The Australian Student Experience

The Australian Student Experience Survey 2016 has been published by the Australian Government on the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) website. Overall the news is good, with a Teaching Quality rating of 81% overall. The result which the media has focused on is that the Group of Eight leading universities scored below average for student satisfaction. However, these are leading universities based on the quality of their research. If students want a better educational experience they should choose an institution which has education as the priority, not research. However, contrary to the advertising by universities, study is not fun, it is very hard work, stressful and frustrating.

One other finding is that the percentage of higher education students who considered dropping out is higher for External/Distance students is 17% higher than for other students (21% versus 18%). This is also not a surprise, as it is more difficult for distance students to remain engaged. But what is surprising is that overall at all times about one in five students are considering dropping out. Last month Dr Cathy Stone produced National Guidelines for Improving Student Outcomes in Online Learning. While intended for e-learning, these measures be applied to improving retention of on-campus students as well.

The reason for  41% of those considering withdrawing is health or stress. Course designers can assist this by reducing the stress caused, especially by assessment. I suggest the use of early and frequent progressive assessment.

A surprising result is the percentage of students with low grades who had considered quiting. The higher the grade the fewer students consider quitting. However, about 45% of students with a grade of 49% or lower consider quitting. This seems a low figure and I would have thought more students would consider withdrawing. While universities should have measures for retaining students, they should also be encouraged to withdraw where the course does not suit them.

Australian Government Strategy for International Education to 2025

The Australian government has released a "National Strategy for International Education 2025". Also there is an "Australian International Education 2025 Roadmap" and "Australia Global Alumni Engagement Strategy 2016–2020". The aim is to increase Australia's share of international students above the current 6%. That may sound a modest goal, but with increasing on-line competition and new institutions in China and India, it will be difficult for Australia to maintain its market share, let alone increase it. If, as I expect, on-line becomes the primary teaching method for global higher education in the next five to ten years, Australia will no longer be competitive, in attracting international students, or in the education of domestic students. Australia's share of international students will then have dropped to less than 0.5% and the share of domestic students to less than 20%, with most Australian students enrolling in offshore programs.

The strategy and roadmap mention on-line learning several times (noted below), but this is not core to the approach and there are no specific measures proposed. This is not sufficient for Australia to remain competitive, either in attracting international students, or retaining domestic students.

Strategy

The strategy has three "pillars", each with a number of goals:

• Pillar 1 - Strengthening the fundamentals
  • Goal 1: Building on a world-class education, training and research system
  • Goal 2: Delivering the best possible student experience
  • Goal 3: Providing effective quality assurance and regulation
• Pillar 2 - Making transformative partnerships
  • Goal 4: Strengthening partnerships at home
  • Goal 5: Strengthening partnerships abroad
  • Goal 6: Enhancing mobility
  • Goal 7: Building lasting connections with alumni
• Pillar 3 - Competing globally
  • Goal 8: Promoting our excellence
  • Goal 9: Embracing opportunities to grow international education

The Minister's Forward to the strategy mentions blended delivery models and online professional development.   Action 1.1 of the Strategy (Developing Australia’s role as a global leader in education, training and research), states "Learning will increasingly occur in-market and online, as well as onshore.". Action 3.1 (Maintaining strong quality assurance systems) says "The system is underpinned by legislation and based on strong partnerships between regulators, governments, industry and providers. It covers all modes of delivery, including online, distance, onshore and offshore.". Action 9.1
(Building on innovative education and training services to meet student and employer needs), says "In particular, improved technologies enable us to be a borderless society, where learning can occur anywhere at any time. This is fuelling new ways of education delivery, including onshore, in-market and online.".

Also Moodle, the Australian developed Learning Management System, is mentioned in two paragraphs on page 32 of the Strategy: "... From its beginnings in Perth in 2001, Moodle has expanded to a global community of more than 70 partners, 200 active developers and 65 million users. ...".

Roadmap 

The Roadmap mentions Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs) as "One of the most influential developments in education over recent years...". Unfortunately the roadmap is incorrect in stating "Learning management systems, adaptive learning technology, education applications, online continuous professional development are all examples that have followed..." All of these preceded MOOCs and have not followed them. The report urges consideration of  in-market,
online and onshore delivery as a "cohesive borderless offering" (p. 5) and "harnessing the data generated from online delivery" (p. 11). However, what appears absent from both the Strategy and Roadmap is the need to have teaching staff who are qualified in teaching and, more specifically, trained in how to design and deliver on-line courses. The assumption appears to be that if there are standards and technology in place, quality education will result. However, education, even with technology, still requires teachers. Currently Australian university teaching staff are not required to be formally qualified in course design, assessment or in teaching in the classroom, let alone in the more demanding on-line environment.

Australian Global Alumni Engagement Strategy

The Alumni strategy has a different focus, being from the Department of Foreign Affairs. This strategy is seen as part of strengthening Australian diplomatic influence, as well as improving business linkages, in the Indo-Pacific region. The Strategy mentions "This includes engagement through
online and social media channels ..." (p. 15), "Showcase through digital profiles" (p. 15), "Collect and curate a
library of digital profiles of Australia’s global alumni and of Australians who have studied in the Indo-Pacific region" (p. 18) and "Profile alumni business connections online ..." (p.18), however, those are the only mentions of on-line engagement. Given the rapid growth in the use of smart phones in the Indo-Pacific region, relegating on-line techniques to a minor mention will make this strategy all but irrelevant. The Department of Foreign Affairs needs to "flip" the strategy, to provide engagement on-line through smart phones, devoting most effort to that and then supplementing this with other techniques. Glossy brochures and cocktail parties may give the appearance of action, but count for very little and are at high cost, compared to effective social media.

Addressing the needs of international students

Greetings from the Inaugural Student Experience Conference in Sydney, where Thomson Ch’ng, National President, Council of International Students Australia (CISA) is speaking on "Addressing the needs of international students to enhance their student experience". CISA was set up after in response to criticism of treatment of international students. There is a CISA Good Practice Program. One issue Thomson mentioned was the role of university agents, who help recruit international students.

Thomson pointed out that long induction presentations, with handouts, are not useful. It would seem to me obvious this should be "flipped", with the students getting the induction information on-line before they arrive and then just a question and answer when they arrive.

During this presentation it occurred to me that I am now an international student.I am enrolled in a course provided by a university in another country. Even thought I am not traveling to that country, there are some differences. One trivial difference is that my course is scheduled in what the university describes as "Winter 2014", even though for me it is high summer. While this is trivial, it would be good if the institution acknowledged its international students and used global terminology. More seriously, I don't exactly how large the course I have enrolled in is, as it is described in terms different to those used in Australian Higher Education.

Improving the Student Experience Online

Greetings from the Inaugural Student Experience Conference in Sydney. After a day and a half of presentations from university personnel, Peter Rohan from Ernst & Young, is giving a refreshing business view of higher education (E&Y issued "Universityof the future: A thousand year old industry on the cusp of profound change" in 2012). He asked if investments, such as WiFi on campuses, actually is worth the cost. He suggests that providing feedback to students and taking an interest in them would better improve their experience. He also suggested the university look at what their students value.

My own experience as a student has been that at times a university may try too hard. I don;t mind a few surveys to find what I like. But at one stage I was getting a survey about every week from one university. I did not know which were important and which were not, but the surveys were detracting from my student experience, so each time I got one, I have the university a lower rating.

In my view Higher Education could usefully invest in on-line presence and in teaching skills. This not be an expensive exercise, compared to building new buildings and hiring new staff. A university is  inherently virtual, with the physical environment just to supplement the experience: it is about people and ideas.

An example of the ideas and people is when I visited Cambridge University Computer Labs. This institution is world famous for helping create the modern computer age, from building the world's second electronic computer to the world's first web cam. But when I visited the lab was in a crumbling old, cramped building (with a dinosaur skeleton in it). The old buildings are part of the Cambridge ethos (although on my next visit I found they had moved into a shiny new building next to Microsoft Research Labs). But it was the idea of the Lab which was important not the physical building.

Australasian Survey of Student Engagement

The Australian Council for Educational Research conducts the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE). This uses three surveys instruments Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ),  the Postgraduate Student Engagement Questionnaire (PSEQ), and Staff Student Engagement Questionnaire (SSEQ). Universities take such surveys very seriously, on the assumption that students tell the truth when filing in the survey and take notice of the results when selecting where to study.