What are the Characteristics of University Students Who Prefer Online Education?

Objectives The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of university students who prefer online education and to provide key implications for the effective implementation of online education at universities. To this end, latent classes of online education preference were identified, and factors influencing group classification were examined by including demographic characteristics (gender, academic year, major), personal characteristics (prior experience with online education, multitasking behavior and digital literacy) as predictors. Methods A survey was conducted with 731 students from A University located in GyeonggI during the first semester of the 2020 academic year, which was fully online. The data were analyzed using latent profile analysis and multinomial logistic regression. Results Latent class analysis revealed three distinct groups based on preference for online education: a high-preference group (n=258), a medium-preference group (n=315), and a low-preference group (n=158). Compared to fourth-year students, first- and second-year students were more likely to belong to the low-preference group than the high-preference group. Moreover, students with higher multitasking behavior and lower digital literacy were more likely to be classified in the low-preference group compared to the high-preference group. Conclusions Universities need to consider students' academic year and personal characteristics when designing and implementing online education. In particular, it is important to take into account the timing of introducing online education so that lower-year students can participate after adapting to university life. Additionally, learning environments and strategies should be provided to enhance students' digital literacy and minimize multitasking behavior.