This paper attempts to compare the availability, quality, similarities and differences of students' support services in United Kingdom Open University (UKOU) and Sri Lanka Open University (SLOU) and also to identify and enlist the deficiencies that SLOU students are facing in the student support services. To get the desired end four hundred…

Peer-Assisted Tutorials (PATs), a form of Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL), were introduced to a conventional 4-year honours degree programme in Chemical Engineering. PATs were designed to support students in becoming more self-directed in their learning, to develop student confidence in tackling Chemical Engineering problems and to promote effective…

This study examined the effects of manipulating the modality (text-only, voice-only, voice+text) of a tutorial and restriction (restricted vs. unrestricted) of a simulation's interface on retention and transfer of tutorial content. The tutorial prepared novice students to use Packet Tracer, a simulation developed by Cisco that teaches network…

Effectively targeting a heterogeneous student population is a common challenge in academic courses. Most traditional learning material targets the "average student," and is suboptimal for students who lack certain prior knowledge, or students who have already attained some of the course objectives. Student-activating learning material supports…

Effective statistical collaboration in a multidisciplinary health research environment requires skills not taught in the usual statistics courses. Graduates often learn such collaborative skills through trial and error. In this paper, we discuss the development of a biostatistical collaboration course aimed at graduate students in a Health…

It is often assumed that engaging in a one-on-one dialogue with a tutor is more effective than listening to a lecture or reading a text. Although earlier experiments have not always supported this hypothesis, this may be due in part to allowing the tutors to cover different content than the noninteractive instruction. In 7 experiments, we tested…

This research examined the effect of tutoring on student success at an open enrollment community college, controlling for gender, age, race/ethnicity, highest level of education, and reading, writing and mathematics competency. Student success was defined three ways: term grade point average (GPA), success in courses, and persistence from the fall…

We introduced a debate-style tutorial exercise into the third-year tutorial classes with the purpose of developing the students' logic, broadening their vision and encouraging them to express their opinions in public, before an audience. The issues for debate included medical (dental) and non-medical topics. Two separate debate exercises were…

The "ILIAS" learning management system (LMS) was evaluated, following its favourable rating in an independent evaluation study of open source software (OSS) products. The current review found "ILIAS" to have numerous features of value to distance education (DE) students and teachers, as well as problems for consideration in the…

This is a descriptive study that analyzes learners' use of comprehension aids such as objectives, a glossary and links between pages in a hypermedia tutorial. Students read a short hypermedia tutorial on the topic of E. coli. Relationships between the use of the comprehension aids and individual characteristics such as metacognitive awareness and…

This article describes a pilot academic mentoring program carried out over 1 semester in the SEEK Program at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. The program was utilized to provide a resource for students whose overall grade point average was below 2.5, placing them at risk for academic dismissal. A goal-setting approach was used to aid the…

For online mathematics instructors, synchronous communication can be a challenge due to the need for specialized symbols, graphics, or notations to explain key concepts. While software tools exist to support such communication, they can often be cumbersome and time-consuming for users to adopt in online exchanges. As one way of addressing this…

This paper addresses the practice and experience of Universitas Terbuka (UT) in the provision of learning support services for students in a large-scale distance education system. The UT, which has a network of 37 regional offices and participating institutions, has challenges to provide and manage effective learning support system for more than…

The researchers of this study selected four pragmatic research questions that distance learning administrators with high-enrolling Independent Study courses, similar to those that Brigham Young University offers through its Department of Independent Study, may be interested in exploring. These questions included: (1) When tutoring services are…

In the digital era online tutorials remain especially popular for providing information literacy instruction to undergraduates. This paper provides three approaches for assessing learning from a web-based tutorial. First, a general assessment focuses on patron surveys, usage statistics, and interlibrary loan requests for library-owned materials to…