A Study of the One-to-One Writing Tutoring Effects

This chapter is motivated by the fact that few studies have been made about the effects of one-on-one writing tutoring in English writing centers in Chinese universities. It intends to examine the effects through the evaluation of tutors' performance by students. A sample of 57 students responded to the questionnaires designed based on Kaplan's 7 EFL writing objectives proposed in his theory of contrastive rhetoric with minor revision, and 12 participated the structured in-depth interviews. Results demonstrate that tutors have achieved higher level of satisfaction in objectives of vocabulary and expressions (86%), sentence and grammar(85%), etc., but lower satisfaction level in those of awareness of audience(37%), discourse structure (34%), and rhetoric and writing knowledge (40%). The findings indicate no significant correlation between tutoring duration and students' improvement extent, yet a strong negative association between students' language proficiency and their improvement. Finally, some measures about enhancing tutoring effects are suggested.

Improving the Communication Skills of International Students

Since the second half of the 20th century, the rapid change in the world has emerged in the field of higher education (HE) as in many other areas. With international education, countries are preparing the ground for producing science in their countries, both by attracting qualified minds to their own countries and by offering them employment options. At the same time, the international training field, which is a competitive competition, allows countries to seriously increase their education investments and thus improve their quality. Through international education, there is better recognition and interaction among different cultures. In the countries where international students are located, the common cultural and artistic activities of the host students in the classroom, school, and campus and the communication with the public in the settlement will enable the cultures to get to know each other better.

Aiding International Students to Thrive in US Higher Education

This chapter is a review of the literature concerning the individual factors that help international students thrive in their ‘host' countries. Convergent findings indicate that being independent, participating in extra-curricular activities, having self-efficacy, cultural empathy, maintaining relations, and being open-minded are the most significant individual factors related to the adjustment of international students. However, in this study on Asian Indian international students, four unexplored factors, namely, being polite, professionalism, showing gratitude, and thinking positively, were also found crucial in cross-cultural adjustment. Such a finding warrants identification of hypothetical connections that are informative, but empirically unexplored. Based on a synthesis of current literature, the author presents the novel hypothesis that being polite, professional, showing gratitude, and thinking positively all facilitate the general international student population to thrive in the host countries. The objective of this review is to provide relevant resource material to international student counselors and university administrators to help international students succeed during their time abroad.

Mentoring to Affect Student Perceptions of Academic Integrity

Supporting higher education (HE) students by aiding in their learning journey and encouraging them to make advantageous choices so as to become members of their institution's community of scholars (CoS) is critical to their success. This is particularly true when instilling values of academic integrity (AI). Academic misconduct is constant, and combating it is difficult because of the immersion of technology, questionable role models, mistrust, bad decision makers, and possible political turmoil. HE educators are stretched thin between grading, teaching, career progression, and such to go beyond classrooms to support students in many such areas. Research posits the importance of proactive actions in developing a culture of AI on campus. Expanding a study tracking students' journey through mentorship, this chapter uses case study methodology and qualitative coding to record the impact of mentors (i.e., how they helped students combat hurdles such as peer pressure, demotivating experiences, lack of knowledge as examples, and how they were able to make students into advocates of AI at university and in their future workplaces).

Professional Business Communications

In today's competitive business environment, students need to build strategic communication skills to effectively manage business activities, and their ability to effectively communicate is central to them gaining and maintaining employment. Attributes considered desirable by employers include a good work ethic, a positive attitude, analytical skills, critical thinking and problem solving, initiative, leadership ability, maturity, self-motivated, teamwork skills, technological competence, and an overall willingness to learn. Significantly, in the associated literature, the ability to communicate well—verbally and in writing—is a quality that consistently appears near or at the ‘top' of the list of desired employability traits. With that in mind, this chapter is largely descriptive and examines the design, delivery, and effectiveness of a 2016 pilot project involving inclusion of Pearson's ‘MyWritingLab' (MWL) into one Australian School of Management's core-course titled ‘Professional Development in Business'.

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.

Strengthening Academic Learner Support at the University of Botswana

This chapter provides a situational analysis of academic language and learning (ALL) support at the University of Botswana (UB) with the view to assess how the university is doing in this regard and the implications for student retention and success. Strategies for enhancing academic literacy and learner support are discussed based on current issues related to changing student profiles in the international higher education (HE) arena facilitated by globalization and technology. The national context of Botswana, as well as UB, will be discussed in this chapter. The need for ALL in HEIs will also be discussed and recommendations made to the UB on how to best structure their support services. Finally, an academic literacy model for the UB geared at equipping students with requisite skills for academic excellence will be proposed.