Results of the EADTU Task Force on Retention and Student Services - George Ubachs
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Results of the EADTU Task Force on Retention and Student Services - George Ubachs
- 1. The Rules of Engagement: Immersing Students in Online Learning George Ubachs
- 2. EADTU is Europe's leading institutional association for open and distance higher education
- 3. Members
- 5. Key topics Blended and online education Diversity & Inclusion in open and online education Online Education in the (post-)COVID era Micro-credentials for continuous education European university networks, internationalisation and virtual mobility Quality Assurance in Blended and Online Education Artificial Intelligence in teaching and learning Staff Support services in online and distance education Short Learning Programmes Open education and MOOCs, European MOOC Consortium E-assessment Qualification of microcredentials, short learning programmes and MOOCs The changing European Educational Landscape
- 6. EADTU Task Forces & Special Interest Groups (2024) E-assessment Diversity and inclusion Green campus Generative AI in education Personalisation of education Retention
- 8. EADTU TF Retention A task force was established to analyse related challenges and collect examples of good practices. These will finally result in recommendations and guidelines for institutional policies, strategies and frameworks. The EADTU General Assembly and Rectors’ Meeting has revealed a cluster of challenges in online distance education institutions, related to widening participation and student numbers, promoting study progress and preventing dropouts, and providing agile services to students to address all of this to improve.
- 9. Task Force Actions This TF has a focus on implementation, practices and experiences, • Sharing studies and research on promoting study progress, retention and agile services to students; • Comparing approaches and good practices, consulting with experts in the partnership • Identifying comparative strengths and obstacles of ODL • Find scalable solutions • Leveraging collaboration among EADTU partners
- 10. Expected outcomes The outcomes of this Task Force Retention will eventually contribute to: • Development of strategies to improve study progress and avoid drop-out in online distance education (identifying and addressing obstacles to successful learning in online distance education) • Development of a frame of reference with recommendations and guidelines to improve services to students in online distance education (offering more agile services);
- 11. Why do students drop out? Wrong choice of course Finances Life events – illness, bereavement, caring responsibilities, mental health Employment – work/life/study balance Lack of motivation and self-regulation Lack of interaction Coping with workload Lack of preparation, study skills Inflexibility (e.g., examination dates and location)
- 12. University factors in ODE influencing retention Most distance teaching universities are very large and have high student numbers. It is harder to create community and to personalise the experience when operating at scale. Open access means students may not be prepared for study at this level. Remoteness can make it easier to become invisible and lonely. Flexibility increases the number of possible drop-out points Module sizes can be very large in credit size which actually restricts flexibility High stakes assessment is often too big and therefore riskier. Some students don’t want a full degree Life situations often create barriers for adult students Many students study with an open or distance university because they have no choice Distance and open university student characteristics are usually different to those in traditional HEIs – age, employment, family, prior attainment, disability, prison, coastal and rural areas, socio-economic status etc
- 14. Awareness/Aspiration raising • Being clear on and managing expectations in marketing materials • Being realistic about how flexible we are. (e.g., assessment dates, course dates, … are fixed) • How much time is needed and how long it will take to qualify • Providing sample materials and assessments • Pointing towards diagnostics
- 15. Pre-entry guidance and preparation • Providing alternative starting points. Using diagnostics to guide to the right starting point for individual students • Bridging courses mostly focus on subject-related skills, the orientation courses/modules provide more general study skills Orientation or preparation modules (could be OERs, MOOCs, Badged courses) including literacy, numeracy, digital skills • Time-management, learning techniques and self-management • Careers guidance; post-graduation expectations
- 16. Admissions and induction • Introduction to the University community – where students can find the help they need • Introduction to the module or curriculum unit, orientation for LMS, role of the teacher/tutor, key dates • Where students can ‘meet’ other students - sense of community and belonging
- 17. Course design • Three main digital education settings for higher education during and after the COVID-19 • Synchronous hybrid learning: based on course design that simultaneously includes both on-site (“here”) students and remote (“there”) students; • Blended learning: based on a course design with a deliberate combination of online and offline learning activities; • Online distance learning: based on a course design with a continuous physical separation between teacher and student. Student engagement, assessment and feedback vary in these settings. See the DigiTeL Pro website, that also contains continuing professional development courses for the three settings: • https://digitelpro.eadtu.eu
- 18. On-course experience • Manageable workload, achievable subtasks, being in control • Manageable assessment load, regular (positive) feedback • Study skills support • Motivational support, community • Clearly structured, accessible materials and resources • Information available to students at point of need
- 19. Progression • Support for re-sits or re- assessment • Guidance in choosing next steps • Alumni association • Discounts for further study • Employability support
- 20. The 4D online engagement framework Emotional engagement Behavioural engagement Social and collaborative engagement Cognitive engagement Witthaus (2023a; 2023b), adapted from Redmond et al. (2018)
- 21. 21 Online synchronous tutorials, led by a tutor and using Adobe Connect, are an important part of Open University distance learning. However, there is often a lack of active participation by students. We considered the following research questions: • What are the factors affecting student engagement in online tutorials? • To what extent do the challenges of student engagement vary across faculties? • How can these challenges be addressed? OPEN UNIVERSITY UK STUDY ON ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE TUTORIALS • The Rules of Engagement: Immersing Students in Online Learning, EADTU Empower Webinar Week; 5th Dec 2023 by Karen Kear and Jon Rosewell
- 22. 22 FINDINGS : Reasons for NOT participating actively
- 23. 23 FINDINGS : Tool use The whiteboard helps to put answers down instead of using the chat box to save any embarrassment if the answer is wrong. Tool Percentage of students using the tool Text chat 31% Whiteboard 21% Poll/quiz 20% Reactions 15% Microphone 11% Webcam 1% The poll and quizzes are more enjoyable than writing answers
- 24. 24 FINDINGS : Webcams • 30% of students said they would feel comfortable using a webcam • 4% of tutors thought that students would feel comfortable using a webcam • Institutional advice on using webcams in tutorials has changed recently • Tutors are now being encouraged to make more use of them [From a tutor:] We are told that too many webcams would be a problem for students with low broadband speeds, so we do not use them. I would prefer if the tutorials were similar to zoom calls where we could see each other as well I've still not seen any of my tutors faces - only heard their disembodied voices...! Hard to feel you can ask questions of someone if you don't feel you know them. Does that mean students actually do not want to use the webcam?
- 25. 25 FINDINGS : Benefits of active participation Two thirds of students (and almost all tutors) feel that there is benefit in actively taking part in online tutorials. How do we encourage students without causing stress? Perhaps by highlighting the benefits of taking part? More encouragement for anxious students to voice opinions
- 26. 26 INTERPRETING THE DATA • Many students enjoy participating, and think it is beneficial. • But some students find it stressful. Student participation in activities • Students may not be confident in their knowledge or may be behind in the module. • They may be worried about what other students, or the tutor, might think of them. • Many are happy just to watch and listen. Reasons for not actively participating • Tutors think interaction is helpful for students and for tutors. • Tutors understand the limitations of online interaction, and the benefits to students of anonymous participation. Tutors’ perspectives
- 27. 27 RECOMMENDATIONS from this study Allow for a wide range of student preferences; don’t force them to participate Try to persuade students of the value of active participation – and then help them gain the confidence to do it. Discuss with students the ‘protocols’ of effective synchronous communication (e.g. the value of visual and voice interaction; how not to dominate discussions). Activities are needed to build confidence in the online medium, maybe before students need to use it for academic purposes. Offer alternative ways of participating, including ways to contribute anonymously (e.g. via the whiteboard) Practical tips: Use simple warm up activities (e.g. polls) Share materials in advance! Looks like we take anonymity as the default.
- 29. Topics Covered TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR LEARNING SETTING GOALS AND ESTABLISHING GOOD LEARNING HABITS CREATING THE RIGHT PLACES AND SPACES FOR LEARNING MANAGING COLLABORATION AND EFFECTIVE ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS DEVELOPING YOUR ONLINE SUPPORT NETWORK HARNESSING DIGITAL TOOLS AND ONLINE RESOURCES LOOKING AFTER YOUR DIGITAL WELL-BEING AND FLOURISHING ONLINE MANAGING AND PROFESSIONALISING YOUR ONLINE IDENTITY
- 30. Drop-out versus achieved goals and expectations? How to define succes? • impacts not only the learners' educational achievements but also the reputation and financial stability of the institutions • Some students do not want a full- degree MICRO-CREDENTIALS
- 34. Further information: George.ubachs@eadtu.eu Website: www.eadtu.eu CC-BY-SA 4.0 34 Thanks! https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11120440.
- 35. • References • Bağrıacık Yılmaz, A., & Karataş, S. (2022). Why do open and distance education students drop out? Views from various stakeholders. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 19(1), 28. Doi: 10.1186/s41239-022-00333-x • Daumiller, M., Rinas, R. & Dresel, M. (2023). Relevance of Students’ Goals for Learning Engagement and Knowledge Gains in an Online Learning Course. Behavioral Science. 13, 161. Doi: 10.3390/ bs13020161 • Simpson, O. (2013). Student retention in distance education: are we failing our students?. Open learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 28(2), 105-119. Doi: 10.1080/02680513.2013.847363 • Xavier, M., & Meneses, J. (2020). A literature review on the definitions of dropout in online higher education. Doi: 10.38069/edenconf-2020-ac0004 • Woodley, A., & Simpson, O. (2014). Student dropout: The elephant in the room. In O. Zawacki-Richter & T. Anderson (Eds.), Online distance education: Towards a research agenda (pp. 459–485). Edmonton, Canada: AU Press. Doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781927356623.01 • Dikmen, M. (2022). Test anxiety in online exams: Scale development and validity. Current Psychology: A Journal for Diverse Perspectives on Diverse Psychological Issues, 42, 30210–30222. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04072-0 • Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266 • Hsu, H. C. K., Wang, C. V., & Levesque-Bristol, C. (2019). Reexamining the impact of self-determination theory on learning outcomes in the online learning environment. Education and Information Technologies, 24(3), 2159–2174. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09863-w • Kuo, Y. C., Walker, A. E., Schroder, K.E., & Belland, B.R. (2014). Interaction, Internet self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning as predictors of student satisfaction in online education courses. The Internet and Higher Education, 20, 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2013.10.001 Lee, Y., & Choi, J. (2011). A review of online course dropout research: Implications for practice and future research. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(5), 593–618. https:// doi/10.1007/s11423-010-9177-y • Lee, Y., Choi, J., & Kim, T. (2013). Discriminating factors between completers of and dropouts from online learning courses. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44, 328–337. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01306.x • Løvoll, H. S., Røysamb, E., & Vittersø, J. (2017). Experiences matter: Positive emotions facilitate intrinsic motivation, Cogent Psychology, 4, 1, https://doi/10.1080/23311908.2017.1340083 • Muis, K. R., Pekrun, R., Sinatra, G. M., Azevedo, R., Trevors, G., Meier, E., & Heddy, B. C. (2015). The curious case of climate change: testing a theoretical model of epistemic beliefs, epistemic emotions, and complex learning. Learning and Instruction, 39, 168–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2015.06.003 • Roediger III, H. L., Putnam, A. L., & Smith, M. A. (2011). Ten Benefits of Testing and Their Applications to Educational Practice. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 55, 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-387691-1.00001-6 • Jon Rosewel, lKaren Kear,, Helen Donelan; Active participation in synchronous online learning, The Open University, UK • Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective. Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 • Witthaus (2023a; 2023b), adapted from Redmond et al. (2018 • Won, S., Wolters, C. A., & Mueller, S. A. (2017). Sense of Belonging and Self-Regulated Learning: Testing Achievement Goals as Mediators. The Journal of Experimental Education, 86(3), 402–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2016.1277337 • Woodley, A., & Simpson, O. (2014). Student dropout: The elephant in the room. In O. Zawacki-Richter & T. Anderson (Eds.), Online distance education: Towards a research agenda (pp. 459–484). AU Press, Athabasca University.
Editor's Notes
- Introductions – EADTU, retention project, CODE project
- A challenge for online distance learning has to do with study progress and retention. The reasons for the high dropout rates in distance online higher education vary, but some of the most common reasons are lack of time structure / study planning, inadequate student support, and a lack of face-to-face interaction with teachers. Agile student services are core to improve study success, avoid dropout, keep student motivation alive, create an environment of collaboration and support, and involve students better in their study in a variety of ways. Agile student services: For example, they can offer coaching and tutoring services to keep students on track and provide tailored assessments to measure progress and provide feedback. Additionally, agile student services can provide students with timely and relevant information and opportunities available to them, as well as offering guidance and assistance with career exploration and planning. Finally, agile student services can create an environment of trust and accountability, so students can feel safe and supported to pursue their studies. How to learn from eachother.
- Blue:personal and external factors Green personl and university related factors
- We can loose students at any of these stages and use these for intervention. What intervention per stage?
- Being very clear on content and time, especially with open entry to academic education
- Pre-entry guidance and preparation Taking into account the diversity of their students, open and distance learning universities provide alternative starting points both by curricular design (see Chapter 2) and by a differentiated set of preliminary and bridging courses. As students differ in terms of their prior knowledge, the non-compulsory courses start at different levels. For example, the preliminary Mathematics course focuses on mathematical content of lower secondary school level, while the bridging course covers intervals, equations, inequalities and functions. However, Mathematics and Statistics are not the only subject addressed; data literacy and English language proficiency are also covered as these competences are crucial for learning success today. Furthermore, the preliminary and bridging courses are also tailored to students’ individual requirements in terms of their availability and use: the courses are self-paced and can be taken throughout the year, and prospective students can refresh previously acquired knowledge even before the decision to enrol is finally taken. Since many of the courses are similar to the regular degree programme modules in terms of their structure and the way in which skills are taught, they give prospective and first-year students good insight into key facets of learning at university. Students are therefore acclimatised to the first semester twice, since their initial exposure to the courses reveals what lies ahead. To enable first-year students to determine whether their prior knowledge is sufficient, the university provides both subject-related and general online self-assessments. These online self-assessments indicate whether taking a preparatory course is warranted and if so, what part of the course or which content they should focus on in order to reach the required or recommended competence level. Many years of deploying these online self-assessments have shown that students generally only need to refresh or acquire some of the requisite knowledge. Therefore, as a rule, the courses have a modular design. While the bridging courses mostly focus on subject-related skills, the orientation courses/modules provide more general study skills in order to lower the drop-out rate. In a compact format, they convey important information such as how to use the digital infrastructure, especially the learning management system, how to take a course, how to conduct literature searches and how to connect with fellow students. At some universities it is not only highly recommended that all freshmen take such induction courses; the students are typically automatically enrolled into them, although working through all the course materials is not compulsory. Considering the high percentage of students in full or part-time employment, time-management, learning techniques and self-management are amongst the key skills addressed using both research-based theories and tried and tested advice. Various approaches are presented in order to do justice to the diversity of students. The advantages of such a digital orientation course are obvious: all important information is provided at a central point where students can come back again and again throughout their first months of studying. The same effect is gained by maintaining websites that feature key information for a specific study programme. Improving support regarding students’ post-graduation expectations (e.g. the labour market) has also been identified as a plus for retention, for it contributes to increased student satisfaction and motivation. This is why Career Services addresses students right from the beginning of their studies - also because professional reorientation can be a lengthy process that runs parallel to their studies. Bridging course While the bridging courses mostly focus on subject-related skills, the orientation courses/modules provide more general study skills in order to lower the drop-out rate. In a compact format, they convey important information such as how to use the digital infrastructure, especially the learning management system, how to take a course, how to conduct literature searches and how to connect with fellow students. At some universities it is not only highly recommended that all freshmen take such induction courses; the students are typically automatically enrolled into them, although working through all the course materials is not compulsory. Considering the high percentage of students in full or part-time employment, time-management, learning techniques and self-management are amongst the key skills. Improving support regarding students’ post-graduation expectations (e.g. the labour market) has also been identified as a plus for retention, for it contributes to increased student satisfaction and motivation. This is why Career Services
- The course itself should be engaging. Will come back on the elements of engagement later. Most institutions use all three settings to some degree, depending on factors such as the profile of students and courses, the personal preference of the teaching staff, or the institutional culture. Open and distance universities primarily use an asynchronous online distance setting to provide accessible, flexible and scalable provisions for working students.
- Challenges for optimal on-course experience in distance learning. The university can offer support and consider workload. Increased autonomy may mean challenges in delivering the relevant information about the requirements and the related learning goals to the students: Written instructions for the course requirements and curriculum can be cumbersome for them to apprehend. Distance learning courses on online platforms easily appear socially faceless and difficult to access. Online assessment is typically arranged as proctored electronic exams. In addition to the technical infeasibility, electronic exams awaken anxiety rather than a positive learning experience (Dikmen, 2022). Assessment is traditionally simple grading with minimal informational feedback. Distance learning allows students with a diverse range of skills and experience to enrol to courses; there is a greater number of students with academic degrees among adult students but also those without any further studies than elementary ones. This poses the challenge of individualizing the optimal study paths for each student. A uniform course design may compromise the optimal learning possibilities, especially for students with the least and the most study capabilities. The most difficult challenge for distance learning is lack of communality. Students feel socially excluded from other students. Social interaction supports students’ learning, motivation, and self-regulation. A course design aiming to enhance study motivation calls for alternative ways of completion. Course design practices to support study engagement and satisfaction A clearly structured course with an accessible visual design helps the students to figure out the course curriculum, materials, ways of completion, and assessment. Instructional video lectures by the instructor improves the accessibility of the contents and practices. Justifying the tasks and instructions using the course goals and future skills strengthens the students’ experience of the task purpose and significance. Pretesting of one’s learning is the most effective learning method to enhance study performance levels: Frequent testing with continuous feedback and assessment, motivates students and leads to deeper learning (Roediger III et al., 2011). Pretesting also alleviates test anxiety related to time pressured one-off exams. Students also find completion tasks split into several subtasks more feasible than one-off tasks. The first subtask can be designed the most accessible to get the students invested in the course. Use subtasks also as a tool for goal setting: achievable subgoals motivate students to learn. Use progress monitoring and allow self-monitoring to awaken an experience of competence in learners. Positive feedback reinforces students’ strengths and allows students to feel themselves competent. Mostly, however, students value and benefit from constructive informational assessment and feedback that helps them improve the most effectively (Hsu et al., 2019). This type of assessment works the most naturally as formative assessment in between the course subtasks. Moreover, the language used by the instructor in feedback may either thwart or support students’ basic need satisfaction: Feedback is the most effective expressed in the form of acquired mastery of skills to align it with the students’ practical interests (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Graded or written formative assessment, or a criterion-based feedback form, can be implemented in this form to protect students’ learning motivation. Allowing students to feel being in control over their studies supports the most effectively students’ intrinsic, autonomous learning motivation. For adult students, extended completion time is often crucial because of their simultaneous work and family life. Flexibility in study and task topics or completion methods enables individualizing the study paths. The most inexperienced students may benefit from additional orienting studies early in the on-course study path. The more experienced students, who wish to advance quickly, can be offered one-off e-exams as a fast lane toward further studies. Adult students could even be trusted to use their personally best mastered methods to present their learning. A positive and engaging on-course experience includes a chance for interaction between students and instructors or chatbots. Interaction supports study motivation the most efficiently in the beginning of the course. For the more inexperienced students, providing social media platforms for informal learner-learner interaction in the beginning of the course is recommendable: Students help each other to learn the course contents, acquire academic skills, and even learn self-regulatory study strategies (e.g., Won et al., 2017). Worth considering is also providing completion methods supporting learner-learner interaction, such as presentations with peer feedback. These can be implemented in live, online – or, to maximize flexibility, even in asynchronous form. An experience of interaction does not necessarily require active interaction per se. The experience can be strengthened by designing interactive forms of instructions, course materials and completion methods. Interestingly, learner-learner or learner-instructor interaction is not the most significant form of interaction for course satisfaction but the learner-content interaction, meaning students’ inner discussion with the course material and themselves (Kuo et al., 2014). Completion methods supporting an interactional approach toward the course material, such as interactional lecture videos, or other electronic course materials with testing of learning using quizzes. Using an interactional approach is an effective tool of guidance and supervision to help students focus on the most relevant contents in textbooks or other materials.
- For a student to be able to fully engage, several factors play a role: PRE-CONDITIONS FOR ENGAGEMENT Emotional engagement, ability to engage motivated with a positive attitude to In my study, I also used this four-dimensional online engagement framework, which outlines the areas of online student engagement typically discussed in the literature: emotional, behavioural(family, other-> more flexibility, like microcredentials), social and collaborative (feeling part and accepted in the group. Support students to show respect, setting groundrules at start on how you want students to engage, sensitive in your moderation, culture to learn together) and cognitive (think critically, open for expressing your views, fear of making mistakes, censoring themselves instead of full engagement, provide safe spaces for active enquiry, constructive feedback, feeling safe).ENGAGEMENT fuels ENGAGEMENT also between the 4 dimensions. ‘Pedagogy of care”. My 4D framework is adapted from the Online Engagement Framework of Petrea Redmond et al (2018).I’ll now discuss my findings in relation to each of these dimensions.
- Small group tutorials, not supposed to be lectures
- Not participating ACTIVELY Six of the top seven reasons all concern a lack of confidence, while tutors believed it also had to do with technical issues Includes ‘Too nervous’, ‘Worried what other students might think’ , ‘Worried what the tutor might think’, ‘Not confident about knowledge of module materials’ and ’Behind in module studies’. Agreement between students and tutors on the significance of these in comparison to the other options. Technical things aren’t the problem – but maybe an excuse
- Looking at technological support What tools to use best to involve students? Text chat is important Students like the anonymous tools more More visible participation, not anonymous: Microphone use by students low Webcam almost never used Does that mean students actually do not want to use the webcam?
- No, 30% is open for usingh the webcam, but default they are turned of, culture of hiding, tutors expecting students not wanting to be seen. SO, more s encouriging approach to open webcams is in place
- Most students also believe active participation is helpful, although most are fine wityh only listening Just need more encouragement.
- Cultural change: default setting of cameras on. Education for the students to get most out of education. Being anonymous/anonymity can trigger questions. Students choice to join recorded or non-recorded session as these are repeated. Build sense of community and comfort. What skills needed for the students. Employability skills. Looks like we take anonymity as the default. Build confidence – within a single tutorial, within a module, across a degree But you have to get them there first! Are recordings a toe in the water?
- Exercise 2. defining success and drop out in distance learning context. Questions to consider – what is a good outcome for the university, the student, society. What is a bad outcome? Living up to students expectations. Illusion to register them and serve these individually. Create different tracks for different categories of students..