shahin a

Nowadays, quality in higher education has been highly taken into consideration. Quantitative development of higher education, if quality is not taken into consideration, has inappropriate consequences. The aim of this study was to analyze the quality gap of virtual and face-to-face education services from the view points of the students. In this descriptive-survey study, 200 students of the virtual and face-to-face students of Amir Kabir University were selected at the academic year of 2011-12, using stratified random sampling method. The study tool was the researcher-made questionnaire of quality of the educational services, based on 11 components in the format of 36 questions, and its reliability was confirmed with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.91 and its validity was confirmed as content and structure. Data analysis was performed in descriptive and inferential level (paired T and one-sample T tests), using SPSS 18 software. All the components were more than moderate level with the average of 3.77±0.40. The components of capability of assurance (3.92±0.47) and credit (3.00±0.38) had the highest and the lowest average respectively. The components of assurance, security, availability, communication, credit, politeness and flexibility in virtual and face-to-face education had significant difference, but in other components, the difference was not significant. The dimensions of capability of assurance and credit had the maximum and the minimum gap respectively. The average of the components of quality of educational services is more than moderate level.