  In March 2020, college campuses underwent a sudden transformation to online
learning due to the COVID-19 outbreak. To understand the impact of COVID-19 on
students' expectations, this study conducted a three-year survey from ten core
courses within the Project Management Center for Excellence at the University
of Maryland. The study involved two main steps: 1) a statistical analysis to
evaluate students' expectations regarding "student," "class," "instructor," and
"effort;" and 2) a lexical salience-valence analysis (LSVA) through the lens of
the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to show the changes of students'
expectations. The results revealed that students' overall evaluations
maintained relatively consistent amid the COVID-19 teaching period. However,
there were significant shifts of the student expectations toward Cognitive,
Social and Teaching Presence course elements based on LSVA results. Also, clear
differences emerged between under-graduates and graduates in their expectations
and preferences in course design and delivery. These insights provide practical
recommendations for course instructors in designing effective online courses.
