Efficacy of the Learning Skills Workshop on New Learners' Academic Performance and Persistence In Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Improving the first semester learners' experience has been part of a broader set of initiatives to increase learner retention and achievement in Open University Malaysia (OUM). One set of challenges faced by OUM in this respect is to help learners develop appropriate expectations initially and then to ensure that the quality of learners' experience, once they are already in is as positive as it can possibly be. In meeting the challenges, the Centre for Student Affairs (CSA) at OUM has carefully crafted and designed several programmes which prepares them to be effective ODL learners.. This paper examines the efficacy of a Learning Skill Workshop (an orientation programme) on the new learners' academic performance, measured in terms of Grade Point Average (GPA) as well as their persistence in the programme, i.e. whether they go through the whole semester workload up to sitting for the final examination and followed through to the reregistration process and become an active learner in the subsequent semester. The study involves the collection of data of new learners who attend the Learning Skill Workshop, labeled as the �treatment� group and the remaining new learners who do not attend as the �control� group. The results indicate that the learning skill workshop has a positive impact on both learner performance as well as learner persistence. When the likelihood of success of the new learners is increased, so will their chances of completing their undergraduate education

Attitude, perception and use of e-learning at Open University Malaysia (OUM)

To ensure the success of the e-learning initiatives, OUM has developed its own e-learning management system, known as myLMS. Since its introduction, many modifications and improvements have been introduced to increase its effectiveness

Academic Counseling as a Pro-Active Retention Initiative at Open University Malaysia (OUM)

A major challenge of open and distance learning (ODL) institutions, such as Open University Malaysia (OUM), is the high learner attrition rate. In this regard, OUM had initiated a number of interventions in trying to minimize this rate. One such intervention is academic counseling where Tutor Counselors, conduct face-to-face counseling sessions for “at risk” learners. This paper reports on the success of academic counseling conducted for “at risk” learners in two successive semesters at OUM. In terms of academic performance, a higher percentage of learners in the treatment group experienced an improvement in their CGPAs (54.0%) as compared to those of the control group (27.7%). In addition, 15.6% of learners in the treatment group achieved a CGPA>2.0, compared to only 6.7% of those in the control group. In terms of learner persistence, 71.5% of learners in the treatment group of September 2005 semester reregistered in January 2006 semester as compared to 42.2% of those in the control group. The study found that the reasons that influence learners’ academic performance are time management, work demands, lack of study skills, lack of proficiency in Mathematics and English, family and financial commitments. The study also indicated that “at risk” learners tend to exhibit an attitude of indifference towards their academic performance

A Case Study of Teachers Coping as Distance Learners at the Open University Malaysia

Compared with full-time on-campus learners, part-time distance learners are faced with greater challenges as they pursue their higher education. Currently, Open University Malaysia (OUM) has 10,000 teachers out of its 23,000 learners. These teachers are sent by the Ministry of Education under a special contractual programme. Being distance learners, they have to cope with their responsibilities as full-time teachers while at the same time study on a part-time basis. As part of an effort by both OUM and the Ministry to ensure that this group is able to cope with their studies, OUM examined the academic performance of these teachers to see if special measures need to be taken to help them manage their learning effectively. This paper reports on their performances and compares them with those of the learners from the open market. The paper also discusses the issues and challenges faced by this special group of learners, and highlights some of the measures that have been taken to help them improve their academic performances

OUM's graduate tracer study, 2007-2008 (Survey done together with MOHE on graduates of IPTA/S and OUM) : PowerPoint Presentation

PowerPoint presentation on OUM's graduate tracer study, 2007-2008 survey. This survey was done together with MOHE on graduates of IPTA/S and OUM

Priority satisfaction survey : a tool in developing effective retention strategies

One of the ongoing efforts of the Centre for Student Affairs, Open University Malaysia (OUM), is to coordinate retention initiatives across all departments of the university. For these initiatives to be effective, they must incorporate feedback from students. Students come to the university with a certain set of goals and expectations. When these goals and expectations are met, the student retention rate is likely to be high. OUM must not only identify these goals and expectations, but more importantly, it must ensure that they are adequately met. One of the tools to achieve this is the Priority-Satisfaction Survey where students are asked to rank the support services provided by OUM in terms of their importance and level of satisfaction. The paper reports the results of the Priority-Satisfaction Survey conducted on all cohorts of OUM student in its 27 learning centres throughout the country. This two-dimensional survey gathers information on six different types of services using the 7-point Likert Scale. A performance gap analysis is carried out to identify areas that need improvements. In addition, a Priority-Satisfaction Matrix is constructed to determine OUM’s strengths and weaknesses. The results of the current survey are compared with those of a similar survey done in the previous year to ensure continuous evaluation of the quality of the services provided. Based on the above analysis, recommendations on retention initiatives are presented to OUM’s management. (Authors' abstract

Report on OUM's 2008 Importance-Performance Surveys

The objective of this paper is to present the findings on OUM’s Importance-Performance Surveys conducted on OUM learners in 2008. The surveys comprised of two components: First on OUM’s undergraduates and second on its post-graduate learners

Learners' Priority-Satisfaction Analyses As A Diagnostic Too in Managing Open And Distance Learning (ODL) at Open University Malaysia (OUM)

The Open University Malaysia (OUM) started its operations in 2001. Being a new and the first ODL institution in the country, it needs to identify its institutional strengths and weaknesses. The success of OUM is very much dependent on the quality of the support services it provides. Traditionally, quality is measured uni-dimensionally, that is, using learners' satisfaction. However, for greater reliability and accuracy, learners'satisfaction should be viewed in the context of their priorities or expectations. Combining the two dimensions of priority and satisfaction, the results of the survey will enable OUM to determine its strengths (high priority-high satisfaction) and weaknesses (high priority-low satisfaction). The study is based on a survey to determine the profile of learner-respondents, the priorities placed on OUM's support systems and their levels of satisfaction for the support systems. The analysis was done separately on three cohorts of learners: the "BPG"/ teachers group; the Open Market Bachelor's Degree group and the Open Market Diploma group. The results indicated slight variations in the profiles of the respondents, their priority listings and satisfaction levels. However, all three cohorts accorded the highest priority to: (i) program of study and (ii) fees. They rated highest satisfaction for: (i) tutor and (ii) program of study. The lowest priority items include (i) learning centers, and (ii) learning materials. The least satisfied items were: (i) library, and (ii) e-Learning platform (myLMS). Overall, eight out of the nine services rendered fell in the high priority-high satisfaction quadrant (its strengths). Only the library services fell in the high priority-low satisfaction quadrant (its weakness). (Authors' abstract