How can we help students succeed with on-line courses?

Abstract

All New Zealand Diploma in Business courses offered at UNITEC now have an on-line, web-based presence. This has therefore changed the way that courses are delivered. The manner in which students make use of the on-line courses differs from student to student and from course to course.

With the increasing number of courses being offered on-line various issues have arisen for students and lecturers. This paper examines some of these issues.

In Semester 2 1999 and Summer School 1999/2000 students were asked their opinions on an on-line course that had been developed for them as a teaching and learning resource and 132 responses were received. The results of this survey are presented in this paper and recommendations provided as to how on-line courses can be improved to enhance student learning.

The methods that we as educators can use to help students determine if their style of learning "fits" the on-line learning method are described as not all students are comfortable using an on-line learning environment.

The manner in which on-line learning is introduced to students is very important for the successful implementation of the course. This paper concludes by describing some successful models that have been used at UNITEC.