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Supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: A qualitative study from an Australian University

Enrolment numbers in online higher education courses have continued to increase over the last decade. The challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have further accelerated the growth in online and blended course offerings. The development of institutional support services, however, does not...

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Autores principales: Fan, Si, Trimble, Allison, Kember, David, Muir, Tracey, Douglas, Tracy, Wang, Yanjun, Masters, Jennifer, Mainsbridge, Casey
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9838283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36684452
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13384-022-00605-5
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author Fan, Si
Trimble, Allison
Kember, David
Muir, Tracey
Douglas, Tracy
Wang, Yanjun
Masters, Jennifer
Mainsbridge, Casey
author_facet Fan, Si
Trimble, Allison
Kember, David
Muir, Tracey
Douglas, Tracy
Wang, Yanjun
Masters, Jennifer
Mainsbridge, Casey
author_sort Fan, Si
collection PubMed
description Enrolment numbers in online higher education courses have continued to increase over the last decade. The challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have further accelerated the growth in online and blended course offerings. The development of institutional support services, however, does not reflect this growth. Many students are not equipped with the skills or given adequate support to engage and succeed in their courses, leading to student disengagement and attrition. This study investigated the perceptions of students in online and blended subjects, regarding both the academic and institutional support they were provided. The research team collected interview data from 41 online and blended-learning students and then analysed these data using an iterative thematic analysis approach. This article introduces the key findings with two models: one presenting support strategies at multiple levels within this university; the other presenting three key elements of subject-level teacher support, which were identified by the interviewees as the most significant, effective, and relevant support mechanism in this context. The findings will inform higher education institutions who aim to engage and support online and blended students better, through an improved understanding of how support is perceived by this student cohort. This study was conducted at one Australian university; however, the findings are relevant to higher education institutions in other countries that strive to bring about positive experiences and enhance retention rates for online and blended students.
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spelling pubmed-98382832023-01-17 Supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: A qualitative study from an Australian University Fan, Si Trimble, Allison Kember, David Muir, Tracey Douglas, Tracy Wang, Yanjun Masters, Jennifer Mainsbridge, Casey Aust Educ Res Article Enrolment numbers in online higher education courses have continued to increase over the last decade. The challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have further accelerated the growth in online and blended course offerings. The development of institutional support services, however, does not reflect this growth. Many students are not equipped with the skills or given adequate support to engage and succeed in their courses, leading to student disengagement and attrition. This study investigated the perceptions of students in online and blended subjects, regarding both the academic and institutional support they were provided. The research team collected interview data from 41 online and blended-learning students and then analysed these data using an iterative thematic analysis approach. This article introduces the key findings with two models: one presenting support strategies at multiple levels within this university; the other presenting three key elements of subject-level teacher support, which were identified by the interviewees as the most significant, effective, and relevant support mechanism in this context. The findings will inform higher education institutions who aim to engage and support online and blended students better, through an improved understanding of how support is perceived by this student cohort. This study was conducted at one Australian university; however, the findings are relevant to higher education institutions in other countries that strive to bring about positive experiences and enhance retention rates for online and blended students. Springer Netherlands 2023-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9838283/ /pubmed/36684452 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13384-022-00605-5 Text en © The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc. 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Article
Fan, Si
Trimble, Allison
Kember, David
Muir, Tracey
Douglas, Tracy
Wang, Yanjun
Masters, Jennifer
Mainsbridge, Casey
Supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: A qualitative study from an Australian University
title Supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: A qualitative study from an Australian University
title_full Supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: A qualitative study from an Australian University
title_fullStr Supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: A qualitative study from an Australian University
title_full_unstemmed Supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: A qualitative study from an Australian University
title_short Supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: A qualitative study from an Australian University
title_sort supporting engagement and retention of online and blended-learning students: a qualitative study from an australian university
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9838283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36684452
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13384-022-00605-5
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