Making Connections: bringing together e-learning and student retention

Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou, Head of e-LearningDeeba Parmar, Senior Researcher Fellow

Aims

• To assist educational institutions in improving the learning experience of first-year students

• To learn about factors which contribute to withdrawal and progression

• To identify how students at risk of withdrawing from their programmes manifest themselves online

Methods and sample

• Tracking material from institutional VLE (quant)

• 42 telephone interviews (response rate of 46%) (quant & qual)

• 130 surveys – current students (quant & qual)Same topic guide aimed to gather both quantitative and qualitative data regarding:

• Self identity• Establish level of participant bias• Clarification of intention• Context• Other• Extra questions (demographics)

Demographics of withdrawn sample

• 92 students

• Aligned to 12 subject areas

• Two thirds female

• Three quarters <25 years old

• Average age 23 years (min=18 & max=59)

• 57.1% withdrew within the first 4 weeks of their course

Online profile

• 50% participants never logged on • Only 13% logged on during induction week• Participants logged on 1-65 times (median score of 5.5)

Significant difference• Participants at the extreme ends of the age range were the

ones that accessed dyslexia support materials • Accessing to management tools were influenced by the

discipline to which participants were aligned

English Language SupportItems accessed by students Total visits

Average Time per Visit Total Time % Total Visits

Course Content Home 1080 00:00:36 10:51:30 25.49%

Calendar (what's on this week – entry x) 254 00:00:25 01:47:07 4.19%

Introduction 112 00:00:23 00:43:05 1.69%

MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY 87 00:00:00 00:00:00 0.00%

Monthly 84 00:00:23 00:32:32 1.27%

Calendar (what's on this week – entry y): 81 00:00:36 00:49:06 1.92%

Grammar 80 00:00:24 00:32:49 1.28%

Writing 67 00:00:19 00:21:40 0.85%

Organising Essays 66 00:00:52 00:57:17 2.24%

Referencing 57 00:00:35 00:33:45 1.32%

Student Homepages: Everyone 54 00:00:28 00:25:33 1.00%

Inbox 51 00:00:59 00:50:22 1.97%

The Stages of Writing 51 00:00:15 00:12:46 0.50%

Giving Presentations 47 00:00:11 00:09:10 0.36%

Academic Style 42 00:00:10 00:07:05 0.28%

Contact a Tutor 42 00:00:27 00:18:57 0.74%

The importance of good organisation 40 00:00:14 00:09:20 0.37%

About ELLS on OASIS 39 00:00:11 00:07:09 0.28%

Who We Are 36 00:00:21 00:12:52 0.50%

What’s on? What’s happening today, tomorrow…What am I expected to do

now?

Context in which I am learning?

Content – what’s important for me? (things I need to know & verify what I

already know)

Who else is studying with me?

More content

Who is helping me? Who are my facilitators? What are

their expectations (of me)?

What’s important to your students?(cohort stats)

1 in 2 students visited this online course. Why?

A

B

What’s leading your students’ learning experience?

Understanding e-Learning

• Deficit model of e-learning• Attribution to technology• (e)Learning skills• Synchronous Vs asynchronous

Students who withdrew/interrupted

Students who persisted

Provided limited descriptions of previous learning experiences

Provided rich descriptions of learning previous learning experiences (delivery methods, styles, etc)

Little awareness of ‘self’ in the learning process

Greater awareness of ‘self’ in the learning process

Inability to name skills needed for effective learning

Identified skills needed for effective learning

Large gap between experiential and perceptual models of effective learning

Greater match between experiential and perceptual models of effective learning

Research = (re)Search Research = (re)Search

Deficit model of learning with technology Deficit model of learning with technology

Characteristics & abilities were attributed to the technology

Characteristics & abilities were attributed to the technology

Encouraging persistence

• Proactive approach

• Building on existing motivation

• Embedding support

• Managing expectations

Recommendations• Accuracy of personal information

• Discourage account sharing

• Admin systems should not lead L&T systems

• Stronger integration of social & academic

• Engage with institutional technologies from the start

• Lurking as a valid form of learning

• Live databases provide snapshot

• IT literacy is different to e-learning

• Learn more about our students

• Embracing existing student technologies

• K.Anagnostopoulou@mdx.ac.uk• D.Parmar@mdx.ac.uk

Tutors' actions:

• 'Um, we were told to use it by our tutors … just to check up on any extra information…' Participant 84

• ‘[The lecturer] just said go onto that and you'll see, if you miss your lectures or something, go onto that and that …I'll have all my lectures there.' Participant 46

Student views:

• 'I'm sure [the VLE] is there for students that actually need help with their work, and I didn't really need it at the specific moment …' Participant 78

• 'Um, just sort of looking up things that I don't understand, or finding additional information on things.' Participant 19

• 'I guess [e-learning is] like the easiest way out really … if you haven't got books and stuff…’ Participant 92

• '… [e-learning] is a shortcut to learning and it also gives me time to do other things…' Participant 61 <<back

• “it cuts the time in half” (Participant 61)

• “it opens your mind up... the internet can help you in all ways for studying” (Participant 43)

• “the internet opens you up... you have this infinite amount of information” (Participant 19)

• “...it makes you produce a good work, neat work, nice, clear and precise” (Participant 87)

<<back

Access trends

‘Others’ in learning

Institutional Profile

• On 3 campuses

• 28,000+ students

• 74% FT, of which 47% mature (over 21)

• Approx 25% of FT students are international

• Approx 57% female, 43% male

• 2/3 of students are of a non-white background

• Approx 80% student retention

Complexities of research

• Definitions

• Live databases are a snapshot in time

• Local recording and interpretation

• Disadvantage of integration of systems

• Researcher/practitioner tensions