The drivers of E-learning satisfaction during the early COVID-19 pandemic: empirical evidence from an indonesian private university

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic that directly impacts students’ learning cannot be predicted with certainty. Previously dominated by face-to-face learning methods, student learning has fully transitioned into full e-learning, or online/distance learning provides a completely new experience for students. Students are important learning recipients and university stakeholders. Therefore, much attention should be paid to their learning satisfaction to ensure that higher education’s learning process is conducted well during a pandemic. The absence of quantitative empirical research on the drivers of e-learning satisfaction in the setting of private higher education is the theoretical impetus for this study. This study evaluated a learning satisfaction model during (early) the COVID-19 pandemic. An online questionnaire survey with a sample of 722 undergraduate students from a top-ranking private university was conducted in Indonesia, which reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia in 2020. Survey results identify the social presence, confirmation, and student-student interaction as the drivers of e-learning satisfaction during the pandemic. Moreover, robust learning system quality has a significant indirect influence on learning satisfaction that is mediated by student-student interaction. The findings of this study can provide implications for private university administrators in Indonesia to pay attention to and make improvements related to social presence, confirmation, learning system quality, and student-student interaction during a pandemic.