) model to analyze the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Twenty-one carefully chosen items fell under four domains: online program quality, supervisor supervision, e-learning quality, and student satisfaction. The author performed an empirical analysis on a sample of 503 international students registered in Master's and Ph.D. programs from 18 universities in six provinces of China during the pandemic through an online survey. Results revealed student satisfaction with the assistance and support from supervisors in the virtual space, while online program quality showed weak links in the model. The full mediating effect of e-learning quality was observed.