scholarly journals Facilitation strategies for enhancing the learning and engagement of online students

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-118
Author(s):  
Tracey Muir ◽  
◽  
Tracy Douglas ◽  
Allison Trimble ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Tertiary Sector ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Instructor Presence ◽  
The Impact

The opening up of online education in the Australian tertiary sector has made higher education accessible for a wide range of students, including those living in rural and regional areas. While student numbers continue to grow as a result of this opportunity, there are increasing concerns regarding low student retention and progression rates for online students in comparison with on-campus students. Reasons for this vary, however, online students report a sense of isolation and disconnection with their studies highlighting the need for educators to utilise effective facilitation to enhance student connections to an online community. In this paper, we investigated facilitation strategies using two case studies. This illustrated how two online instructors used design-based research to evaluate the impact of facilitation strategies on instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement and learning in maths education and human biology subjects. Findings indicate that focusing on social, managerial and technical facilitation strategies resulted in an increased instructor presence and active involvement, which in turn were influential in motivating students to engage with learning online. The findings have implications for higher education providers and instructors who are tasked with engaging online students. This identifies the importance of targeted online facilitation to enhance learner-instructor and learner-content engagement.

Operational Performance Guidelines for Online Instructors

2011 ◽  
pp. 1564-1570
Author(s):  
Lawrence C. Ragan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Operational Performance ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Institutional Response ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Recent Estimate ◽  
Wide Range

Demand for online education continues to grow as technology provides viable methods for the delivery of a wide range of learning experiences. The growth in online education is largely driven by learner demand for flexibility and convenience, and widespread institutional response to meet that demand. According to Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning, (Allen and Seaman, 2007), “The number of students taking at least one online course continues to expand at a rate far in excess of the growth of overall higher education enrollments. The most recent estimate, for fall 2006, places this number at 3.48 million online students, an increase of 9.7 percent over the previous year” (p. 5). According to Allen and Seaman (2007), more than two-thirds of all higher education institutions offer online programming, the majority of which expect to see a mean-growth of 30% in enrollments (p. 11).

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS: THE FREQUENCY AND VARIETY OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS AVAILABLE TO ONLINE INSTRUCTORS

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Heather Herman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Faculty Development ◽  
Online Instruction ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Learning Development ◽  
Printed Materials

Online education is no longer a peripheral phenomenon in higher education: over one-third of faculty have taught or developed an online course. As institutions of higher education expand their online education offerings, administrators need to recognize that supporting faculty through the use of incentives and through effective faculty development programs for online instruction is important to the improvement of the quality of educational programs. This quantitative study used an online survey to investigate the types and frequency of faculty development programs for online instruction at institutions with an established teaching and learning development unit (TLDU). The average TLDU offered about fifteen different types of faculty development programs, the most common being websites, technical services, printed materials, and consultation with instructional design experts.

Informational Competencies Entrepreneurship and Integral Values in Higher Education

2018 ◽  
pp. 541-562
Author(s):  
José Manuel Saiz-Alvarez ◽  
Edgar Muñiz-Ávila ◽  
Delia Lizette Huezo-Ponce
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Educational Processes ◽  
Postgraduate Studies ◽  
Business Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Universities play a key role in modern societies inserted into a globalized economic world. This chapter studies how informational competencies, entrepreneurship, and integral values in higher education are necessary to foster economic growth and fight corruption. The authors especially are focused on distance education as it can be a tool to fight poverty by diminishing high illiteracy rates, mainly existing in developing countries. The purpose of the chapter is two-fold: 1) to study the impact of informational competencies in both education and entrepreneurship, and 2) to emphasize the importance of acquiring integral values by learners to be applied into educational processes based on emotional intelligence. As a result, students will be defined as prospective entrepreneurs endowed with the ability to recognize, internalize and understand emotions to be adjusted into relations and business behavior to impulse their goals. And in this sense, online education has an important role to play, especially in postgraduate studies, as in the case of MOOCs that are also analyzed.

Informational Competencies Entrepreneurship and Integral Values in Higher Education

2017 ◽  
pp. 79-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Manuel Saiz-Alvarez ◽  
Edgar Muñiz-Ávila ◽  
Delia Lizette Huezo-Ponce
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Educational Processes ◽  
Postgraduate Studies ◽  
Business Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Universities play a key role in modern societies inserted into a globalized economic world. This chapter studies how informational competencies, entrepreneurship, and integral values in higher education are necessary to foster economic growth and fight corruption. The authors especially are focused on distance education as it can be a tool to fight poverty by diminishing high illiteracy rates, mainly existing in developing countries. The purpose of the chapter is two-fold: 1) to study the impact of informational competencies in both education and entrepreneurship, and 2) to emphasize the importance of acquiring integral values by learners to be applied into educational processes based on emotional intelligence. As a result, students will be defined as prospective entrepreneurs endowed with the ability to recognize, internalize and understand emotions to be adjusted into relations and business behavior to impulse their goals. And in this sense, online education has an important role to play, especially in postgraduate studies, as in the case of MOOCs that are also analyzed.

Retention of Online Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-38
Author(s):  
Pamela A. Lemoine ◽  
Gina Sheeks ◽  
Robert E. Waller ◽  
Michael D. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Dropout Rate ◽  
Dropout Rates ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
Online Services ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Education Enrollment

The most important word for contemporary global higher education institutions is retention. Although online education enrollment in these institutions has increased by approximately 40 percent in recent years, the dropout rates for online students is approximately 20-30 percent more than for face-to-face classes. Institutions have tried to address this issue, but the dropout rate continues to be a serious concern. The authors of this manuscript propose that the addition of online services for online students as a possible solution.

Assessment in American Higher Education: The Role of Admissions Tests

2019 ◽  
Vol 683 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Zwick
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
College Performance ◽  
Admissions Tests ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Test Optional ◽  
The Impact

In this article, I review the role of college admissions tests in the United States and consider the fairness issues surrounding their use. The two main tests are the SAT, first administered in 1926, and the ACT, first given in 1959. Scores on these tests have been shown to contribute to the prediction of college performance, but their role in the admissions process varies widely across colleges. Although test scores are consistently listed as one of the most important admissions factors in national surveys of postsecondary institutions, an increasing number of schools have adopted “test-optional” policies. At these institutions, test score requirements are seen as a barrier to campus diversity because of the large performance gaps among ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Fortunately, the decentralized higher education system in the United States can accommodate a wide range of admissions policies. It is essential, however, that the impact of admissions policy changes be studied and that the resource implications of these changes be thoroughly considered.

scholarly journals The EUA education policy: quality assurance strategies

Osvitolohiya ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 143-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iryna Sokolova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Quality Management ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Policy Statement ◽  
Quality Culture ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

The Bologna Reform Process, which became the focal point of reform in most European countries, brought a wide range of quality concerns into the central arena of higher education discourse. Quality Assurance processes were supposed to support an increased institutional attention. The aim of this paper is to create a better the EUA's Input to EHEA Policy Making. EUA carries out a variety of activities that are underpinned by the belief that the main responsibility for quality assurance lies within higher education institutions. EUA Policy Statement on Quality and Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area аre identified and described in the article.It is determined the impact of the EUA in shaping European quality culture through the development of educational policy and decision-conceptual documents, the annual European Quality Assurance Forums to consolidate internal and external stakeholders, expand the dialogue format in the context of the EHEA changing landscape and the best practices implementation for quality assurance. The keynote presentations of the EQAF (2006-2016) focused on current trends in quality assurance. The quality culture approach promoted by EUAdiffers clearly frommore traditional quality management strategies, shifting attention to more development-oriented and value-based aspects. Based on the results of the projects different approaches towards quality, quality culture, or formal quality assurance and accreditation procedures are focusedin the paper. The Institutional evaluation programme in higher education, realizedin 45 countries, is described. Other programs and projects that define the tasks of quality management are characterized in thepaper. Trends in quality assurance are presented in the article taking into account the national and European contexts. This paper outlines EUA key objectives for 2017-2019. Support the creation of thequality culture in higher education institutionsis one of them.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic and Possible Futures of Adult Online Learning in Higher Education : Six Trends That Could Shape the Future

2021 ◽  
pp. 72-85
Author(s):  
Nicolas Gagnon
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Adult Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
The Future ◽  
Adult Online Learning ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

The COVID-19 pandemic has had and will have, profound effects on adult education (Boeren, Roumell & Roessger, 2020; Kapplinger & Lichte, 2020) and online learning practices. The impact was unprecedented and led to the largest and quickest transformation of pedagogic practice ever seen in contemporary universities (Brammer & Clark, 2020). Although it is too soon for a full assessment, the first step is to gain insight into an understanding of the macro trends taking shape inside and outside the walls of institutions and then explore how these trends may affect the future. Against this background, a question arises: How is the COVID-19 pandemic shaping the future of adult online learning in higher education? Drawing on adult education and higher education scholarly and practitioner literature published over the last year, the purpose of this paper is threefold: (i) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to identify and analyze emerging trends that could shape the future of adult online education in higher education, (ii) to analyze these trends over a longer time span in the literature, and (iii) to explore the possible futures of adult education and online learning in higher education.

scholarly journals Higher education institutions as a driver of sustainable social development: Polish experience for Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inna Khovrak
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Environmentally Friendly ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Environmental Status ◽  
Polish Experience ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Economic Technology ◽  
The Impact

The basis for sustainable and environmentally friendly development is gradually becoming aware of the importance of working more ethically and transparently and in a more humanistic way, as well as addressing the needs of people and society. In this case, the key challenge for higher education institutions (HEIs) is to train the conscious and responsible citizens who can take care of the country’s future. This article focuses on comparing the ability of HEIs in Poland and Ukraine to promote sustainable development (SD) by implementing the concept of social responsibility (SR). The research is based on the methods of statistical analysis, sociological survey, case study, abstract-logical, tabular and graphical method. The paper argues that HEIs have a wide range of tools to promote SD. These tools should be divided into three groups, namely: 1) including SD issues in educational programs; 2) developing knowledge and solutions for SD; 3) creation and participation in SR initiatives. The proposed mechanism of the impact of HEIs on SD through the implementation of the concept of SR will allow HEIs to take an active part in the life of the region and the country, namely: identify the needs, engage the stakeholders, facilitate the interaction, disseminate the effective practices, and develop SD strategies. The practical value of the obtained results is that the implementation of SR initiative by HEIs will promote the environmentally friendly development of the country and regions. As a result, it will increase the impact of HEIs on economic, technology and cultural development, human capital formation, solving social problems, building civil society, improving the environmental status.

Internationalization market and higher education field: institutional perspectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nizar Mohammad Alsharari
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Quality Of Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Policy And Strategy ◽  
Wide Range

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the internationalization market of higher education (HE) globally and HE field. It examines the internationalization status of HE in Jordan as influenced by institutional perspectives as an example from developing countries. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a quantitative research design that includes a statistical and SWOT analysis of HE in Jordan. Data were collected from different courses: documents and archival records, websites analysis, surveys, interviews with professors and administrators, and an SWOT analysis as well as TOWS matrix. The latter has been constructed as a picture of internationalized education in the Jordan that can be used as a basis for decision making and strategies for higher education institutions (HEIs). Findings The study findings reveal that it is important for Jordan to endorse itself as an “education hub” in the Middle East and to educate its community to the level of skills required by globalization. The challenges of internationalizing HE are revealed by the SWOT analysis and TOWS matrix that highlight a wide range of opportunities and strengths that encourages the Jordan HE system to accelerate internationalization. The opportunities include overall improvement in the quality of education, the diffusion of technology and creating a globally competent workforce. The internationalization status in Jordan HE is still in its embryonic stage. The HE should take serious steps toward the internationalization including admission of international students, foreign postgraduate students, international accreditation, global ranking, online education and smart education. These steps will help the universities leaders to improve their universities position internationally and financially. Research limitations/implications The findings reveal implications for HE policy and strategy in the development of internationalized HE in the Jordan. The study shows how SWOT analysis and TOWS matrix can provide a solid platform against which particular case studies can be measured in terms of opportunities for and challenges of development. It also provides institutional perspectives with practical implications, focusing on some of the critical issues in this developing field for HE policy and strategy alike. A major threat to the Jordan progress in developing its HE sector identified in this study is external accreditation being seen as a signal of high quality, when more realistic standards are perhaps more relevant to the local population. Originality/value The paper is one of the very few studies in the area of the internationalization of HE in the Jordan that can contribute to the sustainability of the international dimension of HEIs. The opportunities and threats recognized in this paper can inform strategy for more balanced development of the Jordan’s internationalized HE, and for raising the quality of education overall.

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