I attended a presentation on learner success this week. The speaker presented a variety of interesting perspectives…while intended for classrooms, they transfer nicely to elearning. Some thoughts expressed:
- Student success means different things to different stakeholders (i.e. for employers, success=knowledge and skills, for learners success=achieving life goals)
- Most learners dropouts occur at the beginning of a program…efforts should be targeted here
- At risk learners need to be identified and intervention strategies employed
- Support services should follow the medical model: diagnos and prescribe…personalize
- Many organizations offer excellent support services, but learners aren’t aware of them (need vs. use mismatch)
- Organizations need to be intrusive in delivering learner services (not sure about that one…within reason (whatever that is) I guess it could be ok…)
- Student’s interaction with colleges/universities has evolved…learners want to partner/collaborate with education facilities…they don’t want to be treated like containers to be filled with “education”
- Organizations need to provide a match between learner’s needs and the environment/provision (i.e. ask them what they need!)
- 16% of learners are only successful with much help, 16% are successful without any help, 68% of learners are successful because of what the organization does (I think the stats came from the speaker’s personal research…)