Pursuit of Online Services for Online Students

Increasing numbers of university students are studying online. Distance learning enrollment in global higher education has increased dramatically in the past two decades due to the ubiquity of technology, increasing diversification and globalization, and use of new advanced technology. The development of online learning programs has focused primarily on implementing educational technology to deliver academic content while enhancing the online learning experience. A significant element for the success of distance education programs is the provision of student support services that are appropriate to the unique needs of distance learners. Technology has facilitated this new era in global higher education making the utilization of technology essential to provide university support for online clients. Student support services are all kinds of services other than the coursework rendered by the institutions to online students/learners to facilitate their success.

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The Physical Learning Environment of Online Distance Learners in Higher Education – A Conceptual Model

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635117 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Cheuk Fan Ng

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Distance Education ◽

Online Learning ◽

Distance Learning ◽

Conceptual Model ◽

Physical Environment ◽

Computer Mediated Communication ◽

Future Research ◽

Online Distance Learning ◽

Online Distance

Online distance learning is offered not only in post-secondary distance education institutions but in traditional universities as well. With advances in mobile and wireless technologies, completing academic studies anywhere anytime should become feasible. Research in distance education and online learning has focused on computer-mediated communication, instructional design, learner characteristics, educational technology, and learning outcomes. However, little attention has been given to where exactly learners do their learning and studying and how the physical and social aspects of the physical environment within which the online learner is physically embedded (e.g., the home) supports and constrains learning activities. In this paper, the author proposes a conceptual model for understanding the role that the physical environment plays in online distance learning in higher education, drawing on theories and research in environmental psychology, online learning, telework and mobile work, and higher education. Several gaps in research are identified, and suggestions for future research are proposed.

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Student Support Services

Electronic Services ◽

10.4018/978-1-61520-967-5.ch076 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 1253-1260

Author(s):

Scott L. Howell ◽

Wendi Wilcken

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Support Services ◽

Student Support Services ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Student Support ◽

Technical Support ◽

Learning Program ◽

Online Programs

Success secret number one for a successful online learning program, according to Jeffrey Feldberg, chairman and CEO of Embanet Corp. and who has launched several successful online programs, is “live technical support” (Feldberg, 2001, p. 1). Many student support services, like technical support, are critical to the successful learning experience of all students, but especially for students who are engaged in online learning at a distance. One director of student support services for an online learning program said it this way: “If they’re having trouble with the technology, it’s like showing up at class and the door’s locked and they can’t get in” (Kelly, 2001, p.5). And, just as trouble with technology may keep the class door locked for one student, so can any other unmet student need for another student.

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Whose fault is failure? Contested perspectives of academic support in tertiary educational institutions in South Africa

Research in Comparative and International Education ◽

10.1177/1745499919864731 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 376-393

Author(s):

David Jeffery ◽

David Johnson

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

South Africa ◽

Support Services ◽

Student Support Services ◽

Academic Support ◽

Student Support ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Educational Institutions ◽

Unexpected Finding ◽

Participation In Higher Education

This paper explores the argument that to widen participation in higher education, educational institutions should bear a greater responsibility for students’ learning. Central to this debate is the notion of ‘academic support’. There are many perspectives on what works to scaffold student participation and learning but rarely are the perspectives of those receiving support taken into account. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory ethnographic study in which students in a vocational college in South Africa reflected on the nature of academic support and access to it. Student narratives that underpin their understandings of how the support system ‘worked’, and what responsibilities they and the college respectively bore for their studies, are compared to the official prescript on student support services in South Africa – the so-called ‘Student Support Services Manual’ which was developed by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The data indicate sharp incongruences in thinking. While the student support services manual maintains that students are a product of their disadvantaged contexts and therefore require an institutional form of academic support, students themselves placed much less responsibility for the provision of academic support on the colleges. Instead, they attributed their success or failure to ‘character’ and their own dispositions towards learning. This is an unexpected finding in the context of an often highly charged debate on the factors that constrain learning and learning outcomes. This paper argues that it is this ‘locus of control’ that undermines the idea that student success is dependent on prescription alone.

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Student Support Services

Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-198-8.ch288 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 1951-1956 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Scott L. Howell ◽

Wendi Wilcken

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Support Services ◽

Student Support Services ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Student Support ◽

Technical Support ◽

Learning Program ◽

Online Programs

Success secret number one for a successful online learning program, according to Jeffrey Feldberg, chairman and CEO of Embanet Corp. and who has launched several successful online programs, is “live technical support” (Feldberg, 2001, p. 1). Many student support services, like technical support, are critical to the successful learning experience of all students, but especially for students who are engaged in online learning at a distance. One director of student support services for an online learning program said it this way: “If they’re having trouble with the technology, it’s like showing up at class and the door’s locked and they can’t get in” (Kelly, 2001, p.5). And, just as trouble with technology may keep the class door locked for one student, so can any other unmet student need for another student.

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PACE UNIVERSITY’S FOCUS ON STUDENT SATISFACTION WITH STUDENT SERVICES IN ONLINE EDUCATION

Online Learning ◽

10.24059/olj.v7i2.1852 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

Author(s):

David Sachs

Keyword(s):

Online Education ◽

Student Satisfaction ◽

Student Services ◽

Support Services ◽

Student Support Services ◽

Student Support ◽

Direct Result ◽

Online Students ◽

New Ideas ◽

The University

In 1999, Pace University was awarded a $1,000,000, three-year FIPSE Learning Anytime Anywhere Program (LAAP) Grant. The grant focuses on three areas: online testing, enhanced student support services, and mentoring. Funding from the LAAP grant has enabled the University to greatly enhance the student services that are provided to online students. The focus has been primarily on students who are within the NACTEL program, an online AS in Telecommunications degree offered to individuals working for Citizens Communications, Qwest, SBC and Verizon, and who are members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). FIPSE funding has enabled the University to extensively survey students in the program, by an outside evaluator. These surveys are all online, are tabulated instantly, and provide a steady stream of feedback to administrators and faculty who are involved in the program. In addition, FIPSE funding hasmade it possible to hire individuals who on a regular basis attend to how to best provide enhanced student support services for online students. As new ideas are developed, they are implemented as quickly as possible. This paper will present some of the research findings, and will also provide details about the changes to the NACTEL program that have occurred as a direct result.

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Enhancing Students' Online Engagement: A Study on Online Distance Learning Institutions' Students in Malaysia

11th GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES - Global Conference on Business and Social Sciences Proceeding ◽

10.35609/gcbssproceeding.2021.12(7) ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 7-7

Author(s):

Zahir Osman (Dr) ◽

Ratna Khuzaimah Mohamad ◽

Liana Mohamad

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Online Learning ◽

Distance Learning ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Online Courses ◽

Peer Collaboration ◽

Learning Attitude ◽

Online Engagement ◽

Online Distance Learning ◽

Online Distance

Online Distance Learning (ODL) settings in higher education institutions assist in allocating resources of education, facilitating instructor-to-student interaction, supporting student learning groups, maintaining the progression of student learning, and allowing students to enroll ODL learning (Islam, 2013). Students' online learning exposures in universities and colleges tend to be combined with academic exposures for the continuous learning progress not because only related to academic accomplishment, but also due to individual success of lifelong learning. The online learning setting tertiary education institutions is a learning environment that puts together the latest digital technology with the practices of teaching and learning as important creativity and innovation through the latest performed-technology platform (Eze, Chinedu-Eze, & Bello, 2018). The advantages of online learning settings for both the students and higher education institutions are significant cost saving of having physical infrastructure of teaching and learning, cause the course materials digitization where it can be shared and retrieved at any time and wherever the students are and embedding into the global educational setting (Pham, Limbu, Bui, Nguyen, & Pham, 2019). Malaysia is aiming to become a developed country and has set a long term vision for that to be realized. This aim can only be achieved by producing high technological skills and a critical thinking workforce. Information communication technology (ICT) will be the main catalyst in leading this transformation. In an online learning environment, engagement has become one of the critical issues for the students. Since the trend today of migrating from the face-to-face classroom to web-based systems, some challenges need to be resolved. In fully online learning, there is 78% of students fail in completing their online courses (Simpson, 2010). Students' failures in online courses were mainly due to their inactive engagement (Kuzilek, Hlosta, Herrmannova, Zdrahal, & Wolff, 2015). Halverson, Graham, Spring, Drysdale, and Henrie (2014) in their thematic analysis have found the term engagement been mentioned in more than fifty per cent of the reviewed publications. Thus, this study aims to assess the direct influence of online learning attitude, online peer collaboration, and psychological motivation on digital readiness and digital readiness influence on online engagement. Keywords: Online Learning Attitude, Online Peer Collaboration, Psychological Motivation, Digital Readiness and Online Engagement.

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Student Support Services

Encyclopedia of Distance Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-555-9.ch256 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 1687-1692 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Scott L. Howell ◽

Wendi Wilcken

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Support Services ◽

Student Support Services ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Student Support ◽

Technical Support ◽

Learning Program ◽

Online Programs

Success secret number one for a successful online learning program, according to Jeffrey Feldberg, chairman and CEO of Embanet Corp. and who has launched several successful online programs, is “live technical support” (Feldberg, 2001, p. 1). Many student support services, like technical support, are critical to the successful learning experience of all students, but especially for students who are engaged in online learning at a distance. One director of student support services for an online learning program said it this way: “If they’re having trouble with the technology, it’s like showing up at class and the door’s locked and they can’t get in” (Kelly, 2001, p.5). And, just as trouble with technology may keep the class door locked for one student, so can any other unmet student need for another student.

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Closing Gaps in Indigenous Undergraduate Higher Education Outcomes: Repositioning the Role of Student Support Services to Improve Retention and Completion Rates

The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education ◽

10.1017/jie.2017.36 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (01) ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Martin Nakata ◽

Vicky Nakata ◽

Andrew Day ◽

Michael Peachey

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Support Services ◽

Student Support Services ◽

Indigenous Education ◽

Student Support ◽

Individual Student ◽

Indigenous Australians ◽

Completion Rates ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Australian Universities

The current change agenda to improve the persistently lower rates of access, participation and outcomes of Indigenous Australians in higher education is a broad one that attempts to address the complex range of contributing factors. A proposition in this paper is that the broad and longer-term focus runs the risk of distracting from the detailed considerations needed to improve support provisions for enrolled students in the immediate term. To bring more attention to this area of indicated change, we revisit ‘the gaps’ that exist between the performance of Indigenous and all other domestic students and the role that student support services have to play in improving retention and completion rates of enrolled Indigenous students. We outline some principles that can guide strategies for change in Indigenous undergraduate student support practices in Australian universities to respond to individual student needs in more effective and timely ways. These are illustrated using examples from the redevelopment of services provided by an Indigenous Education centre in a Go8 university, along with data gathered from our ARC study into Indigenous academic persistence in formal learning across three Australian universities.

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Student Support in Higher Education

International Journal of Technology and Educational Marketing ◽

10.4018/ijtem.2013010106 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 77-88

Author(s):

Nabi Bux Jumani ◽

Abdul Jabbar Bhatti ◽

Samina Malik

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Intellectual Capital ◽

Support Services ◽

Delphi Technique ◽

Student Support Services ◽

Higher Education Institutions ◽

Student Support ◽

Important Means

Today every country is striving to enhance higher education qualitatively and quantitatively, because the economy of any country is directly influenced by the “intellectual capital” of that country. An important factor affecting the quality and quantity of higher education is the support that an institution provides to its students. The present study is an attempt to find the achievements of as well as challenges to the student support services in higher education institutions [HEIs] of developing countries with particular example of those in Pakistan. Employing the Delphi technique, the study explored the (a) achievements, (b) the problems and issues, and (c) means to address problems and issues in the student support services in HEIs of Pakistan. It was found that the HEIs in Pakistan were facing many challenges as the achievements were less than the requirement. Allocation of proper resources and restructuring the system of support are the most important means to address the challenges.

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