Non-academic support for online course engagement: Student perspectives of automated interventions with integrated human support.
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Authors
Jonnavithula, L.
Bai, J.
von Ossietzky, C.
Keywords
Online distance learning
Description of form
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Rights
Rights holder
Issue Date
2024-08
Peer-reviewed status
Type
Conference paper
Abstract
Student engagement is a multidimensional concept that comprises a range of experiences and behaviours and is closely connected with students’ academic success. Student support covers a range of academic and non-academic services that institutions provide to complement the core teaching and learning resources. Data technologies, such as learning analytics, are useful tools to support online student engagement, an ongoing challenge in open distance learning (ODL) models. Open Polytechnic (OP), a national provider of ODL in New Zealand, implemented a three tiered, non-academic student support model in 2020 as a complementary student-support strategy. This model is based in theory, supported by technology, and aligned to, but independent of, the instructional context of the learning management system. The system sends automated interventions to students at critical points throughout their course journeys with an option to contact a mentor for non-academic support. This paper explored student perceptions of how this form of interventional support assisted student engagement in their course journeys at the OP. A purposefully designed qualitative survey was sent to all students (n = 736) in three blocks of two entry-level courses and completed by 146. A deductive thematic analysis revealed: firstly, the need for monitoring student engagement in online courses; and secondly, that the combination of automated interventions and optional human contact contributed to behavioural and emotional aspects of engagement and was useful in serving the respondents' various non-academic needs.
Citation
Jonnavithula, L., Bai, J. Y. H., & von Ossietzky, C. (2024). Non-academic support for online course engagement: Student perspectives of automated interventions with integrated human support. In J. P. Egan (Ed.), Proceedings of the Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand Conference (pp. 43-51). https://flanz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/flanz-proceedings-final-compressed.pdf