campusreview.com.au
Rescuing online dropouts
UWA research team tasked with boosting
online course completion.
A
system that takes stock of a student’s online learning
activities and predicts the risk of academic failure is on
the horizon.
It’s part of a project that aims to curb the number of students
who drop out of online courses, an issue spelled out by the
Department of Education in the report, Improving Retention,
Completion and Success in Higher Education.
Its Higher Education Standards Panel said online students take
longer to complete their degrees and have lower completion rates
than other students.
“Some stakeholders, such as the University of New England,
cited examples of supporting external students, but other feedback
suggested support for external students generally appears to be an
extension of support for on-campus students, and little additional
effort is put in to ensure the services are suitable for those online,”
Safeguards
for STEM
students
Peak science body endorses ban on relationships
between students and research supervisors.
I
n August last year, in the wake of the Australian Human
Rights Commission’s watershed report into sexual assault
and harassment at universities, a coalition of organisations
called for zero tolerance of relationships between students and
research supervisors, due to their innate power imbalance.
news
the report’s authors said, adding such students need online
support services.
University of Western Australia deputy vice-chancellor (research)
Professor Robyn Owens said the completion rates for online
courses sometimes drop as low as 2 per cent.
To help tackle the problem, Dr Jianxin Li, from UWA’s
Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, will design
algorithms to explore pattern recognition in learning activities,
learning performance assessment and personalised study plan
recommendations.
Li said the primary goal will be to develop a system that supports
personalised learning based on a student’s past performance and
their current risk of failure.
“The system would continuously examine a student’s online
learning activities and evaluate their learning outcomes in real time.
“These evaluations, supported by the historical data of many
other students, could then be used to predict the likelihood
of success or the risk of academic failure in the early stages of
learning,” he said. Students would then get their hands on a
personalised study plan.
Owens added that “the success of this project would not only
help to retain students in online courses, it would save time and
money for users around the world”.
The project was awarded $480,000 in funding over three
years from the Australian Research Council. It is expected to be
completed by June 2022.
Li’s team includes researchers from Melbourne’s Swinburne
University of Technology, RMIT University, and collaborator
Australian Education and Migration Services. ■
Recently, Science & Technology Australia (STA) threw its
weight behind the proposal – encompassed in the Principles
for Respectful Supervisory Relationships – in its submission to
the AHRC’s ongoing National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in
Australian Workplaces.
“STA believes that an institution’s code of conduct or other
relevant policies should set out restrictions and processes to
address this,” STA president Professor Emma Johnston told
Campus Review.
The peak science body argued that sexual harassment is
“particularly problematic in STEM fields where gender equity
continues to be unrealised”.
It further noted that gender inequity “begins to worsen at the
research student stage”.
In a preparatory survey it conducted, at least three
respondents acknowledged that they were sexually harassed
while they were STEM research students.
The Principles for Respectful Supervisory Relationships have
not been adopted by all universities. STA is calling for them, as
well as all other organisations in the STEM sector, to do so.
One of the principles' co-drafters, the Council of Australian
Postgraduate Associations, thinks the lack of university interest
in them is “disappointing”.
According to national president Natasha Abrahams, adopting
them is “an essential first step in fostering respectful supervisor-
student relationships”.
The inquiry’s report, due to be released during the second half
of this year, will contain recommendations for change. ■
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