Learner Support Initiatives in Course Delivery: A Case Study of the Course
Applied Statistics III by S. Muchengetwa
Abstract
Distance learning institutions all over the world have been tasked up to come with
policies and procedures that accommodate the ever- growing numbers of learners
and at the same time the learners are putting more pressure on institutions to give
them better services. The success of students in any environment is dependent on
the support they are provided. The support is even more important in open and
distance learning (ODL) environments because there is no regular face-to-face
interaction. It is not surprising that therefore that learner support is one of the
aspects most talked about and it includes processes intended to support and
facilitate the learning process of the students which includes. tutoring, teaching,
counselling, advising, orientation, administrative services and even peer tutoring and
alumni support. This is aggravated by the fact that the student is studying at a
distance and how is the institution able to effectively interact with such a learner?
The purpose of the paper is to explore the characteristics and needs of the learner
and to design a range of activities to assist learners to meet their learning objectives
and be able to acquire the knowledge useful in course and career success. The
study specifically focused on one carefully selected course, which has been
characterised by among other things by low pass rates, low learner-learner
interaction, low learner – content interaction and low learner-tutor interaction. The
course is a third year module which is also enroled for non-degree purposes by
students from government departments and industry.
Introduction
Most developing nations have been having problems in providing mass access to
higher education institute for its citizens. Most countries in Africa have suffered from
wars since most of them had to gain independence through liberation struggle. This
affected most citizens in terms of educational qualifications. Most of the people had
been denied the right to education. After independence, there was high thirsty for
tertiary education qualifications. Conventional universities could only absorb a few
students. Open and distance learning (ODL) opened the doors for many people who
wanted to acquire tertiary education. It has attracted so many people because of its
accessibility and affordability. Many people like to pursue their education through
ODL since they can study at their own pace whilst sustaining their families among
other reasons.
Educational institutes have been faced with the challenges that governments and
taxpayers want more demonstrated benefits to their investments. There is now need
for increased accountability of performance of universities and greater focus is on
their outputs. Recently the ministry has now adopted a policy where subsidies
offered to universities depend on output rather than number of students enrolled.
This has put pressure on universities to look at their retention rates, pass rates and
through puts rate, in an endeavour to increase number of graduating students. On
the other hand students are more demanding on services and support offered by the
institutes.
Idaye (2005) said that ODL institutions could help provide mass access, reduce the
cost of university education, help meet the yearnings of the individuals for university
admission and help rebuild confidence in those struggling for places in conventional
universities. All these do not guarantee success. The most challenging issue is to
find appropriate delivery methods that will help assure and ensure both success and
completion for the majority of learners. A particularly interested aspect of distance
learning is the development of systems that aid in supporting the learner to achieve
his/her goal called learner support systems.
What is learner support?
Brindley et. al (2003) says learner support is a term used in ODL to describe a full
range of activities developed to help students meet their learning objectives and gain
the knowledge requisite to course and career success. Thorpe (2001) describes
learner support as all those elements capable of responding to a known learner or
groups of learners, before, during and after the learning process. She views learner
support in ODL as referring to the meeting of needs that all learners have because
there are central to high quality learning – guidance about course choice,
preparatory diagnosis, study skills, access to group learning in seminars and
tutorials. Tait (2000) define it as the range of services both for individuals and for
students in groups which complement the course materials or learning resources
that are uniform for all learners. In this case, Tait views learner support, as all those
processes that assist in enhancing the learning process of the student. Hui (1989)
sees learner support as the support incorporated within the self training materials,
the learning system and assignment marking, focusing very specifically on the
courseware, the exercise of learning and assessment.
From the above definitions, one can say that learner support in ODL refers to the
process intended to support and facilitate the learning processes of students. These
are meeting of needs of the learner that are central to high quality learning. It
includes interactive processes learning helping students from point the student
enters the system, that include admission and registration, tutoring, teaching and
counselling, advising, orientation, administrative services and even peer tutoring and
alumini access. This refers to the preparatory process or the student, the nurturing of
the student in the system and the graduateness of the student. Sewart (1992) likens
learner support to a service industry in which the needs of the customer are
paramount. It is a process in which the learner customer must participate actively as
well as the tutor/supporter.
Learner support elements
Robinson(1995) indicated that the main goals of learner support include:
 providing interactivity and dialogue
 personalising a mass system
 mediating between learner and materials
 institutional responsiveness to individuals
 differentiation of support according to different needs
 with diverse ways of achieving them
He went on to describe the essential elements for learner support as
 personal contact between learners and support agents (people in variety of
roles with variety of titles).
 Individual or group face-to-face or via other means.
 Peer contact.
 Feedback to students on their learning.
 Additional material such as handbooks, advice notes or guides.
 Study groups and centers – actual or virtual (electronics).
 Access to libraries, laboratories and equipment.
 Communication networks
An analysis of Robinson’s goals and elements as articulated by Roberts indicates a
challenge to institutions to
 know their students profile
 establish what their needs are
 decide how to meet the differing needs
 using different tools to address needs
Brindley et. al (2003) indicated that effective learner support in ODL is characterised
by the following elements:
 Responsiveness:- It personalizes the learning process so as to be
responsive to different individuals and groups (rather than relying on
fixed elements such as a course syllabus).
 Interactivity: It encourages and facilitates interaction among and between
student(s), faculty, tutor, institutional support persons and academic content.
 Context Specificity: It exists to further the goals of a particular institution and
serves the needs of its learners within its specific context.
 Learner Development: It both facilitates learning within courses and
addresses broader issues of student skill and personal development.
 Openness to Change: Learner support systems evolve continuously to
accommodate new learner populations, educational developments, economic
conditions, technological advances, and findings from research and
evaluation.
 Integration: Effective learner support involves a high level of inter-functional
collaboration and is seamless to the learner.
The course: Applied Statistics III (Course code: STA3701)
Applied Statistics III is a third level module that feeds into a 24 credit research
module in which the outcome is a research proposal. The module assume that the
students have a solid basic knowledge of statistical applications based on
completion of first and second level modules in applied statistics. The module reintroduce students to the statistical software package SAS JMP learned in the
second year course Applied Statistics II, (course code STA2601). It focuses on data
analysis and statistical inference, and teaches student how to apply and interpret
results using JMP. This means that students should have access to a suitable
computer for a component of practical work.
The purpose of the module is to enable students to demonstrate an understanding of
one- and two way analysis of variance, fixed effects, mixed models, simple and
multiple linear regression as well as analysis of covariance. This combination is
normally referred to as analysis of variance and regression. Analysis of variance
plays a very important part in applied statistics and statistical inference and has
many applications in the fields of business, agriculture, biology, physical sciences
and many more.
Government departments and people from industry enrol for the module as a nondegree programme. The module has been experiencing low pass rates. The module
was being handled by a contract worker not easily accessible to the students and at
times to the department. There was no prescribed textbook for the module and the
study guide lacked adequate examples. Where examples were given there was no
detailed illustration of how the answers were obtained. There was also lack of
congruency between formative and summative assessment. Students were given
assignments which were not in line with the trial paper. The trial paper was being
repeated year after year. Thus those repeating the course were subjected to the
same trial paper. It was not serving its intended purpose. Secondly it is a practical
course and students were not given the opportunity to interpret outputs in the
examination. In the early days when the course was formulated, students used to do
practical sessions and this ceased in 2006.
Methodology
The researcher used a qualitative case study approach to explore the characteristics
and needs of the learners. A case study approach enables one to study a particular
individual program or event in depth, for a define period of time. (Leedy and Omrod
(2005)). It allows one to learn more about a poorly understood situation. In this case
it was used so that best practices of learner support identified are used as a basis in
other courses. The research was based on learner support elements as proposed by
Robinson (1995) and Brindley et. al (2003). Purposive sampling was used to select
the students. The lecturer interacted with students as they communicated with her
through myUnisa, email, telephone or when visiting the lecturer. The lecturer
discussed with the students the problems they were experiencing in the course and
also ask what they recommended as learners will be the best practices to enhance
their learning.
Following best practices discussed a plan of action was devised:
1. Identification of learner characteristics by interaction with students (face-toface, email, discussion forums, and telephone conservations).
2. Identification of student needs through interviewing students who were
repeating the module first then followed with others students during the end of
the first half.
3. Devised an implementation plan referred to as developmental plan.
Analysis of Data
The analysis covered best practices for learner support which includes knowing
learner characteristics, identifying learner needs, making decision on how to meet
the learners’ needs and using different tools to address the needs.
Learner characteristics identified:
The following characteristics were identified:
 Some students lacked focus.
 Inadequate background knowledge.
 Poor time management.
 Lack of interaction between learners (e.g. no group discussions or
utilisation of discussion forum on myUnisa).
 Feelings of isolation (especially students outside Pretoria and
Johannesburg).
 Low motivational levels.
 Learner not seeing face of the lecturer.
 Difficulties in understanding the study material (lack of well explained
and applied examples).
 Social constraints.
Learner needs identified:
The following needs were identified:
 Study guide with well illustrated examples that talk to the learners.
 New problems each year (no repetition of trial paper year after year).
 Responsiveness – need for the institution to be responsive to the
learner.
 Timely and constructive feedback on assessment.
 Different modes for delivery (e.g. face to face, video conferencing,
podcasts and etc).
 More interactivity – encouragement and facilitation of interaction
among different stakeholders, i.e.,
o Learner – learner interaction
o Learner – tutor interaction
o Learner – content interaction
 Lecturer who is supportive and encouraging.
 Accessible material (electronically)
Implementation plan:
An implementation plan was devised:
 Revised the study guide. Inserted more examples and reviewed the
curriculum.
 Created a workbook.
 Used tutorial letters to address problematic areas.
 Utilised myUnisa’s additional resources feature and increased
interaction of learner/learner and learner/lecturer through discussion
forums.
 Informed students by SMS when visiting other centres.
 Offered practical sessions on the use of statistical software.
 Provided individual feedback on assessments.
 Use beamer programme in answering students’ queries through emails
and on myUnisa.
Using different tools to address the needs
In order to breach the distance between learner and student,
 the lecturer put her photo on myUnisa and an introduction message.
 A workbook was created and put on myUnisa as additional
resource(s)/.
 Promoting interaction among different groups – suing telephones,
emails and internet to link up learners.
o Learner-learner interaction was very low. Instilled confidence
among learners
o Learner-content was improved by using supplementary
examples to complement the guide. The package beamer was
used in this case.
 Learners were given detailed individual feedback on assignments. In
certain cases additional problems were sent to the learner and solution
to follow in the next assignment or on myUnisa.
 Interacted with other students through face-to-face (e.g. in Durban).
 Used trial paper to give learners outlines on how to tackle problems.
 Tutoring learners on use of computers in data analysis and calculators.
 Played advisory role. Poor time management.
 Lack of interaction between learners (e.g. no group discussions or
utilisation of discussion forum on myUnisa).
 Feelings of isolation (especially students outside Pretoria and
Johannesburg).
 Low motivational levels.
 Learner not seeing face of the lecturer.
 Difficulties in understanding the study material (lack of well explained
and applied examples).
 Social constraints.
adequate background knowledge.
 Poor time management.
 Lack of interaction between learners (e.g. no group discussions or
utilisation of discussion forum on myUnisa).
 Feelings of isolation (especially students outside Pretoria and
Johannesburg).
 Low motivational levels.
 Learner not seeing face of the lecturer.
 Difficulties in understanding the study material (lack of well explained
and applied examples).
 Social constraints.
Limitations
Lecturer was new to the college and most of the implementation was done in the
second half of the year. Lecturer was still undergoing training on full utilisation of
myUnisa.
Successes
The pass rate increased by at least 11% and almost 50% of the students got
supplementary status (marks between 40 to 49%).
Way Forward
 Provide orientation program on myUnisa.
 Utilise feedback from 2009 students on improvement of the module in 2010
through discussion forums on myUnisa, telephone interviews, face to face
interactions, email.
Areas to be covered.
o The new module content.
o The workbook content.
o Identifying the best method for interaction among students.
 Offering once per semester face-to-face tutorial to learners
 Using myUnisa to put additional problems with timeline of completion of
problem to increase time management in the exam.
 Advising students every month on what they should have grasped at that
point in time.
 Changing introductory message on myUnisa every three months.
 Explore podcasts and video conferencing.
 Long term-goal – having an examinable practical component for the exam.
Conclusion
Research findings indicated that there was lack of interaction among the different
groups, low motivational levels, and lack of focus from the students and poor time
management. The content lacked detailed examples, inaccessibility of the lecturer
and no fully utilisation of available resources like e-resources. The results lead to
recommendations on rewriting of the module and introducing a workbook. There was
also the necessity of enhancing the different interaction especially lecture-student
interaction and use of detailed individualised feedback on assessments. An
implementation plan was developed for use in the next academic year. However,
there is need to do a quantitative analysis on the impact of the characteristics
identified on the difference in results from 2008 to 2010.
References
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Instutional Transformation – A Case Study in the Making, University of Oldenburg
and University of Windsor.
Hui, H.W. (1989). Support for Students in a Distance Learning Programme, in
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Robinson, B. (1995). Research and Pragmatism in Learner Support, in Open and
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