One to One and Face to Face: A Community Based Higher Education Support Strategy Retaining Indigenous Australian University Students

2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peta Sharrock ◽  
Helen Lockyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Support Strategy ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Education Support

AbstractLiterature relating to Indigenous Australian students in higher education highlights the need for improving the retention rates of Indigenous students in Australian universities. A cause for concern has been the increasing numbers of Indigenous Australian people experiencing lower progress and completion rates in comparison to non-Indigenous students. The literature suggests that flexible course delivery is a strategy for improving retention rates and participation. This research extends knowledge relating to the effectiveness of providing courses in flexible delivery mode as a retention strategy in Indigenous higher education. It investigates the “reverse block visit” component of a flexi-mode course delivered by the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia. Initial findings suggest that this community based support strategy may be impacting positively on risk factors contributing to students withdrawing from their studies. Further research is required to explore the validity of this initial data and how the “reverse block visit” from Centre staff may be working to help students to decide to continue studying.

Emergency LMS Training During COVID-19 at an African University of Technology

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-113
Author(s):  
Leanri van Heerden
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Skills Acquisition ◽  
Online Delivery ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Participant Perspectives

After the #FeesMustFall strikes that have been haunting South African universities since 2015, Instructional Designers felt pretty confident that they can drive their institutions through any dilemma. Along came the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic and they realised they have been playing in the kiddie pool all along. On 23 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national lockdown level 5 to start on 26 March 2020 (Department of Health, 2020). Three days head start for a three-week lockdown (which was eventually extended till the time of writing) was a logistical nightmare for even the most technology driven universities. All staff were sent home with only enough time to grab their office plants and laptops and no idea how they were going to move forward. The issue with staff and students all working from home is that the lecturers working at the Central University of Technology (CUT), being primarily a face-to-face delivery university, was completely unprepared for moving their traditional and blended approaches to completely online. In their study, Mogeni, Ondigi and Mufo (2020) found that most of the investigated teachers were not empowered enough to deliver instruction fully online and either needed to be retrained, receive further specialised training or be trained completely from scratch. A lack of confidence in the delivery mode of instruction will cause even the most knowledgeable subject spcialist to fail in their task. At the CUT lecturers needed a way of quickly acquiring the necessary skills to deliver their content and assessments on the institution Learning Management System (LMS). The aim of this paper is to measure participant perspectives of an emergency intervention to facilitate the process of online delivery skills acquisition quickly and online. To ensure relevant results a systematic process of designing an intervention and recording participant perspectives is necessary. This extended abstract will take a look at the methods used to drive the paper, briefly discuss the results and findings, and lastly explore the implications and significance of the research for the use of higher education institutions for emergency LMS training. Keywords: LMS training; e-Learning; Online Instruction; Instructional Design

Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community amongst College Students

2012 ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Pamela M. Golubski
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Campus Community ◽  
Interactive Technologies ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Technological Tools ◽  
The Web

Retention in higher education is a forefront goal for most administration, staff, and faculty members. For this goal to be achieved, college professionals must go above and beyond to ensure students are engaged socially, successfully integrated into the campus community, and actively involved during college. When these interactions occur, students are more likely to experience a sense of belonging, as, evident from developmental research theories, an institution could experience an increase in overall retention rates. However, to achieve engagement, integration, involvement, and feelings of belonging, it requires staff and faculty members to offer and encourage continuous interactions with students, both inside and outside the classroom. While these interactions in the past usually happened through face-to-face methods, today, the Web 2.0 and virtual technological tools have extended opportunities for college professionals to interact more often with students. Two such virtual technologies are Google Wave and Wimba Collaboration Suite (Voice, Pronto, and Classroom).

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERIMENTAL WEB PLATFORM FOR COACHING ACTIVITIES IN UNIVERSITIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 96-106
Author(s):  
Elena-Ancuța SANTI ◽  
◽  
Gabriel GORGHIU ◽  
Mihai BÎZOI
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
The Other ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Support Strategy ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Early School ◽  
Coaching Activities ◽  
Web Platform

The classic educational process organized in universities becomes quite rigid in the current pandemic context, which claims especially online activities, with students who increasingly feel the need to be guided and helped. In this respect, the students have to be supported through tutoring and mentoring activities, dedicated mainly to 1 st -year students with a high risk of dropout. The tutoring, coaching, and mentoring activities take time and the related effort for the tutor is quite high. On the other hand, the need to benefit from such activities is certain, requiring the identification of proper ways for students to have access to counseling activities, in which the effort of the counselors is not overwhelming. A viable environment would be the setting-up and the maintaining of a dedicated web platform, specially designed for such purposes. This platform facilitates coaching activities for a larger number of users, compared to face-to-face meetings. Also, the students can be counseled on topics that do not directly involve the educational process but are associated with it. This paper aims to summarize the current theoretical perspectives concerning online coaching in higher education, as a support strategy for students who experience difficulties, to prevent early school leaving, highlighting the characteristics and effective methodological approach related to this process

Teaching in an Online Community of Inquiry

2013 ◽  
pp. 389-400
Author(s):  
Martha Cleveland-Innes
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Community Of Inquiry ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Education Delivery ◽  
Online Distance

Regardless of education delivery mode – face-to-face, online, distance, or some combination through blended learning – teaching (and learning) is changing. Online learning, whether synchronous or asynchronous, offers a range of instructional practices previously unavailable in either distance or face-to-face higher education. A principled approach to teaching allows faculty to stay on track of teaching requirements, regardless of delivery mode. These principles may support new teaching practices, but, if adopted, will also change the way the role of faculty is configured and executed in the higher education context.

edTPA :AN EVIDENCE-BASED ASSESSMENT OF TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS IN THE CONTEXT OF ONLINE AND FACE-TO-FACE(F2F)TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (36) ◽  
Author(s):  
VRINDA VIJAYAN ◽  
V. P. JOSHITH
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Teacher Preparation Programs ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Face To Face Learning

Teacher preparation programs involve face-to-face (f2f) and online modes of delivery. Although the face-to-face learning environments are often complex and unpredictable, we are very familiar with them and have developed high levels of skill in working in these environments. The skills, strategies, and techniques that we so effectively use in face-to-face learning environments may not work well in online learning and vice-versa. Despite the pervasiveness of online learning in higher education, this delivery mode has yet to receive similar quality status of F2F learning. Long standing beliefs that F2F training as the only viable option continues to dominate teacher education. Central to determining the effectiveness of technology to support learning and the value of technology-mediated instruction is the quality of programs. edTPA (Educative Teacher Performance Assessment) is a widely accepted, national measure of teacher readiness and preparation. Using edTPA scorecards, teacher candidates’ efficiency can be evaluated after the completion of teacher education program in traditional face to face (F2F) and online mode. This article focuses that online may be a more effective and adept program delivery platform for preparing educators for planning for instruction and assessing student learning outcomes.

scholarly journals Assessing Student Performance Between Face-to-Face and Online Course Formats in a College-Level Communications Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Milz
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
English Language ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Full Time ◽  
College Level ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Face To Face

This observational study adds to a small number of college-specific studies comparing student performance in online and face-to-face versions of the same course. It also complements more large-scale college-based studies that compare the delivery formats across courses, disciplines, and institutions. Using descriptive statistics and the chi-square and ANOVA methods, the author examined comparative educational outcomes by measuring student performance and key factors of student performance in the same mandatory professional communications course taught simultaneously in an online and face-to-face format over a 5-semester time frame. The findings are consistent with other comparative studies that have established that in comparison to face-to-face students, online students are generally more academically prepared; more mature; and more commonly full-time employed, fluent in the English language, and female. Similar to other studies, the factors of gender, age, education, and writing proficiency are significant indicators of student achievement; the factors of employment hours, native language, and direct/indirect entry are not, which shows some discrepancy with other studies. In terms of overall student performance, online and face-to-face-component students earned similar grades and had similar completion and retention rates. This finding does not concur with a number of studies that show that online students are significantly less likely to successfully complete courses than their face-to-face counterparts. Course type (mandatory, elective, remedial, regular), advancement in a course of study (lower year, upper year), and delivery mode choice (fully online vs. mix of online and face-to-face) are probed as explanatory variables for differences in findings.

Indigenous Australian Students' Participation Rates in Higher Education: Exploring the Role of Universities

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 59-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Pechenkina ◽  
Emma Kowal ◽  
Yin Paradies
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Support ◽  
Education Student ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Indigenous Student ◽  
Education Participation ◽  
Australian Universities

Indigenous Australians are underrepresented and considerably disadvantaged within the Australian system of higher education. The various measures taken by Australian universities over the past decades have produced varying levels of success in increasing Indigenous participation and completion rates. In order to continue improving Indigenous Australian participation in higher education, it is important to understand the current patterns of participation and factors within universities that are associated with participation and success. In this article we analyse higher education student and staff statistics available from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and information sourced from the web sites of 40 Australian universities to examine correlations between various Indigenous student support mechanisms and Indigenous students' higher education participation rates. Our results indicate that there is a dual system of Indigenous higher education, with one group of universities excelling at attracting Indigenous students, and a different group of universities demonstrating high Indigenous student completion rates. We argue that challenges remain in determining how to increase commencements at universities with high Indigenous completion rates without compromising entrance requirements or further diluting the level of student support, and how to increase completion rates at universities with higher numbers of Indigenous students.

No Significant Difference in Service Learninng Online

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Y. McGorry
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Management Skills ◽  
Program Outcomes ◽  
Online Delivery ◽  
Leadership And Management ◽  
Business Programs ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Significant Difference

Institutions of higher education are realizing the importance of service learning initiatives in developing awareness of students’ civic responsibilities, leadership and management skills, and social responsibility. These skills and responsibilities are the foundation of program outcomes in accredited higher education business programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. In an attempt to meet the needs of the student market, these institutions of higher education are delivering more courses online. This study addresses a comparison of traditional and online delivery of service learning experiences. Results demonstrate no significant difference in outcomes between the online and face-to-face models.

Student Perceptions of Face-to-Face and Online Discussions: The Advantage Goes To . . .

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Political Tolerance ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face ◽  
Online Setting ◽  
And Gender

Thirteen students in a graduate-level course on Historical and Policy Perspectives in Higher Education held face-to-face and online discussions on five controversial topics: Diversity, Academic Freedom, Political Tolerance, Affirmative Action, and Gender. Students read materials on each topic and generated questions for discussion that were categorized by Bloom’s taxonomy so that the level of questions in the two discussion settings would be closely parallel. Upon completion of each discussion, they answered questions that addressed depth and length of the discussion, ability to remember, and a self-assessment of how the student learned. Students’ assessments show a consistent preference for the face-to-face discussion but a small number of students preferred the online setting. However, what is perhaps more interesting is a minority of approximately one-third of the students who perceived no difference between the settings, or that the two settings were perhaps complementary.

USE OF BLENDED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION – SOME EXPERIENCES

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
R J Singh
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Face To Face Learning ◽  
Made In

This article reports on the use of blended learning in higher education. Blended learning has become popular in higher education in recent years. It is a move beyond traditional lecturing to incorporate face-to-face learning with e-learning, thereby creating a blend of learning experiences. The problem is that learning in higher education is complex and learning situations differ across contexts. Whilst there is face-to-face contact at some institutions, others offer distance learning or correspondence learning. In each context, the mode of learning may differ. The challenge is to cater for various learning opportunities through a series of learning interactions and to incorporate a blended approach. The aim of this study was to examine various ways of defining blended learning in different contexts. This was done through an examination of experiences of the use of blended learning in different higher education contexts. The study presents a case of blended learning in a postgraduate course. The experiences from all these cases are summarised and conclusions and recommendations are made in the context of blended learning in higher education in South Africa.

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