Exploratory study of academic excellence associated with persistence in ODL setting

Maximus Gorky Sembiring

doi:10.1108/aaouj-01-2017-0015

Abstract

Purpose This study observes that academic excellence associated with satisfaction leads to persistence, loyalty and future careers as perceived by students in an open distance learning framework. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the influences of academic excellence as the origin of satisfaction, and how and in which routines those associated factors were interconnected. Design/methodology/approach The inquiry employed the mixed-methods (exploratory design) approach. It was qualitatively identified first that academic excellence included student orientation, academic counseling, learning materials, tutorial supports, evaluation systems, feedback mechanisms and referral schemes. These seven factors had repercussions on students’ persistence, loyalty and future careers. Quantitatively, seven factors of academic excellence and the latter are independent and dependent variables, respectively. Respondents were randomly selected to accumulate data through a survey from the overseas students of Universitas Terbuka Indonesia. Importance-performance analysis and customer-satisfaction index were concurrently applied to measure the excellence level and its importance degree. Ten hypotheses were established and then examined using structural equation modeling to encapsulate the interrelations intensity among the engaged factors. Findings Eight out of ten hypotheses were statistically validated by the analysis excluding tutorial supports and feedback mechanisms factors. It was inferred that evaluation systems were the most critical factor and orderly followed by referral schemes, academic counseling, learning materials and student orientation. Academic excellence had an impact on persistence and loyalty, followed by career advancement. Originality/value The study identified minor disparity of qualitative and quantitative results. Further query with wider perspectives was needed by also enlarging the sample to minimize the gaps.

Highlights

This paper is the reinforcement of previous study on the relatively similar structure with quite different respondents and with modified attributes primarily in the seven foremost variables as previously introduced by Sembiring (2016)
Satisfaction in academic excellence is frequently attached to the service quality (Parasuraman et al, 1988; Arokiasamy and Abdullah, 2012)
These conceptions, including in educational sectors, and in higher education context, are widely adopted (Petruzzellis et al, 2006; Rojaz-Mendez et al, 2009; Bharwana et al, 2013). These efforts are essential since many students strived to pursuing their degree and mostly ineffectual to persist (Roberts and Styron, 2009)

Summary

Introduction

This paper is the reinforcement of previous study on the relatively similar structure with quite different respondents and with modified attributes primarily in the seven foremost variables as previously introduced by Sembiring (2016). Satisfaction in academic excellence is frequently attached to the service quality (Parasuraman et al, 1988; Arokiasamy and Abdullah, 2012) These conceptions, including in educational sectors, and in higher education context, are widely adopted (Petruzzellis et al, 2006; Rojaz-Mendez et al, 2009; Bharwana et al, 2013). These efforts are essential since many students strived to pursuing their degree and mostly ineffectual to persist (Roberts and Styron, 2009). It just happens so as the service provided and delivered are understandably below the

Objectives

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Results