Tutoring support as a predictor of student retention in distance learning: The case of a University in Ghana

The tutor’s role in enhancing student retention in distance learning is paramount. This study aims to predict retention and not actual retention by investigating how tutoring support predicts student retention in distance learning at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Moore Transactional Distance Theory underpinned the theoretical framework of this study. The correlational research design was adopted for the study. The multistage sampling technique was used to sample 727 student participants from a sampling frame of 8731 out of which 625 was used for the analysis. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that the respondents had a positive perception towards tutoring support offered at the University. However, at an alpha level of .05 tutoring support made a non-significant contribution to prediction (p = .11). The findings further, revealed that a unit increase in tutoring support will improve student retention by 1.42 times. Implications of the study were also discussed

Student Experiences of Tutoring in an Associate Degree Nursing Education Program

Retention in higher education is a topic of concern, especially in high demand programs. The nursing profession is currently experiencing a shortage and nursing schools are seemingly not able to successfully graduate enough candidates to overcome the shortage. Developing targeted retention solutions for nursing education programs that work not only impacts the higher education community but the nation as a whole. Peer and professional tutoring services specific to nursing education as a retention solution may provide the academic and integrative impact that assists students in performance and improves retention. Understanding the experience of the student tutee is important in developing and modifying the tutoring services to create the greatest impact on retention. This study examined student experiences with peer and professional tutoring. The goal was to determine what aspects of tutoring the students felt helped them to persist in their nursing coursework. The study also attempted to determine why students prefer peer or professional tutoring based on their experiences. Participants included associate degree nursing students from a variety of semesters who attended either peer or professional tutoring. Individual interviews using a semi-structured format were conducted with participants. Colaizzi’s method of analysis was be used to identify themes from the data collected. Jeffreys (2013) Nursing Universal Retention and Success Model was used as a theoretical framework. Findings reinforce the model, indicating that professional integration through engagement with peers and nursing professionals help alter student academic factors and psychological outcomes. Students interviewed articulated that all of these elements together improved their academic outcomes, increasing persistence and program retention

Peer Tutoring Strategy And Senior Secondary Students’ Performance In Mathematics In Emohua Local Government Area Of Rivers State Nigeria

This study determined how peer tutoring affected senior secondary students' academic performance and retention in algebra. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were established for the study. Pretest, posttest, and post-posttest were all used in the study's quasi-experimental design. A sample of 114 senior secondary II students in Emohua Local Government Area, Rivers State Nigeria were chosen at random from the population. Data from the study were gathered using a 25-item multiple-choice examination. While the control group received instruction in algebra using the teacher's deductive teaching style, the experimental group received instruction in algebra using the peer tutoring instructional strategy. An internal consistency of 0.81 was obtained using the Kuder Richardson Formula 21. At a significance level of 0.05, the analysis employed the mean, standard deviation, and analysis of covariance. The results revealed a statistically significant difference between the students who were taught algebra using a peer tutoring technique and those who were taught using a teacher deductive teaching method in terms of performance and retention. It was recommended among others that mathematics teachers should sometimes employ peer tutoring strategy to enhance students’ performance and retention in mathematics

Tackling the personal tutoring conundrum: A qualitative study on the impact of developmental support for tutors

The significance of personal tutoring continues to increase as a result of contextual developments and the outcomes of key research on student retention and success, and yet these developments simultaneously create significant challenges in delivery within the pastoral model of personal tutoring. In addition, it remains an under-developed and under-researched area. Personal tutors’ needs and concerns have been established, and assessment of an intervention to address them has been recommended. This study examines the impact of the intervention of tailored professional development materials for tutoring within a pastoral model created in response to these issues. It reveals the usefulness of this developmental support and the need for such guidance for this work. It is argued that there are implications in terms of approaches to tutoring within this pastoral model, developmental support provision and a need for consistency of standards in personal tutoring across the sector

Best Practices in Tutoring Services and the Impact of Required Tutoring on High-Risk Students

This study examined the best practices in tutoring high-risk, first-year students. The study was conducted in three phases. First, the study investigated the tutoring practices at two four-year universities with similar admissions standards as Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) but with higher retention rates: Austin Peay State University and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The qualitative and quantitative results of that phase of the study revealed five best practices. The second phase of the study focused on the extent to which EKU’s tutoring practices align with the best practices found in phase one. The data revealed that, at least to a certain degree, EKU’s practices align with all of the identified best practices. In addition to the best practices found in the first phase, EKU also utilizes required tutoring for high-risk students enrolled in a bridge program. The third phase of the study focused on the required tutoring hours of high-risk students who are placed in a bridge program at EKU. Students were divided into three groups for study: full participation, those who reached the tutoring hours required by the bridge program; partial participation, those who participated in the program but did not reach the required number of tutoring hours; and null participation, those who did not participate in the program. Quantitative data revealed that the full participation group had higher grade-point-averages than students who were in the null participation group. The data did not reveal that full participants have significantly higher grade-point-averages than partial participants. Also, the study revealed that the retention rates among the three groups are not significantly different

A Defining Moment for Personal Tutoring: Reflections on Personal Tutor Definitions and their Implications

Despite personal tutoring being a highly important area, it has a contested nature. One contention concerns its definition: in simple terms, what personal tutoring is and, by extension, what effective personal tutoring is. A book on personal tutoring (Stork and Walker, 2015) I co-authored entitled Becoming an Outstanding Personal Tutor - which aims to define the role of the personal tutor in further education as well as explain and demonstrate how to carry out the role effectively - raises a number of questions to be explored further. These have been brought into sharper focus by both my journey from further to higher education and as a result of my former ‘practical’ role as a manager of personal tutoring. The most urgent of these questions are centred on the theme of definition. What alternative definitions are out there? Are single definitions sufficient for the complexity of tutoring? When it comes to personal tutoring, what constitutes a definition anyway? The urgency stems from the increased importance placed on personal tutoring resulting from contextual developments and as shown from the findings of key research reports on the retention and success of students. Similarly, if there is a broad consensus that personal tutoring is vital, then further debate around what it stands for, and should stand for, in terms of good practice, needs to take place. Informed by critical pedagogy, this article will consider these questions of definition and the potential implications for organisations, those undertaking the role and students

Do students in UK Higher Education Institutions need personal tutors?

This paper critically analyses the role of Personal Tutoring (PT) as a mechanism for providing student support in Higher Education (HE) in the UK. The discussions presented will draw on the experiences of PT at City University, London (City), as well as the author’s own experiences as a student, to establish a better sense of what PT means today. Focus will be placed on the benefits and challenges of typical PT systems in HE, as influenced by widening participation policies and strategies to improve retention rates. In carrying out this analysis, this paper will conclude by arguing the case for PT to remain a necessary process, rather than be replaced entirely by central support departments

Indigenous Rarámuris as University Students: Challenges for Information Literacy

Our article describes the experience developing programs for Mexican indigenous students to support their admission and retention as university students. We present an analysis of national perspectives, focusing specifically on the efforts made by The Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACH), Mexico, with indigenous Rarámuris local project through the Support Program for Indigenous Students (PAEI). In addition to providing benefits related to economics, sport activities, and physical, nutritional and psychological health, PAEI employees concrete actions linked to information literacy, such as academic support, extracurricular advising, tutoring, use of information technology, study techniques, and reading, writing, and learning models. Statistics presented not only document the progress achieved through PAEI, they identify the challenges to be faced

Tutoring support as a predictor of student retention in distance learning: The case of a University in Ghana

The tutor’s role in enhancing student retention in distance learning is paramount. This study aims to predict retention and not actual retention by investigating how tutoring support predicts student retention in distance learning at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Moore Transactional Distance Theory underpinned the theoretical framework of this study. The correlational research design was adopted for the study. The multistage sampling technique was used to sample 727 student participants from a sampling frame of 8731 out of which 625 was used for the analysis. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that the respondents had a positive perception towards tutoring support offered at the University. However, at an alpha level of .05 tutoring support made a non-significant contribution to prediction (p = .11). The findings further, revealed that a unit increase in tutoring support will improve student retention by 1.42 times. Implications of the study were also discussed.</p