Exploratory study of academic excellence associated with persistence in ODL setting

• Main Author: Maximus Gorky Sembiring
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing 2017-11-01
• Series: AAOU Journal
• Subjects: sem; persistence; academic excellence; exploratory design; ipa-csi
• Online Access: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AAOUJ-01-2017-0015/full/pdf?title=exploratory-study-of-academic-excellence-associated-with-persistence-in-odl-setting

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.