״הזום נוח אבל מפספסים את המפגש״ – שביעות רצון מלמידה מקוונת או משולבת בקורס התאמה למטפלים במערכת החינוך

For about four decades, completion of the course “Adaptation for Work as Therapists in the Education System” (hereinafter: “adaptation course”)has allowed one to apply for a permanent license to work as a therapist in the education system. Every year, about 800 male and female students participate in this course across the country. The course is designed to help develop the professional identity of therapists in the education system, and to expand knowledge and educational concepts and tools required to work in the system, while creating a common language between the therapists and the educational team. So far, no in-depth research has been conducted regarding the “adaptation course” in general or regarding the satisfaction of the participants in the course in particular.Until the school year 2019-2020, the course was delivered face-to-face.Following the corona virus, the manner of learning changed, and the course was taught in an integrated (hybrid) manner, and in the school year 2020-2021, the course was fully online. From the feedback questionnaires sent on behalf of the Ministry of Education, it appears that the degree of satisfaction was higher when the therapists studied in an integrated manner. Contrary to this assumption, many new therapists contacted the Ministry of Education and asked to enroll in a fully-online course. In the school year 2021-2020, 24integrated adaptation courses were opened. Only in one institution were two courses opened at the same time with the same content and lecturers – one integrated and one fully online. Only 56 students participated in these courses,and at the end of the course, 48 of them agreed to participate in the research.The research employs the Mixed Method, the quantitative part being based on an online environment satisfaction questionnaire developed by Sun et al.(Sun et al. 2008). Since the number of participants in this study was limited,a qualitative part was added that included eight semi-structured interviews and provided a clearer picture of the findings. The purpose of the study was to examine the components of satisfaction among students in integrated and fully-online courses.The findings indicated that in the group that studied fully online, the satisfaction with online learning was significantly higher than in the group that studied in an integrated manner. The interviewees in this group emphasized considerations such as convenience and efficient use of time and resources,as well as the possibility of having more time to focus on personal needs,and the needs of the home and the family. In contrast, the group that learned in an integrated manner noted the importance of the face-to-face encounter both in the academic and the social aspects. They emphasized that social and professional connections were formed, which they claimed would not have been formed in the same way through online learning. From a Hierarchical Regression analysis that examined the significant predictors of satisfaction with the online environment in both groups, significance was found for the“student’s characteristics” index. That is to say, the therapists’ satisfaction with the online environment increased as they showed responsibility for learning and managed to be focused and attentive despite the distractions at home.This research has a practical contribution to the planning of the “adaptation courses” in the coming years. Today, the decision to assign a student to an online course or to an integrated course depends on the student’s geographic location. This research teaches us that it is also worth considering “students’ characteristics” when assigning learners to one of the courses (integrated or fully online).