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ABSTRACT
Business analytics has become a critical tool in today's data-driven world, enabling organizations to extract insights, optimize decisions, and gain competitive advantages. As the demand for skilled professionals in business analytics grows, higher education institutions are increasingly focused on equipping students with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in this field. Understanding the factors that influence student learning outcomes in business analytics education is essential for designing effective and inclusive learning environments. This study examines key factors affecting perceived learning effectiveness and satisfaction in business analytics courses, including cognitive presence, teaching presence, quantitative analytics self-efficacy, and prior experience. A research model was tested across different demographic groups, highlighting variations based on gender and academic level. Results show that teaching presence consistently drives learning outcomes, while cognitive presence is more critical for undergraduates. Quantitative analytics self-efficacy significantly influences male graduate students' learning outcomes, whereas prior experience is more relevant for graduate students. Notably, the model was less effective for female graduate students, suggesting the need for further exploration of factors influencing this group. This research provides actionable insights for educators, emphasizing the importance of fostering teaching presence and adapting strategies to students' backgrounds and confidence levels. By tailoring approaches to gender and academic level, educators can enhance learning effectiveness and satisfaction, ultimately supporting the development of a skilled workforce in business analytics.
Keywords: Business analytics education, Learning goals & outcomes, Student satisfaction, Gender disparities, Undergraduate and graduate learning dynamics
1. INTRODUCTION
Over recent years, business analytics has emerged as a critical tool in today's data-driven business world, playing an increasingly pivotal role in decision-making processes across industries (Mills et al., 2022). With the exponential growth of digital data, businesses are recognizing the necessity of harnessing this information to gain valuable insights and competitive advantages. Business analytics enables organizations to extract meaningful patterns, trends, and correlations from vast amounts of data to help develop strategic decisions, optimize operations, and identify new opportunities (Power et al., 2018). As the volume and complexity of data continue to expand, the importance of business analytics will only continue to grow, shaping the future of business strategies and innovation.
With the increasing demand for data-driven decision-making, higher education institutions have recognized the importance of offering business analytics education to...