An investigation of hope, academics, environment, and motivation as predictors of persistence in higher education online programs

Predictors of persistence previously found useful in distinguishing successful from unsuccessful distance learners were assembled in a 60-item survey. The survey was completed by 259 learners enrolled in associate's, bachelor's, or master's level distance learning courses in accounting, business administration, information services, criminal justice, nursing, management, and education. The survey measured variables related to academics, environment, motivation, and hope as predictors of persistence, where persistence was defined as continuing beyond the first three classes in one of the three degree-granting programs. Persisters (N = 209) tended to score higher on environmental measures of Emotional Support, Self-efficacy, and Time and Study Management than non-persisters (N = 50). Surprisingly, high scores on a measure of Learner Autonomy (independent learning) were associated with non-persistence in the online programs. The findings were interpreted in the context of the cohort model used in the online programs attended by the students surveyed in the study.     

Systematic and systemic approaches to reducing attrition rates in online higher education

Abstract

Prior to 1997, the Department of Instructional & Performance Technology (IPT) online program at Boise State University faced a high student dropout rate. The IPT turned to Keller's ARCS model, Kaufman's Organizational Elements Model, and Kirkpatrick's evaluation model throughout the processes of improving the motivational appeal of the online course for the first‐time adult learners and solving the attrition problem. In this article, the author describes a long‐term evaluation case study and explains how she systematically designed and implemented various instructional interventions to reduce attrition. She also presents the results of systemic evaluations.     

Communications programs in higher education

Summary There has been a steady growth of communications programs in higher education. These programs are interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the mass media. Even though there continues to be active concern and questioning regarding the spread of these programs, they continue to be established and will continue to grow, if experience is any indication. There is little consistency in the administrative patterns of organization. The administrative labels cover the gamut from departments and loosely organized committees to schools and colleges. It is possible to find institutions which offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in communications, the degree being dependent upon the institution. There are many traditional academic areas represented in the various programs but the three most common areas are: journalism, radio-television and audiovisual-cinema. All programs seem to draw heavy support from courses in the social sciences. This discussion leaves many unanswered questions. What are the forces which caused programs to be established? What is being accomplished under the communications label that could not otherwise be accomplished? How do the objectives and curricula compare? These and other questions will be answered in subsequent articles.     

Diffusion of distance education in Turkish higher education

Conclusion In this paper, Rogers's diffusion theory was used to analyze the acceptance and implementation of the innovation of distance education in higher education in Turkey. Distance education was not successfully adopted between 1970 and 1980 in Turkey because of organizational problems. Distance education was effectively and efficiently diffused in Turkey after 1982. Thousands of students today earn university diplomas studying at a distance. On the other hand, problems of organization, technology, and perceptions remain to be addressed. It is to be hoped that in the future the OEF will be independent or have more autonomy. This will help it deliver instruction to its students.the evaluator of the Learning Community Link Project at the University.     

Social purposes in search of higher education,or higher education in search of social purposes?

The paper begins by discussing the difficulties of formulating coherent social purposes, with particular attention to the relationship between social purposes and the “inner citadel” of higher education's intrinsic values. A detailed examination is then made of social purposes which have come to the fore in the transition from elite to mass higher education: equality and expansion, in which the importance of higher education as a political phenomenon is emphasised; “hard” vocationalism, the matching of educational content to the skills needed for effective job performance; continuing education (an issue linked to these two social purposes); “soft” vocationalism, which is concerned with abilities highly valued in job performance which are also highly valued in the well-educated person; moral development; and “higher education as society's powerhouse”. The paper concludes by suggesting that however much higher education is implicated in society, it may have to continue to exist in active tension with society if academic ideals are to be self-perpetuating.     

远程高等教育·远程教育产业

随着我国加入WTO,给远程教育改革增强了压力和动力。选择高等教育作为发展现代远程教育的重点和突破口,既避免了在实践中的某些盲目性,也有利于逐步形成现代远程教育开放网络,构建起终身学习体系。尝试把现代远程教育作为一个基础产业来办,以建立起既符合市场规律,又利于教育自身发展的最佳运作机制,形成远教产业优势,实现远程教育与市场经济的对接。     

Conflicting logics of online higher education

Abstract

The advent of massive open online courses and online degrees offered via digital platforms has occurred in a climate of austerity. Public universities worldwide face challenges to expand their educational reach, while competing in international rankings, raising fees and generating third-stream income. Online forms of unbundled provision offering smaller flexible low-cost curricular units have promised to disrupt this system. Yet do these forms challenge existing hierarchies in higher education and the market logic that puts pressure on universities and public institutions at large in the neoliberal era? Based on fieldwork in South Africa, this article explores the perceptions of senior managers of public universities and of online programme management companies. Analysing their considerations around unbundled provision, we discuss two conflicting logics of higher education that actors in structurally different positions and in historically divergent institutions use to justify their involvement in public–private partnerships: the logic of capital and the logic of social relevance.     

Reconceptualising higher education pedagogy in online learning

The purpose of this collaborative inquiry project was to examine teacher education practices in two early childhood degree programmes in a school of education at a regional university in Australia. All students are enrolled in these online courses as distance learners. The reconceptualised online pedagogy immersed students, peers and their lecturers in ‘teaching through assessment’ (Edwards, 2010) in a collaborative online environment that mirrors the complexity that students are experiencing in their workplaces. This article describes the pedagogical and conceptual underpinnings we used to reconceptualise our degree programmes. It also outlines our evolving conceptualisations of learning as knowledge creation (Hong & Sullivan, 2009) in the context of our teaching and learning in online courses.     

Returning after taking a break in online distance higher education: from intention to effective re-enrollment

One of online distance learning’s positive attributes is its flexibility. However, the possibility of engaging in periods of non-enrollment (breaks) usually ends in students dropping out. In this paper, the intention to continue of those students who have not enrolled in the second semester is analyzed, adopting a long-term program perspective. This continuance intention is compared with the subsequent restart (or dropping out) in the third semester. This analysis has confirmed that the models of continuance intention and effective re-enrollment are essentially different. Continuance intention is more rational, even logical, and is mainly based on the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the educational experience (difficulty of the learning materials or perception of the learning system). Effective re-enrollment is more practical or pragmatic, with more importance given to the effects of student dimension variables, for example, motivations for studying, previous university experience, or environmental variables, such as having a job.     

制度与远程高等教育增值

从制度分析入手,通过对影响远程高等教育增值的要素分析,提出制度是远程高等教育增值的关键因素,阐述了远程高等教育增值的路径及制度模式.     

Perceived service quality factors in online higher education

Learning Environments Research - In recent years, the offer of higher-education programs under online modality has grown significantly. This situation has generated the need to evaluate the quality...     

Sense of community in a higher education television-based distance education program

The purpose of this study was to measure sense of classroom community in a television-based higher education distance education course and in the same course taught by the same instructor in a traditional face-to-face learning environment, in order to determine if differences existed and if so to identify the nature of these differences. Participants for this study consisted of 120 adult learners who were enrolled in either of two sections of a semester-long undergraduate educational technology course offered by an urban state university. One section was taught tradiationally and the other section was taught to a small studio audience and at a distance to 24 remote classroom sites using synchronous one-way television and two-way audio technologies. Study results revealed a significantly lower sense of classroom community among learners in the distance education course, to include the studio audience.     

高校现代远程教育的发展与特征

从1999年开始至今,我国现代远程教育试点工作已开展了八年.本文对68所试点高校的现代远程教育开展情况,从总体规模、专业开设、学习中心、经济规模等方面进行分析和总结,旨在更好地了解我国网络高等教育的发展特征.文中整理得到的数据也可供相关研究参考.     

现代远程高等教育教学模式改革构想

本文通过对远程高等教育模式的诠释和审视 ,认为现代远程高等教育模式的改革应围绕学生和学生的学习这一中心进行 ,这是现代远程高等教育的本质特征 ,并提出了 5项改革措施 :1、以建构主义认识论作为远程教育教学模式主要理念之一 ;2、由单一性教学模式向混合型教学模式发展 ;3、由归纳型教学模式向演绎型教学模式发展 ;4、由以“教”为主向以“学”为主转化 ;5、发展本地化、多样化的远程高等教育教学模式。     

Threshold concepts about online pedagogy for novice online teachers in higher education

ABSTRACT

The use of threshold concepts to define key points of curricula is a relatively recent development in educational research. Threshold concepts represent crucial stages of learning, the acquisition of which enables learners to progress from one level of achievement to another. In this context, the learner is described as passing through an unsettling liminal space in which they may encounter troublesome knowledge and experience uncertainty or anxiety. When applied to online pedagogy in higher education contexts, academic staff become the learners as they extend their on-campus teaching knowledge into the online realm. In this setting, the identification of threshold concepts has the potential to inform the content of professional development (PD) programmes for novice online teachers. Because little research has yet been reported on threshold concepts associated with online teaching, this study identified these threshold concepts and investigated their specific nature. Funded by an Office for Learning and Teaching Australia Grant, the project employed a mixed-methods research approach. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative data was gathered from responses to questionnaires and reflective journal entries provided by university educators who were teaching in online contexts. Also, experts in the fields of PD, online teaching and threshold concepts were consulted using a modified Delphi technique that incorporated two rounds of surveys. Results of this study are discussed in association with potential applications to PD design for novice online educators, informed by the most fundamental learning experiences encountered by their more experienced colleagues.     

Communications programs in higher education: Objectives and curricula

Conclusion This report has shown that there are areas of commonality and areas of diversity in existing communications programs in higher education. The undergraduate and graduate curricular structure reflects, for the most part, the stated objectives of the program. Several questions remain to be answered: “What is being accomplished under the communications label that could not otherwise be accomplished?” “What are some of the emerging trends in this rapidly growing field?” These topics will be covered in subsequent articles. This is the second in a series of articles on communications programs in higher education by the author who is director of the audiovisual center at Syracuse University. The first article, “Communications Programs in Higher Education,” appeared inAV Communication Review, Winter 1960.     

Checklist and context-bound evaluations of online learning in higher education

A review is undertaken of what different commentators have written about the evaluation of educational courseware in higher education. Speculation is made on the reasons for the lack of such evaluations. The role of checklists for evaluating online courseware is discussed despite the acknowledged limitations. Checklists have been developed at Edith Cowan University specifically for assessing aspects of online pedagogical learning materials in higher education. These checklists are intended to be useful indicators of the areas where online learning materials are strong and identify areas that may be deficient rather than to arrive at a numeric score. The form of checklist proposed is a valuable screening device to use before undertaking a context‐bound evaluation of courseware. Contextual evaluations are a complementary and valuable alternative to traditional forms of evaluation of educational courseware, such as checklists. A case is also made in this article for using a checklist developed for assessing aspects of online pedagogical learning materials in higher education. It is argued that, when used in conjunction with a context‐bound approach, such checklists may be more useful in indicating the pedagogical quality of online learning materials. Quality of the instructional design remains an important consideration in evaluating courseware. Continuing comments and dissent are invited on the value of contextual evaluations of educational courseware to reinvigorate the debate over appropriate ways of evaluating online courseware that will provide helpful information for higher education.     

Financial aid and student persistence in online education in the United States

Distance education has historically had lower completion rates. Several models of persistence, for on-campus students, indicate that students’ financial status affects their decision to persist. This study involved providing distance education students’ financial aid in the form of institutional scholarships (N = 545) at Penn State University in the United States. The recipients were students who were not overachievers and not at-risk of failing, but somewhere in the middle. The purpose of the study was to test if receiving financial aid was related to students’ persistence. Using logistic regression and Chi-square analysis, this study found that scholarship-receiving students with higher financial need were two times more likely to persist in their studies than those with lower financial need. Results suggest that there is a positive relationship between providing even small financial aid to students with high-financial need and their persistence in their studies.