Academic Coaches and Student Success in Higher Education.
Published in the Journal for Distance Education. May 31, 2023.
(2023) Academic Coaches and Student Success in Higher Education, American Journal of Distance Education, DOI: 10.1080/08923647.2023.2210491
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08923647.2023.2210491
Education technology has experienced steady growth and adoption even before the pandemic, with edtech investments reaching $18.66 billion in 2019. However, the COVID-19 crisis has affected around 1.6 billion students, most of whom migrated to online platforms to continue their education.
More than a year into the pandemic, online learning has seen enormous changes. And despite the crisis slowly receding, experts believe online education will continue to grow.
Here are five major online education trends that will shape the learning landscape globally.
Nano-learning is a learning modality where the student receives condensed, bite-sized information across a shorter time frame. It provides learners with quick and entertaining content that holds on to their notoriously shortening attention span.
Examples of nano-learning include short soundbites or one-minute videos seen on platforms like TikTok and Twitter.
Researchers argue that nano-learning is effective because it follows the Pareto principle: 80% of learning outcomes result from applying 20% of effort learning. In addition, nano-learning supports different learning styles, including visual and auditory learning.
Massive open online classes or MOOCs saw exponential growth during the pandemic. Coursera, for instance, recorded 640% more enrollments from mid-March to mid-April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, Udemy also recorded a 400% enrollment surge between February and March.
MOOCs continue to gain traction among employees, who use online learning platforms to earn micro-credentials and nano-degrees — both qualifications that demonstrate mastery in specialized skills.
MOOCs are a powerful tool for professional advancement that brand giants like Amazon and Google partner with Udacity, a popular MOOC provider, to give their employees an avenue to earn marketable skills.
Gamification is a strong contender in the future of online education. It’s the use of game-based elements like point scoring and competition to improve learning outcomes. And it has been enjoying steady growth. In 2015, the gamification industry was valued at $2 billion, but experts predict that that figure will increase to $11.42 billion by the end of 2021.
The factor that makes gamification effective is that it increases engagement. In a 2018 survey, 89% of participants said that if their task is gamified, they feel motivated to complete it. In fact, it gets them into a competitive mood!
Students also perform better when learning is gamified. A 2020 study showed that challenge-based gamification enhanced student performance by up to 89.45% compared to only attending lectures.
Open Educational Resources or OERs are learning and research materials stored in the public domain or released under an open license. These can be used and distributed by learners at no cost and with no or limited restrictions.
More and more higher education instructors are aware of OERs. And faculty awareness of OER increased by 5 percentage points from 2019 to 2020. These faculty also expressed a stronger belief in the quality of OERs.
With students paying an average of $1240 on books and supplies every year, OERs are expected to be an enduring online learning trend in higher education distance learning courses. And because OERs are free, students don’t have to deal with the effects of high textbook costs, like taking fewer courses or getting lower grades due to working more hours.
eLearning Industries predict that over 47% of learning management tools will be enriched with AI capabilities within the next three years. AI, after all, delivers a significant impact on online education.
Here is a .pdf of the partial findings of this research that were presented at the North American Management Society virtual conference. The principle investigators are completing their research study and we will supply a full report in Q4 2021.
Dr. Suyoung Park and her colleague Dr. Petra Robinson at Louisiana State University researched the performance levels of graduate students and the support that graduate students receive when they interact with academic coaches in intensive online courses. They looked at students in three different online courses. Among their findings was the overarching ethos that academic coaches provide an effective framework for student support.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette recently had an article published in the Journal of Teaching and Learning in Nursing, entitled “Determining roles and best practices when using Academic Coaches in online learning.” The article acknowledges the continued growth of online learning and identifies the role that academic coaches maintain in an online learning environment, and highlights best practices when using academic coaches in an accelerated online course.
Teaching and Learning in Nursing. Official Journal of the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing. Volume 15, Issue 4. In progress (October 2020). This issue is in progress but contains articles that are final and fully citable.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1557308720300482?via%3Dihub
In its fourth year, the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Survey — a survey of Chief Online Officers (COOs) produced by the partnership of QM and Eduventures Research, the research division of ACT | NRCCUA — continued to expand, with 367 U.S. colleges and universities responding, including public, private and for-profit institutions. That represents a 31% increase from CHLOE 3.
(https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/resource-center/articles-resources/CHLOE-4-report-2020)
Instructional Connections wants to give back to our partners and help create a better educational experience for all. Which is why we are pleased to announce our 2nd round of research grants totaling in at over $33,000 are open for submissions and will be awarded to 4 partner institutions in the coming quarter.
Our research grant opportunities are for research around the efficacy of Academic Coaching Models in an accelerated course environment across a variety of disciplines. Our ultimate goal is to improve and advance the understanding of online learning and how academic coaching can continue to improve the learning experience for all students.
These research grants reflect our high commitment to innovation in education and working to provide better and move inclusive options for all students, faculty, and institutions.
Principal Investigator Contact Information: We request that you provide complete contact information of the principal investigator at the beginning of your application.
Employment and Educational Credential Information: Include your institute, job title, and educational credentials in order to be considered for our research grant. Only partner institutions are eligible.
CV Submission: Please provide your curriculum vitae, showing the course of your work throughout your professional life. This can range from 2-6 pages and should be detailed enough that its viewer can understand the direction and advancements of your career path.
Research Interests and Methodologies: Include a detailed section that summarizes your research accomplishments, current work, and future direction or potential for your work. Your future research interests may discuss specific issues or broad categories.
Proposal Summary: Please provide a concise proposal summary in which you overview your research. Your research proposal summary can be similar to a research proposal abstract.
Proposed Budget Allocation: Indicate how you plan on spending your research grant, if you should receive it, allowing for categories and the amount of your budget that will be used in each.
Proposal Submission: Please submit your full proposal, explaining your purpose, methodology, timeline (preferred under 1-year), and other pertinent facts that will affect your research.
Signature/Submit: Please sign your proposal and submit it by no later than May 30th, 2020.
Additional proposal submission instructions can be found on the IC Budget Policy and IC Grant FAQs pages.
Each of the criteria will be given a point value from 1-20 points. A maximum point value of 100 points can be assigned for any given proposal.
A committee of academic peers and Instructional Connections officers will review each proposal. Each committee member will submit their individual scores, which will then be averaged.
Once the decision is made, Instructional Connections will contact the grant awardee. Award decisions are conveyed within six weeks of the award committee completion of the review process.
Once the grant is disbursed to the institution, your time frame for the research begins. If an extension of time is required for completion of the research, you will need to submit a request in writing to IC at least three months prior to the end of the original date of completion, with a full explanation for why the extension is required.
Current employees (full-time, part-time or independent contractors) of Instructional Connections are ineligible to apply for grants.
Questions about the grant process can be directed to: Dr. Harriet Watkins, Chief Academic Officer at [email protected].
Or visit our website to learn more about Instructional Connections, our grants, and our online academic coaches.
2019 CHLOE 3 Report: The Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE): Behind the Numbers (https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/resource-center/articles-resources/CHLOE-3-report-2019)
Louisiana State University Shreveport, presents early research findings on academic coaching at international ICONSES Conference. https://www.2019.iconses.net/fulltext/pdf/IConSES050.pdf
The peer reviewed Journal of Nursing Education recently published an article from the University of Texas at Arlington regarding the characteristics of coaches in accelerated online courses. The article researches the demographic composition of academic coaches in RN-to-BSN programs and examines the associations between coaching experience, years of licensure, and level of education and evaluations by faculty and students. The results were positive showing that academic coaches assist in providing a high quality educational experience for students and support to faculty.
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