Evaluation of Students’ Satisfaction with Natural Lighting in Classrooms: A Questionnaire

Abstract

Recently, substantial attention has been directed to indoor environmental aspects inside buildings due to people's needs to enhance interior comfort, human wellbeing, and health conditions as a vital consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, this study used a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) as an effective tool to inspect the students’ satisfaction level within classrooms in terms of lighting conditions through a participant questionnaire conducted in the building of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie in Palestine. The analysis of this study was based on five-point Likert scale questionnaire responses collected from the 60 occupants of the studied building, which shows that 40% of the students were satisfied with the amount of natural light entering their classrooms compared to 35% of satisfied teachers. Moreover, 68% of students are very dissatisfied when asked about the lighting conditions during the summer months inside the classroom, which is agreed with by 65% of very dissatisfied teachers. From the results of an accomplished questionnaire, it can be concluded that all respondents were nearly satisfied with the natural lighting conditions inside their classrooms and strongly dissatisfied with lighting conditions during the summer season. Moreover, this study provides a better understanding of how occupants perceive the indoor lighting environment.