{"id":2273,"date":"2019-02-12T20:36:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T20:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/?p=2273"},"modified":"2019-02-13T05:08:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T05:08:22","slug":"risc-survey-challenges-to-student-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/risc-survey-challenges-to-student-success\/","title":{"rendered":"RISC Survey: Challenges to Student Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

These are my notes on the latest RISC Survey called \u201c<\/span>What Challenges to Success Do Community College Students Face?<\/span><\/a>\u201d from January 2019. I am mostly concerned with the education technology aspects of this report. Much of the report deals with social issues and support which I know that many programs on college campuses are already there to address (access to housing, food, etc.). The real solutions to these problems revolve around faculty training in online learning, online tutoring, student training in how to be an online student, and open textbooks (as well as open education practices). None of the solutions require new software, any gee-whiz widgets or ideas. None of the solutions are particularly fast and easy; therefore, elearning will still be listed as one of the problems for some time to come.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tutoring and Support<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Students ask colleges to \u201cOffer more weekend hours for the Tutoring Center and the Library \u2013 or later hours for each. With working 8-5 M-F, and classes in the evening well past 8 PM\u201d and they go on to point out that \u201cthere isn\u2019t much opportunity…to visit the library or the Tutoring Center.\u201d We have to think differently about how we support our students. More and more students are coming to community colleges who not only may not have support from families, but are working and have families themselves. This means that their time is greatly impacted and a traditional campus schedule of 8-5 M-F is not a practical one. Here, online tutoring is another possible answer. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cost<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Cost of college and the cost of living is a significant challenge: \u201cif a book is really expensive a student is not going to purchase it making them behind in classes.\u201d We have already made significant inroads to address this here in WA state with our support of open textbooks. <\/span><\/p>\n

Parking(!)<\/strong>
\n<\/span>\u201cOur survey results bear this out. Nearly one in five respondents indicated that parking presented a challenge to college success. Among those who indicated parking as a challenge, nearly all (86 %) reported difficulty parking on or near campus.\u201d What is interesting about this to me is how much the student populations at community colleges have increased while the offerings have decreased. Online classes could be a significant answer to this problem. <\/span><\/p>\n

Online Classes<\/strong>
\n<\/span>It is significant that online classes are listed as a problem when they are a possible solution to so many of the other issues in this survey. All of the problems listed in the survey are faculty preparation problems, course design problems, and student preparation issues. Lets look at the following issues from the survey:<\/span><\/p>\n