Busted! Challenging Myths about
the Effectiveness of Online
Student Support Services
OLC Presentation by Ivy Tech Community College System and
Penn State University World Campus
By
Dr. Stacy Atkinson, Strategic Initiatives Project Manager
Ivy Tech Community College System
November 16, 2016
OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION
• Introducing our roles at our institutions and our online programs
• Identifying student support services for online students
• Identifying similarities and differences in 2 year versus
4 year online students
• Busting the myths
• Q&A
WHAT ARE THE MYTHS?
Myth #1
No measurable difference in student success for an online student
using support services or not
Myth #2
Faculty do not buy into online support services
Myth #3
Students won’t take advantage of online support services
IVY TECH COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Indiana Community College System member
31 campuses in 14 regions
81,000 students with 20,000 students at least 1 online
course
Ivy Tech Online: 14,000 exclusively online students
16 fully online degrees and 350 courses
Mostly part time and “traditional age”
IPEDS Data
Retention Rates = Full Time (48%) and Part Time (37%)
Graduation Rate = 11%
PENN STATE WORLD CAMPUS
Penn State University was founded in 1855
Penn State World Campus started in 1998
15,000+ exclusively online degree students
120+ fully online degree programs
Associate’s, Bachelor’s, Masters, and Doctoral Programs
Degree seeking students from all 50 states and 60 countries
Most online adult learners are >30 years old and part time
IPEDS Data
Retention Rates = Full Time (53%) and Part Time (46%)
Graduation Rate = 40%
STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES
BOTH SCHOOLS
• Academic Advising
• Asynchronous help and academic resources
• Online Tutoring and Library Services
• HelpDesk Staff with and Online technical help
• Veteran’s Resources
• Online Bookstore
Ivy Tech: “Campus Connect”
World Campus: Student Affairs Director for Online Students and Career Counselors
2 YEAR vs. 4 YEAR? – MANY SIMILARITIES AND KEY DIFFERENCES
Similarities . . . .
• Often working students with packed schedules
• Seek convenience and flexibility
• Look to advance education and credentials
• Prefer regionally-located institution
• Often bring prior credits from other institutions
• Often challenged by personal and family schedules
• Often have military-related connections
• May have been out of the classroom for many years
• Career oriented
2 YEAR vs. 4 YEAR? – KEY DIFFERENCES
2 Year Online Student
• Traditional learner
• Affordability
• Shift careers
• Often needs to take General Education
Requirements
4 Year Online Student
• Adult learner
• Brand identification
• Enhance career qualifications
• Comes with Associates degree and/or
many transfer credits earned
WHAT ABOUT THOSE MYTHS?
Myth #1
No measurable difference in student success for an online student
using support services or not
Myth #2
Faculty will never buy into online support services
Myth #3
Students won’t take advantage of online support services
Will use Online Tutoring to address myths
#1 – SUPPORT SERVICES DO NOT DRIVE STUDENT SUCCESS
Recommend:
• Involve Institutional Research to assess impact on student success
• Design analysis to capture success metrics like:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Course completion rates
Grade rates of C or above
DFIW rates
Measures of persistence
Retention rates
Graduation rates
• Collect student by student use data (by # of sessions, subjects, etc.)
• Assess by different student attributes (e.g., GPA, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
STUDENT SURVEY RESULTS FROM USERS
Ivy Tech – survey response rate of 34.15% from 25,345 sessions, Sept. 2015-2016
Live one-to-one Sessions Feedback
Are you glad your organization offers this service?
98%
Would you recommend this service to a friend?
97%
Is this service helping you complete your homework assignments?
97%
Is this service helping you improve your grades?
97%
Is this service helping you be more confident about your school work?
97%
Penn State– survey response rate of 48.35% from 5,991 sessions, Sept. 2015-2016
Live one-to-one Sessions Feedback
Are you glad your organization offers this service?
98%
Would you recommend this service to a friend?
96%
Is this service helping you complete your homework assignments?
98%
Is this service helping you improve your grades?
94%
Is this service helping you be more confident about your school work?
96%
STUDENT SUCCESS FOR USERS OF SUPPORT SERVICES
Ivy Tech
• Analysis in process
• Preliminary Propensity Matching
Analysis conducted across 25 attributes
• Discovered positive contribution to
course completion and graduation rates
• Continue to work with Institutional
Research on analysis of impact
Penn State World Campus
• Analysis in process
• Pilot assessed on:
•
•
•
•
Student usage
Student satisfaction
Faculty satisfaction
Success metrics
• Continued service beyond pilot
• Analysis of efficacy ongoing
STUDENT COMMENTS ON SUPPORT SERVICES
From Ivy Tech Students
“If everyone took advantage of these resources we would have a lot more college graduates in the world! I
have never had such a useful resource while in school! Such an amazing thing, and now I can move on to my
next assignment.”
“I think this service is outstanding, especially for people who do not have time to go to the inperson tutoring center.”
From World Campus Students
“This is my first time using this service and I am blown away. This is awesome! thank you Penn State
for this.”
“Super great to be able to get such quality people at any time. This is a GREAT value add to my Penn
State World Campus Experience.”
#2 – FACULTY WON’T BUY INTO SUPPORT SERVICES
Common Attitudes
How Resolved
• Opposition to contracting out
instructional support
• Pilot (for the World Campus)
• Formal meetings with faculty to address
concerns, issues
• Transparency of services – access to
sessions, usage data
• Use of early alert to assist in student
success (Ivy Tech faculty experience)
• Instructional load sharing (World
Campus writing experience)
• Skepticism on ability to build
relationships with online tutors
• Belief there would be minimal
knowledge of “our” course,
assignments, preferred learning styles
• Belief that students didn’t manage their
time well
• Belief that students should come to
them for help
#3 – STUDENTS WON’T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SUPPORT SERVICES
At Ivy Tech
• 25,400 sessions since March, 2015
• 21,545 active student accounts
• Average session length of 31.08 minutes
• Implemented with the Spring term of
2015
• Covers 43 courses plus a writing center
• Primary service occurs in the Gen Eds
At Penn State World Campus
• 10,000 sessions since January, 2015
• 2,307 active student accounts
• Average session length of 34.56 minutes
• Piloted for four academic terms from
January, 2015-May, 2016
• Started with 12 courses and now up to
70 courses covered, plus a writing
center
• Service across undergrad and grad
programs
IVY TECH TOP 10 TUTORING SUBJECTS
18,639 OF 25,300 SESSIONS – 43 COURSES IN ALL
WHEN IVY TECH STUDENTS CONNECT FOR HELP
0:00
1:00
2:00
3:00
4:00
5:00
6:00
7:00
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
17:00
18:00
19:00
20:00
21:00
22:00
23:00
Total by Day
Sun
0.27%
0.22%
0.18%
0.11%
0.08%
0.09%
0.11%
0.11%
0.23%
0.31%
0.43%
0.62%
1,734
0.73%
0.79%
0.84%
1.06%
1.22%
1.09%
1.20%
1.18%
1.42%
1.51%
1.41%
0.90%
16.13%
Mon
Tue
Wed
0.58%
0.53%
0.54%
0.28%
0.27%
0.39%
0.20%
0.18%
0.22%
0.09%
0.09%
0.13%
0.08%
0.09%
0.08%
0.03%
0.07%
0.08%
0.08%
0.12%
0.07%
0.11%
0.19%
0.15%
0.27%
0.31%
0.29%
0.53%
0.55%
0.46%
0.78%
0.71%
0.77%
0.92%
0.79%
0.72%
sessions
have
occurred
at
10:00
0.81%
1.10%
0.85%
0.93%
1.00%on Saturdays
0.89%
0.99%
1.04%
1.03%
0.88%
0.90%
1.05%
1.04%
0.88%
1.03%
1.08%
0.88%
1.10%
1.14%
1.03%
0.98%
1.40%
1.30%
1.16%
1.38%
1.38%
1.32%
1.28%
1.34%
1.24%
1.11%
1.09%
1.10%
0.89%
0.95%
0.76%
16.85%
16.77%
16.40%
pm
Thu
0.53%
0.35%
0.21%
0.11%
0.11%
0.06%
0.13%
0.15%
0.37%
0.50%
0.65%
0.85%
and
2,499
0.90%
0.92%
0.93%
0.81%
0.82%
0.78%
0.79%
0.83%
1.05%
1.00%
1.01%
0.72%
14.61%
Fri
0.28%
0.21%
0.15%
0.08%
0.09%
0.06%
0.06%
0.08%
0.21%
0.35%
0.51%
0.52%
sessions
0.66%
0.59%
0.65%
0.63%
0.58%
0.50%
0.51%
0.55%
0.51%
0.66%
0.55%
0.42%
9.40%
Sat
0.25%
0.21%
0.14%
0.09%
0.06%
0.06%
0.08%
0.06%
0.10%
0.24%
0.43%
0.51%
0.60%
0.66%
0.68%
0.74%
0.66%
0.72%
0.59%
0.59%
0.65%
0.72%
0.57%
0.44%
9.84%
Total by Hour
2.98%
1.91%
1.28%
0.69%
0.59%
0.45%
0.65%
0.85%
1.77%
2.95%
4.29%
4.93%
5.65%
5.79%
6.16%
6.06%
6.23%
6.15%
6.25%
7.01%
7.70%
7.74%
6.83%
5.07%
100.00%
WORLD CAMPUS TOP 10 TUTORING SUBJECTS
6,456 OF 10,0000 SESSIONS – 70 COURSES IN ALL
Drop Off Essay Review
1140
Accounting
1117
Microeconimics
930
Statistics for Psychology
598
Spanish Level 3
484
English Composition
473
Business Calculus
471
Macroeconomics
471
College Algebra 2
449
Spanish Level 2
323
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
WHEN WORLD CAMPUS STUDENTS CONNECT FOR HELP
EST
0:00
1:00
2:00
3:00
4:00
5:00
6:00
7:00
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
17:00
18:00
19:00
20:00
21:00
22:00
23:00
Day of Week
0.48%
0.31%
0.21%
0.14%
0.10%
0.08%
0.11%
0.34%
0.64%
0.69%
1.04%
1.26%
1.33%
1.71%
1.80%
1.49%
1.82%
1.85%
1.96%
2.11%
2.02%
1.98%
1.51%
0.72%
25.70%
0.18%
0.08%
0.03%
0.04%
0.05%
0.02%
0.14%
0.12%
0.27%
0.30%
0.49%
0.47%
0.70%
0.57%
0.72%
0.60%
0.46%
0.60%
0.80%
1.05%
0.91%
0.64%
0.63%
0.48%
10.40%
0.11%
0.13%
0.06%
0.07%
0.16%
0.06%
0.11%
0.19%
0.20%
0.31%
0.46%
0.56%
0.69%
0.59%
0.68%
0.76%
0.65%
0.69%
0.99%
0.67%
0.89%
0.80%
0.62%
0.46%
10.96%
0.22%
0.19%
0.04%
0.02%
0.01%
0.00%
0.11%
0.21%
0.32%
0.37%
0.54%
0.62%
0.77%
0.66%
0.71%
0.74%
0.54%
0.54%
0.87%
0.74%
0.95%
0.99%
0.86%
0.56%
11.63%
Sat
Fri
Thu
Wed
Tue
Mon
Sun
0.27%
0.12%
0.12%
0.13%
0.08%
0.06%
0.10%
0.22%
0.38%
0.57%
0.60%
0.54%
0.71%
0.72%
0.94%
0.74%
0.88%
0.77%
0.75%
1.00%
1.02%
0.85%
0.76%
0.52%
12.91%
568 sessions have occurred at 10:00 PM and 1,397
sessions on Saturdays
0.30%
0.28%
0.18%
0.11%
0.12%
0.12%
0.09%
0.21%
0.45%
0.63%
0.78%
0.80%
1.01%
1.00%
0.92%
0.82%
0.90%
0.75%
0.89%
0.99%
0.95%
0.82%
0.68%
0.57%
14.43%
0.36%
0.17%
0.18%
0.15%
0.04%
0.03%
0.13%
0.12%
0.37%
0.41%
0.69%
0.64%
0.73%
0.87%
1.09%
1.00%
1.15%
0.78%
0.98%
0.93%
0.94%
0.94%
0.60%
0.62%
13.97%
Time of Day
1.93%
1.29%
0.82%
0.66%
0.56%
0.37%
0.79%
1.42%
2.64%
3.29%
4.62%
4.90%
5.96%
6.14%
6.88%
6.17%
6.41%
6.00%
7.26%
7.51%
7.70%
7.04%
5.68%
3.95%
100.00%
Questions
Stacy Atkinson
Ivy Tech Community College
[email protected]
317-921-4564
www.ivytech.edu
Amanda Mulfinger
Penn State World Campus
[email protected]
814-865-0653
www.worldcampus.psu.edu