This study investigated the determinants of public officials' satisfaction with learning effectiveness in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic, when an unprecedented amount of learning began to take place online due to the closure of traditional educational settings. Thus, this study aims to understand employees' satisfaction with online learning compared to face-to-face learning. A survey was conducted about perceptions of differences in goal management, learning needs, and satisfaction with learning in different settings in the public sector. The findings show that employees' satisfaction with face-to-face learning is impacted by goal management and learning needs while program length is associated with employees' satisfaction with online learning. The current study has found that online learning has a limited impact on satisfaction and some types of face-to-face learning programs cannot be replaced by online learning methods. Based on the result, this study provides several implications for HRD professional to develop online and face-to-face learning curriculum.