UNDERSTANDING STUDENT EXPECTATION AND SATISFACTION TOWARS ONLINE LEARNING IN THE OPEN UNIVERSITY: A STUDY IN ARCHIPELAGIC AREA IN INDONESIA

The online tutorial is one of the learning methods used by students at the Open University (OP). One main obstacle in delivering online tutorial in OP is the accessibility of the internet, especially for the students living in archipelagic areas in Indonesia. This study aims to analyze the level of student satisfaction towards online tutorial activities at OP, especially for the Distance Learning Unit of OP Ternate that located in an archipelagic area with limited internet facilities. The population was the secondsemester students come from various regions in Ternate. Research data were collected by distributing online questionnaires. The sample consisted of 24 respondents. Results showed that, in general, students were satisfied with online tutorial services. The level of student satisfaction towards internet access in the online tutorial was 96.04%, and for the aspect of presenting the learning materials, the satisfaction level was up to 100.77%. These findings indicated that student satisfaction exceeds their expectations. Furthermore, student satisfaction level towards the interaction aspect in the online tutorial was 89.92%. For the class assignment, the student satisfaction level was 97.05%.


Introduction
The 4.0 industrial era has affected almost all sectors of social life, including education in line with the development of the e-learning method used in many countries, including Indonesia. Open University or OP is the only university that implements long-distance education in Indonesia. Since 2000, OP has developed an e-learning system for students in all provinces in Indonesia. Furthermore, nowadays, OP's online system has been implemented both for the learning and administration processes, including registration, tutorials, examination, and other services.
OP has developed an online tutorial as a learning method for students participating in a long-distance education. In the online activity, students can interact intensively with tutors and digital learning resources provided by OP (Pribadi et al., 2018). Research by Sugilar (2014) shows that the use of online tutorials by students increased every year, along with the increased numbers of the new students. Five main reasons are underlying the advance of online learning, i.e., (1) access; (2) efficiency; (3) stability; (4) costs; and (5) technology. The growth of online learning activities in higher education and secondary schools is proof as a high demand to obtain educational services among the community. Expanding learning opportunities using online learning provides opportunities for people to enhance their careers and gain new knowledge and skills (Pribadi et al., 2018). This condition is certainly very positive for the development of OP as a provider of distance education. The education services provided will be extensive and the benefits can be useful for the broader community.
Research by Pandiangan et al. (2012) shows that students who are active in online tutorials, as indicated by active participation in discussions and finishing class assignments, will obtain good final grades. However, the results of research by Farida and Yuliana (2014) reveal that OP student's attitude in utilizing the e-learning method is highly dependent on the availability of internet facilities and the ownership of the personal computer. For those who can easily access the internet, of course, they will have a positive attitude towards online tutorials and other online services provided by the OP. Conversely, for students who have limited access towards the internet services, it will be difficult for them to participate in online learning actively. Most OP students living in the archipelagic area in Eastern Indonesia are having limited internet access.
As a higher education institution that implements distance education, OP applies online learning as the primary learning method. In an online environment, student satisfaction is essential in the evaluation of distance learning, as it relates to the quality of online learning and student performance (Harsasi and Sutawijaya, 2018). Therefore, OP must ensure that all of its students, including those living in the archipelagic areas, can access online learning and satisfy with the provided system. Moreover, in order to enhance student participation in online learning in the archipelagic area, OP needs to explore the factors that affect a student's active participation in online learning. Then, OP should analyze which factors that positively affect student satisfaction. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the level of student satisfaction in online learning in the archipelagic area and then compare it with their expectations.

Student Satisfaction
Some previous researches of online learning have been focusing on student satisfaction (e.g., Harsasi and Sutawijaya, 2018;Lai et al., 2015;Parahoo et al., 2016). Student satisfaction can be defined as a short-term attitude resulting from an evaluation of educational experience, services, and facilities (Weerasinghe et al., 2017). Mukhtar et al. (2015) completed this definition by proposing that student satisfaction is a function of the relative level of experiences and perceived performance about educational service during the study period. Furthermore, Elliot and Healy (2001) stated that student satisfaction is a condition achieved when actual performance meets or exceeds student expectations. Student satisfaction is the level of student feelings after comparing the perceived results with expectations. Therefore, the higher education institution should not merely provide excellent services, but also make sure that students are satisfied with the academic and administrative process. However, although the assessment of students is not always accurate or objective, their position as a customer put them in high bargaining power.
In the concept of service marketing, the value can be obtained from products, services, systems, or something emotional. Customer value can be created through educational marketing attributes, which can be used by the universities to influence society in making higher education choices. If the purchases meet consumer needs and want or provide satisfaction, repeated purchases might likely occur in the future. In higher education services, student satisfaction towards the provided services will have an impact on loyalty. Students will tend to continue their studies to a higher level on the same campus. They will also recommend their family or friends to study on the same campus (Paliliati, 2007).

Causes for Service Gaps
Although higher education institutions have delivered excellent services, there may be students who feel dissatisfied and disappointed. For example, when they failed in examinations or having a bad GPA. There are two factors behind student dissatisfaction or disappointment, i.e., the internal factors and external factors. Universities can relatively control internal factors. In contrast, external factors are difficult to control because the power to intervene directly is minimal (Indrawati, 2011).
According to Gasperzh (2000), the gap or inequality between expectation and reality can occur because the expected value is higher than the value of consumers' aspirations for the services they receive. Many factors affect the aspirations and expectations of consumers for a service, as the followings: Needs and want are related to things felt by the consumers when they try to make transactions with producers. If at that time, consumers have high needs and want, then the expectations will be high, and vice versa.
Experience especially when consuming products or services from the companies or the competitors. Experiences from friends or relatives telling about the quality of products and services that will be purchased by consumers. Experience from other consumers will affect consumers aspirations, especially on high-risk products. Communication through advertising and other marketing activities can also influence consumer aspirations. For this reason, advertising and sales should not create excessive campaigns that are beyond consumer expectations because it will negatively impact consumers' aspirations about the product.

Methodology
This research is a descriptive study that describes the level of student satisfaction in the Distance Learning Unit of OP in Ternate. Ternate has limited internet facilities. Satisfaction is measured by the level of the gap that occurs between students' expectations and assessments of online tutorial services (Sugiono, 2004).
The population of this study was all secondsemester students of OP living in various regions in Ternate, North Maluku Province. The sampling method used was purposive sampling with the following criteria, i.e., the second-semester students who have experienced the online tutorial. Research data were collected from the questionnaire for about three months (August-October 2019). The final sample consisted of 24 students.
Measuring the level of student satisfaction, this study refers to the Satisfaction Index according to Lovelock (1994), with the following formulation: Level of satisfaction = Average evaluation score Average expectation score x 100% For the presentation of classifications of student satisfaction levels, this study made an assumption. The lowest percentage is 51%, and the highest percentage is 100% with four options of the answer, i.e., very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, satisfied, and very satisfied, as presented in Table 1. The level of service gap is identified by calculating the value of service quality minus the value of expectations. All data analysis results are presented in tabular form. The results are also completed with the explanation of online tutorial services that consist of an assessment of aspects of the accessibility, materials, interaction during online tutorials period, and assignments.

Results and Discussion
Assessment of Accessibility of Online Tutorials Table 2 presents the scores of appreciation, expectations, and gaps in accessibility to online tutorials. According to Table 2, there is still a perceived gap in the accessibility to the online tutorials page, which is -0.14. The highest gap values are the speed of entry to the online tutorials page (-0.17) and the accuracy of the online tutorials schedule (-0.17). Based on the data presented in Table 2, the level of student satisfaction can be measured as follows: 3.33 3.47 100% = 96.04% Thus, these results show that although there are still gaps in the aspect of online tutorials accessibility, student satisfaction with this aspect has been categorized as "very satisfied". The percentage of respondents in assessing aspects of online tutorials accessibility is presented in Table 3.
The highest level of respondent satisfaction was on the ease of contacting tutors, where 83.3% of the respondents were satisfied, and 16.67% were very satisfied. Regarding the aspect of the speed of entering the online tutorial page, the level of dissatisfaction is quite considerable at 16.7%.

Assessment of Materials in Online Tutorial
The scores of appreciation, expectations, and gap in the appearance of online tutorials' material are presented in Table 4. Based on Table 4, students are satisfied with the aspect of the attractiveness of the materials presented. It can be seen from the overall expectation value from the aspect of delivering online tutorials' material that has exceeded students' expectations. The level of student satisfaction can be measured as follows: 3.46 3.44 100% = 100.77% The percentage of respondents in assessing aspects of online tutorials' material is presented in Table 5. The highest level of satisfaction of respondents was on the presentation of varied and interesting material that 33.3% of them were satisfied and 66.7% were very satisfied.   Table 6 presents the scores of appreciation, expectations, and gap of the interactions in online tutorials. From Table  6, we can conclude that students were dissatisfied with the interaction aspect in online tutorials as indicated by the overall expected value of -0.36. Even for the aspect of evaluating the conclusions drawn from the results of the discussion, students gave the lowest score (-0.58). These evaluations mean that students would like tutors to provide a general conclusion to help them understand the learning materials. Based on the data presented in Table 6, the level of student satisfaction can be measured as follows: 3.20 3.56 100% = 89.92%  Table 7 exhibits the percentage of respondents in assessing the interaction aspects in online. The highest level of respondents' dissatisfaction was on the aspect of concluding the results of the discussion, where 8.3% stated that they were very dissatisfied, and 33.3% were dissatisfied.

Assessment of Online Tutorials' Assignments
The scores of appreciation, expectations, and gap in online tutorials' assignments are presented in Table 8. Regarding the aspect of online tutorials assignments, students only gave a proper assessment on the aspect of timeliness of assignments (0.25), while other aspects had low scores. According to the data presented in Table 8, the level of student satisfaction can be measured as follows: 3.50 3.60 100% = 97.05% The percentage of respondents in assessing the class assignments is presented in Table 9. According to Satisfaction with Online Tutorial Accessability In the distance education system, the electronic learning used as an effective way to deliver learning content or subject. Therefore, both synchronous and asynchronous interaction of continuous learning can run well and reach a large area (Personal et al., 2018). However, supporting resources such as the internet network and the commitment of education provider in designing and managing learning schedules are crucial to ensure that the learning process runs appropriately.
Results of this study show that although in general students satisfied with the accessibility of online tutorials, their satisfaction level was not in line with the expectation. The inadequate internet network availability in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago is a significant factor causing students to experience obstacles in following an online tutorial. Some areas have internet, but the connectivity is still very slow. Wahyuningsih et al. (2015) show that the level of accessibility of OP students to online tutorials varies greatly, from the lowest level of below 20 times to 300 times. The low levels of accessibility are found in the islands located in Eastern Indonesia, where internet access and IT skills are still limited. This condition is undoubtedly beyond OP's authority because the provision of internet facilities in all regions in Indonesia is a government responsibility. Therefore, OP needs to design a simple and user-friendly learning websites completed with easy to understand features for its students. When students can access the online tutorials page, students will be efficiently operating all of the learning features. Furthermore, the tutorial schedule must be consistently in line with the academic calendar. The delay in online tutorials time will hinder the learning process and disadvantage for the students.
The results of the research by Frans and Aisyah (2018) showed that 80% of OP students were satisfied with the ease of accessing online tutorials website and its features, including the compliance of the class schedule. However, the dimensions of online tutorials services, i.e., fulfilment and contact dimensions need to be improved to give better service quality. It is found that some tutors were not really in time in giving a tutorial, assignment, or discussion feedback as scheduled. Some tutors were also reluctant to give their mobile phone numbers or email addresses that made students could not easily contact them to ask about the class problems. Fulfilment and contact dimensions greatly affect student satisfaction. However, the results of this study showed that the ease in contacting tutors did not conform students' expectations. Therefore, OP needs to be fully committed to ensuring that students can easily access online tutorial services.

Satisfaction with Online Tutorial Materials
Studying online certainly has its uniqueness because students and lecturers do not meet face to face in a classroom. Therefore, to attract students interest, the learning materials and methods must be designed innovatively so that students can enjoy the learning process and are motivated to learn independently. Online tutorials should be a learning medium for students to build independent, creative and innovative learning processes (Salwa, 2019). Pandiangan et al. (2012) argue that some students may not be active during the online tutorials due to the less interesting learning material presentation. Some students even stated that systematic presentations are not enticing them to learn more. Results of this study showed that students were very satisfied with the learning materials that it has exceeded their expectations. The presentation of learning materials in the online tutorial was varied and enticing, combining the use of several media such as power points presentations, videos, and articles. Furthermore, tutors did not only provide printed learning materials but also gave additional material to broaden students' knowledge. The presentation was also easy to understand. These findings showed that OP always improves the quality of online tutorial presentation regularly. However, students still have high expectations. Therefore, tutors can also complete the learning materials with real examples or the application of the learned theories to make the student better understand the subject.
Research by Afriani (2018) showed that to make students easily understand the learning materials, tutors can link the material to the Open Educational Resources (OER) page provided by OP, especially for the difficult to understand subjects. To access OER, students must have adequate internet facilities. Adequate internet facilities would not be a problem for students living in urban areas. However, the majority of OP students are living in rural areas. Therefore, tutors need to have thoughtful consideration if they want to provide additional services in online tutorials through the OER page.

Satisfaction with Online Tutorials Interactions
The interaction between students and tutors as well as students with their classmates during the discussion is important to ensure that the online tutorial process runs well. Providing a good learning experience for students is very important. Interactive discussion among students will increase students' understanding and encourage them to review the learning materials, especially about the parts they do not understand. Susilo and Suhardi (2015) state that only 62.20% of students were satisfied with the intermediaries in the online tutorials, whereas student satisfaction with the feedback given by the tutor in the discussion was 84.69%. Results of this previous research are in line with this research where the level of student satisfaction with interactions reached 89.92%. Students were less satisfied with the aspect of the conclusion drawn by the tutors from the results of the class discussion. Therefore, tutors must be more active, especially when giving feedback for students during the class discussion. Since most of the OP students are also working full time, they have less time to learn. Tutors must consistently motivate students to participate actively during the online tutorials and remind them to do class assignments. Windrati (2014) states that persuasive communication that developed effectively by tutors can increase students active participation in online tutorials.

Satisfaction with Online Tutorials Assignments
The objective of giving assignments is to get students involved in exploring learning materials (Nunan, 2004). Through assignments, students are expected to increase their understanding of the materials and be able to solve problems as described in the application form. Thus, in addition to the practical questions, the assignments given in the course are also crucial to improve students' skills in problem-solving (Salwa, 2019). This research showed that 97.05% of OP students were satisfied with the assignments given by their tutors. Students stated that the assignments were in line with the printed materials given during the class and were evaluated timely and objectively by the tutors. However, there were 8.3% of students felt very dissatisfied with the timeliness of tutors in evaluating the assignments. Therefore, tutors need to evaluate students' assignment on time so that the students will receive their grades on schedule.

Conclusion
This study draws several conclusions. In general, OP students are satisfied with the online tutorial services. The level of student satisfaction regarding the aspect of accessibility to online tutorials reached 96.04%. Even for the aspect of learning materials, the level of student satisfaction reached 100.77%. These results indicate that student satisfaction exceeds their expectations. Then, regarding the interaction aspects of online tutorials, the satisfaction level reached 89.92%. Regarding the class assignments, student satisfaction reached 97.05%. To increase the level of student satisfaction on online tutorial services, OP should consider several factors that are not in line with students' expectations, especially regarding the tutor's involvement in the class discussion. Tutors must increase student interest to follow the online tutorials.