To improve student retention in distance education, Simpson suggested in 2003 that institutions analyse their own retention characteristics and "spot the leaks." In 2008 the Centre for Distance Learning at Laidlaw College, New Zealand, employed two part-time academic support coordinators in an effort to improve student retention and…

The experience that will be described in this paper is based on work carried out during the Chance Project, an experimental programme designed to re-integrate teenage drop-outs from difficult areas of the inner city into mainstream school. The Project, which has been running in Naples, southern Italy, since 1998, comprises three school centres…

Currently there is an international shift towards inclusive education, a means of education according to which the learner is schooled in the least restrictive environment possible, to overcome his or her challenges to learning and development. Bearing this in mind we considered the experiences of a learner with learning difficulties who transited…

The purview of the National VET (Vocational Education and Training) Equity Advisory Taskforce (NVEAT) encompasses a range of clients and issues across the full spectrum of the VET sector. NVEAT has undertaken a number of activities to gain a better understanding of the range of issues affecting all learners and particular disadvantaged groups of…

Purpose: This paper aims to introduce an enterprise-wide Web 2.0 learning support platform--SNAP, developed at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. Design/methodology/approach: Pointing to the evolution of the social web, the paper discusses the potential for the development of e-learning platforms that employ constructivist, connectivist,…

This paper builds on a case study on e-learning in Sri Lanka with focus on students underlying beliefs about how one learns. E-learning programs are most often set up with the assumption that students should think, act and learn independently and with underlying values of constructivism and learner-centred learning. For students used to…

This article presents a Web 2.0 approach for the arrangement of peer tutoring in online learning. In online learning environments, the learners' expectations of obtaining frequent, one-to-one support from their teachers tend to increase the teachers' workloads to unacceptably high levels. To address this problem of workload a self-organised peer…

The purpose of this guide is to provide some background on the Setting the Direction for Special Education in Alberta project. Phase 1 of the project, thoughts are wanted about what an education community that truly meets the needs of each student should look like. Alberta Education wants to create a fresh vision for providing those additional…

This paper arises from an evaluation of the study support programme developed in a midlands city in the UK, in the context of the national extended schools initiative. It offers a framework based on activity theory to explain how and why "out-of-lesson-time learning" is felt by many students to impact positively on their self-esteem and…

As a response to the "Mathematics Problem" many universities introduced mathematics support provision. These additional learning opportunities were invariably in a specific physical location and available at certain times. In order to increase the number and types of students who could access support e-learning resources were made…

This article reports findings from an empirical study of students' views of support in higher education. Findings from questionnaires and telephone interviews suggest that the characteristics and sources of support can be understood in relation to university and non-university led systems. Students identified non-university led support, for…

Standards for academic and student support services (SSS) in distance education as identified by the University of Wisconsin System Administration Board of Regents were applied to the SSS provided by the Wawasan Open University (WOU). A student feedback survey conducted over 4 semesters confirmed that WOU's SSS had been positively received and…

The purpose of this study was to examine and identify support service needs and preferences of distance learners studying at the Turkish Open Education System (OES). In order to fulfill this purpose, views and perceptions of OES students on importance and accessibility of student support services at the OES were investigated through a mixed-method…

Organizing for Student Success draws on data from more than 50 institutions to provide insight into how university colleges are organized, the initiatives they house, and the practices in place to ensure their effectiveness. Twenty case studies from 15 different campuses offer an in-depth understanding of institutional practice. Ultimately,…

This article argues that in the drive to develop e-learning initiatives in distance learning, simpler ways of supporting students for retention may be overlooked; for example, the linking of students in the form of mentoring and peer support networks. The article reports on three mentoring projects, in the United Kingdom, Korea and New Zealand,…