How can we help? Supporting students in distance tertiary education: An evaluative study

Authors

  • Rachel McCahon Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

Keywords:

distance education, distance learning, student support

Abstract

This article reports on a study which investigated the role of student support in the completion of a distance education programme at tertiary level. It aimed to identify crucial methods of support in distance education, related to the nature of the student body in a specific programme of study. It found that a wide range of support mechanisms were needed and valued. Tutor attributes such as availability and approachability were regarded as crucial, personal knowledge of students by tutors increased students' sense of identification with the programme and the likelihood of their completion, and the effectiveness of support systems could be enhanced by the creation of a feeling of intimacy within an institution.

Author Biography

Rachel McCahon, Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

Programme Manager, Information and Library Studies

Downloads

Published

2023-09-23

How to Cite

McCahon, R. (2023). How can we help? Supporting students in distance tertiary education: An evaluative study. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 5(1), 27–38. Retrieved from https://jofdl.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/view/153

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2000): Journal of Distance Learning 5(1)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Rachel McCahon

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

a. This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Readers are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full text of the articles in this journal.

and

b. Acknowledgement should be made of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal using a full citation. In addition, a link to the JOFDL site at https://www.jofdl.nz is recommended where appropriate.