Tutor Orientation Courses for improving Student Retention in India
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Abstract
High enrolment in distance education may be counterbalanced by a high rate of attrition. To enhance retention of distant learners there is a need for an extended support system provided by academic counselors, and the support system gets strengthened when academic counselors are trained intensively for their role. In this paper the focus is on the orientation programmes that have been organized from 2003-2009 for the academic counselors working for the academic programmes of the School of Education at Indira Gandhi National Open University. These programmes were meant for preparing the academic counselors for the twin roles which they are expected to perform – tutoring, and counseling. The study aimed to critically assess the effectiveness of these programmes along three dimensions - academic inputs provided ;
methods of imparting instructions ; and duration of the programmes. A longitudinal descriptive case study approach was adopted, and individual programmes were the units of the study. Interpretation of the data collected was done by grounding the observations into a rubric developed with the help of propositions extrapolated from published literature on the dimensions chosen for assessment. It was found that the orientation programmes were inadequate along all the three dimensions and needed to be strengthened, especially for the counseling role. Suggestions have been made for revamping the programmes.
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BOSE, S. (2011). Tutor Orientation Courses for improving Student Retention in India. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 9(2), 53 - 63. Retrieved from https://asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/195
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The work published in AjDE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY).
References
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Open University. Paper presented at the Pan Commonwealth Forum in Open Learning. Empowerment through Knowledge and Technology, 1 -5 March. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://www.col.org/forum/authorindex.htm Srivastava, M. (2000). Face to face sessions, counselling and tutoring services, PGDDE, IGNOU. Tait, J. (2004). The tutor / facilitator role in student retention. Open Learning, 19 (1). Trace, C. (2001). Applying content analysis to case study data : A preliminary report. InterPares Project. Retrieved April 7, 2010, from http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/usinterpares/pdf/InterPARES.ContentAnalysis .pdf Wedemeyer, C.A. (1971). Independent study overview. In L.C. Deighton (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of education. New York: Macmillan.
Wickramratne, V. (2001). Counselling services for the distance learners. OUSL Journal, 3. Yin, R.K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd edn.). Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage. (cited in Baxter & Jack, 2008) Zainal, Z. (2007). Case study as a research method. Jurnal Kemanusiaan, 9. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://eprints.utm.my/8221/1/ZZainal2007Case_study_as_a_Research.pdf Zuhair, I.A., Adnan, I., & Thaib, D. (2007). Provision of student learning support services in a large-scale distance education system at Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde28/articles/a rticle_4.htm
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Duffy, T.M., & Jonassen, D. (Eds.) (1992). Constructivism and the technology of instruction : A conversation. Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Frymier, A.B., & Houser, M.L. (2000). The teacher-student relationship as an interpersonal relationship. Communication Education, 49, 207-219. Gupte, K.S. (2009). Some reflections on learner support for distance learners : Feedback from the field. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 7 (1), 71-83. Hargreaves, A. (2003). Teaching in the knowledge society : Education in the age of insecurity. New York : Teachers College Press. Holmberg, B. (1981). Status and trends of distance education. London : Kogan Page. IGNOU (2001). Academic counseling in open and distance learning. New Delhi : IGNOU. Keegan, D. (1990). Foundations of distance education. London : Routledge. Kirkpatrick, D.L. (1998). Evaluating training programmes : The four levels. 2nd Edition.
San Francisco, CA : Berrett-Koehler. Kittl, C., Edegger, F., & Petrovic, O. (2009). Learning by pervasive gaming : An empirical study in distributed learning environments. In H. Rue, & D. Parsons (Eds.), Innovative mobile learning : Techniques and technologies, (pp.61-62). New York : Information Science Reference. Laurillard, D. (1993). Balancing the media. Journal of Educational Television, 19 (2), 81-93. Laurilard, D. (2002). Rethinking teaching for the knowledge society. Educause Review. January/ Retrieved May 6, 2010, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm02 01.pdf Lake, D. (1999). Reducing isolation for distance students : An online initiative. In K. Martin, N. Stanley, & N. Davison (Eds.), Teaching in the disciplines : Learning in context, (pp.210-214). Proceedings of the 8th Annual Teaching Learning Forum, University of Western Australia, Perth. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from http://lsn.curtin.edu.au/tlf/tlf1999/lake.html MacGeorge, E.L., Samter, W., & Gillihan, S.J. (2005). Academic stress, supportive communication, and health. Communication Education, 54, 365-372. Manjulika, S., Reddy, V., & Fulzele, T.U. (1996). Students opinion of counseling : The experience of Indira Gandhi National Open University. Indian Journal of Open Learning, 5 (2), 19-29. Mishra, S. (2005). Roles and competencies of academic counselors in distance education. Open Learning, 20 (2), 147-159. Moody, J. (2004). Distance education : Why are the attrition rates so high ? Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 5 (3), 205210. Moore, M.G. (1993). Theory of transactional distance. In D. Keegan (Ed.), Theoretical principles of distance education. New York : Routledge. Peters, O. (1992). Some observations on dropping out in distance education. Distance Education, 13, 234-269. (cited in Lake, 1999) O’ Rourke, J. (1993). Roles and competencies in distance education. COL. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from http://www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocumen ts/Roles_Competencies.pdf O’ Rourke, J. (2003). Tutoring in open and distance learning : A handbook for tutors. COL. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from http://www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocumen ts/odltutoringHB.pdf Rekkedal, T. (1991). The personal tutor / counsellor in distance education. An experiment at NKI. Paper presented at the ZIFF-Ringkolloquium, FernUniversität, Germany. Retrieved March 11, 2010, from http://www.nettskolen.com/forskning/25/zif fpers.htm Ritchie, J.B., & Thompson, P. (1988). Organisation and people. New York : West Publishing. Schon, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner. London : Temple Smith. Sewart, D. (1978). Continuity of concern for students in a system of learning at a distance, ZIFF Paper No. 22 (Hagen, ZIFF). In T. Rekkedal, & S. Qvist-Eriksen (Eds.), (2003). Internet-based e-learning, pedagogy and support Systems. NKI Distance Education. Shelley, M., White, C., Baumann, U., & Murphy, L. (2006). It's a unique role! Perspectives on tutor attributes and expertise in distance language teaching. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Retrieved April 7, 2010, http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/articl e/view/297/609. Stake, R.E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand oaks, CA : Sage. Srivastrava, M. (1999). Staff development through multimedia technologies : A perspective of the Indira Gandhi National
62
BOSE
Open University. Paper presented at the Pan Commonwealth Forum in Open Learning. Empowerment through Knowledge and Technology, 1 -5 March. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://www.col.org/forum/authorindex.htm Srivastava, M. (2000). Face to face sessions, counselling and tutoring services, PGDDE, IGNOU. Tait, J. (2004). The tutor / facilitator role in student retention. Open Learning, 19 (1). Trace, C. (2001). Applying content analysis to case study data : A preliminary report. InterPares Project. Retrieved April 7, 2010, from http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/usinterpares/pdf/InterPARES.ContentAnalysis .pdf Wedemeyer, C.A. (1971). Independent study overview. In L.C. Deighton (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of education. New York: Macmillan.
Wickramratne, V. (2001). Counselling services for the distance learners. OUSL Journal, 3. Yin, R.K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd edn.). Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage. (cited in Baxter & Jack, 2008) Zainal, Z. (2007). Case study as a research method. Jurnal Kemanusiaan, 9. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://eprints.utm.my/8221/1/ZZainal2007Case_study_as_a_Research.pdf Zuhair, I.A., Adnan, I., & Thaib, D. (2007). Provision of student learning support services in a large-scale distance education system at Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde28/articles/a rticle_4.htm