Student Satisfaction and Perceived Value on Word of Mouth (WOM) During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study in Indonesia

Maintaining distance has become an effective pioneering measure in reducing the spread of the coronavirus outbreak (called COVID-19), so that distance learning has become an option for educators. This study seeks to explain the role of student satisfaction in mediating the effect of perceived value on word of mouth (WOM). The population of this study is students in Bali who had attended online lectures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample size consists of 260 people selected with a purposive sampling method. The analysis is using SEM-PLS. The results shows that perceived value had a positive and significant effect on WOM. Perceived value also has a positive and significant effect on student satisfaction and student satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on WOM. There are several variables that need to be added, such as the online system itself, the quality and ease of use of online media. Satisfaction can mediate the effect of perceived value on WOM partially. Therefore, it is important for higher education institutions in Bali to increase the perceived value obtained by students, especially in the functional value, to increase student satisfaction and ultimately have an impact on increasing positive WOM about online lectures.