During the COVID 19 lockdown, online became the only options for students to access student support services. Institutions are interested in knowing if the services offered were high quality and what delivery modality should be used in the future. This study explored both of those issues using a survey tool.
Background
The demand for distance learning courses grew steadily during the past decade (Seaman, Allen & Seaman, 2017). With the rising popularity of distance education, postsecondary institutions increased the number of distance courses and programs offered to their students. During this period of rapid growth, some institutions focused on improving the quality of the distance learning courses, while both instructional and noninstructional support services received less emphasis (Crawley, 2012). Because of this increasing demand, some institutions were well position to migrate the student services to online. However, other institutions, even though online classes were offered, had to rapidly develop online forms for those that were previously hand signed by staff or faculty. Offices were thinking about what information can be made available online. Some institutions were purchasing and learning how to use online conferencing software to provide the services that were once offered in an on-campus office. Due to the rapid deployment of those services, institutions were concerned about the quality of the services provided. As institutions move into post pandemic decisions need to be made as to continue to provide those services in a cost effective way.
As the courses were moved to a distance learning format concerns quickly emerged as to the success rates of those students completing the hastily designed online instructional materials by faculty who had little or no training in teaching in that delivery mode. Student support was required to assist students in adapting to the changes in the course schedules and accessing the tutorial support. Students may have required additional financial support as they lost income. Throughout this process, offices were attempting to provide serves online. Throughout the process, institutions were concern that the services may not have been meeting the needs of the students. The need for a survey to evaluate the services became necessary. The survey
Most postsecondary institutions offer a wide variety of support services to meet the needs of their traditional students. The assistance available to on-site students ranged from guidance through the application process to tutoring and career services. Despite the recognition by most educational stakeholders that student support services played a vital role in recruitment, success, and retention (Western Cooperation for Educational Telecommunications, 2001), many essential services do not meet the needs of distance learners (Newberry, 2013). Many public institutions struggled to create and to implement services that enhanced student retention and satisfaction in online courses. In an evaluation of 40 higher education institutions websites to determine availability of online student support, only 42% had 8 of the 16 administrative support services available. This observation led the researchers to concluded that baccalaureate institutions continue to serve the traditional college student populations which could be contributing to the nontraditional students to selecting for-profit institutions to obtain their education (Jones & Meyer, 2016). As a result, the pre-pandemic lockdown status of the support services provided to off-campus students may not be as adequate as those provided to campus-based students (Rowh, 2014). During the pandemic lockdown, institutions, who were not ready, needed to suddenly without training migrate all their services to online. Traditional students had to quickly adapt to obtaining their services online. Institutions quickly become concern about the quality of the services offered. Another question has arisen as to what should post- pandemic support services look like? Could both the traditional and online student populations want continued to access their services online?
Methodology
The purpose of this study is to gather information about the availability of support services for online students during the pandemic. The results of this study will have major impacts on institutions as they begin to bring online service in line with those available to campus students. Based upon student preferences, an institution can develop a long-range plan for which services would be the best developed first. The best tool for gathering this type of information is survey research.
Participants:
The participants for this study attend a middle sized institution on the east coast that had both undergraduate and undergraduate programs. The students that participated in the study came from a variety background. The division of participates by level was evenly divided with 26 indicating they were graduate students and 29 were undergraduate. One student was in the adult enrichment program. Within this group, 13 indicated they were first generation students, 13 used the Pell grant program, 7 students were transfer students, 5 were students of color, 4 had a disability, and 9 belong to the LGBTQ+ community. The largest group by identity indicated they did not below to a unique group with 26 students and 1 did not disclose. Students were able to select any category that applied to them. The number of students that participated in the survey was 67 students with 36 completing all survey question. The average time spent to complete the survey as 24 minutes by the 36 students completing the questions. Those that started but did not complete any of the ratings for the services were removed from the data. For the data ratings, all responses that were given for those questions were calculated.
The instrument had several sections. The first section asked a variety of demographic questions about the race, culture, gender identity, and level of study. A question was also included to determine modality for taking classes before, during, and anticipated for after the lockdown. The survey had 35 questions related to how the students accessed the services and the general responsiveness in obtaining answers. The services were divided into 11 areas: admissions, financial aid, registration, advising, tutoring, disabilities, career, health, library, technology, and clubs and organizations. That was followed by a rating scale to measure the quality of the service.
Results:
The quality of the online services was rated by a 5-point Likert scale from very poor to very good. Students form most of the services rated them as slightly above good for admissions, advising, disabilities, counseling, health, and library. The students rated the financial aid, registration, tutoring, career, and technology support as average (See Image 1). Considering that many of these offices were not prepared to move their services online, they were able to do so in an effective manner.
Image 1:
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For future use of the service based upon modality, the results were mixed as to which services the students wanted to be online and which they did not as they returned to campus after the lockdown. Admissions, career services, and technology support the students indicated that they would prefer to receive those services online or using both online and in-person support. No one indicated they wanted only in-person support from those offices. Health was the only services that students indicated they did not want online only service. In general, 29% of the respondents indicated they would only use in-person for their health services which 75% indicated they would use a combination of in-person and online (See Image 2). With so many institutions going to online registration for classes, the response in this section was surprising with few students indicating they would use a combination of online or in-person options. Overall, the institutions’ students indicated they would prefer a combination online or in-person access allowing them the flexibility to obtain the services in their preferred modality based on time when they are on campus.
Image 2
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Conclusion
The purpose of this survey was to evaluate whether the service provided through a rapid transition to online met quality standards. For this institution, the different online support service offices were able to quickly adapt and provide online student support from their offices. In general, the students felt that the quality of services received were average to good. Based upon this institution’s results, institutions should consider evaluating the quality of the services across the different offices as the quality could have varied with students not receiving the same experience.
The second question answered in the survey was examining how students would prefer the students support services be delivered in the future. Students indicated a preference for access to both in-person and online service across all areas. Based upon this institution’s results, in post-pandemic academia, institutions may want to examine the allocation of resources to continue delivery on the services in both formats.
Overall, this study indicates that institutions, with this one as an example, were able to quickly transition their services online for the lockdown. Students felt that the services were good considering the situation; however, many of the offices could improve the service they were providing. The need for some improvement in how the students were accessing the services is an important one as students expressed a desire to have services offered using both online and in-person. With the desire to have continual access to online services, institutions will need to rethink staffing, technology support for those offices, and how to provide online students support as they continue to offer online services.