Online Hospitality and Tourism Education

Abstract

The study attempts to understand students' apprehensions, satisfaction, and experience concerning online hospitality and tourism education (HTE) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focused group discussions were conducted to gather student experiences implementing ICT in hospitality and tourism education. The group discussions were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in search of themes to identify and validate the constructs to develop the questionnaire for the study. The questionnaire was then presented before the subject experts to cross-check the validity of constructs. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was used to determine students' satisfaction by comparing students' perceptions to students' expectations. The study's findings show the importance of practical classes and labs and on-site instructor comments on students' overall satisfaction. Online teaching can complement traditional classroom teaching but cannot fully replace lab sessions with instructor feedback. Transitioning to an online platform requires effective tools and curriculum modifications to fill the gap in industry expectations regarding student employability. Online teaching has immense capability, but it cannot be generalized and requires subject-specific attention and feedback. Online education needs to keep evolving alongside contemporary classroom teaching to meet student expectations. Future research would concentrate on communication, interpersonal, and technology skills and their effect on the study's results.