HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER PERCEPTIONS OF ONLINE COURSE REIMBURSEMENT

Gundars Kaupins
James Wanek
Boise State University
Malcolm Coco
Abilene Christian University
ABSTRACT
This study investigated how human resource professionals perceive their organizations as reimbursing online programs compared to face-to-face programs. Results show that a respondent’s prior experience with online degree programs, personal satisfaction with online classes, and graduation from an online degree program were not associated with his/her perceptions of how equally online and face-to-face courses are reimbursed. This applies to online courses from online and traditional schools. Some results contrast with literature that showed significant positive associations between a respondent’s prior satisfaction with online courses and his/her perceptions of how equally online and face-to-face students are considered for hiring. Concerning moderator variables, respondents from larger organizations perceived their organizations as reimbursing face-to-face programs equally to online programs from a traditional university. Respondents from organizations with just one location tended to perceive their organizations as reimbursing employees for classes taken face-to-face but not online from an online school. Other moderator variables such as being a human resource director and making hiring decisions had little association with perceptions of reimbursement decisions. Companies were perceived to reimburse employees for classes taken face-to-face about 44 percent of the time, online from a traditional college 36 percent, and online from an Internet-based college about 28 percent.