Transition to Online Culinary and Beverage Labs: Determining Student Engagement and Satisfaction During COVID-19

ABSTRACT Grounded in the Community of Inquiry framework in the online teaching context, the purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine the role of social (peer) presence in predicting hospitality students’ engagement and satisfaction in an online culinary or beverage lab. Findings included the indirect effect of social presence on satisfaction with the online lab through emotional cognitive engagement. Qualitative results revealed that while students did not have as many opportunities to engage with each other as they hoped for, the opportunities they did have were “meaningful”. Results also study revealed that instructors, rather than peers, became the proxy for social presence as the semester progressed. Theoretical implications demonstrate the importance of emotional and cognitive engagement as the underlying mechanisms linking social presence to online lab satisfaction. Practical implications offer guidance for hospitality instructors to build and enhance opportunities for student engagement and peer-to-peer interaction.