1. Helping Our Students
Succeed
Facts About Open Campus Students
and Strategies for Their Success

2. An Introduction
How We Compare to Traditional Institutions

3. The Traditional University…
 Often focuses on 18-22 year-olds with parental
support, immediately transitioning from high school to
college.
 Often focuses on strategies for engaging students on a
face-to-face basis
 Often focuses only on students on Bachelor’s and
Graduate school tracks

4. But FSCJ Is Not a Traditional
University, and Open Campus Is…Online!
 With a background as an open-access community
college, FSCJ enjoys much diversity among our students
 FSCJ aims not only to graduate students with Associate’s
and Bachelor’s degrees, but also to remediate, prepare
students for college level work, acclimate students to the
world of higher ed, accommodate non-traditional
students, and prepare students for vocations

5. A Few Facts
About FSCJ and Open Campus Students

6. Full-Time Enrollment Online
Unduplicated students in online courses (n=21,480)
Academic Year 2010/2011 (terms 20111, 20112 and 20113)
1,310
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600 348
400
200 39
0
Fall
Spring
Summer
Source: JIRA Data Report – October 2011

7. Part-Time Enrollment Online
Unduplicated students in online courses (n=21,480)
Academic year 2010/2011 (terms 20111, 20112 and 20113)
13,385
14,000
12,000
10,000
8,000 5728
6,000
4,000 1804
2,000
0
Fall
Spring
Summer
Source: JIRA Data Report – October 2011

8. Degree Completers
Number of students who took online courses to complete their degree
Duplicated headcount - many students earned multiple awards.
Academic year 2010/2011 (terms 20111, 20112 and 20113)
3000
2843
2500
2000
1500
1000 549
500 88 533
165
0 17 22 90
AA AAS
AS BAS BS BSN TCert
VCert
Source: JIRA Data Report – October 2011

9. Developmental Students
More than 70% of FSCJ students
take at least one developmental
course.
This means many of them come to us
not yet in possession of college-level
skills.

10. Open Campus Students:
52% Are Older than 25 and the Majority Are Female
4%
0%
Male 17% < 19
34%
34% 19-20
Female 21-24
25-29
66% 26% 30+
19%
Source: JIRA Data Report – October 2011

11. What Do All These
Statistics Mean?
 Many – in fact, most – of our students are adults.
 Therefore, androgogy is an important consideration.
 An incredible number of students, from all
backgrounds, are now taking online classes in pursuit of
everything from certificates to Bachelor’s degrees.
 Faculty should take a variety of student goals into
consideration

12. What to Remember…
 It is important to know who the learners are in our virtual
classroom. Often, online students are adult learners who
are nontraditional students. They are usually in the
workforce, may have family obligations, perhaps they
travel for their work, or may even be abroad for a period
of time. Usually the adult learners have a specific reason
for obtaining their higher education degree – for
example, it might be for personal satisfaction, to open
career doors in the future, or advance in their present
organization.
Adapted from CSU Global “Characteristics of CSU Global Students”

13. Some Principles for Adult
Learning
 Needs Assessment: Participation of the learner in naming what is
to be learned.
 Safety in the environment between teacher and learner for learning
and development.
 A sound relationship between teacher and learner for learning and
development.
 Careful attention to sequence of content and reinforcement.
 Praxis: Action with reflection or learning by doing.
 Respect for learners as subjects of their own learning.
From: Vella, J. (1994). Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 3-22.

14. Androgogy
Knowles’ Principles of Andragogy:
 Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation
of their instruction
 Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for
learning activities
 Adults are most interested in learning about subjects that
have immediate relevance to their job or personal life
 Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-
oriented

15. More About Adult Learners
 They are more self-guided in their learning,
 They bring more, and expect to bring more, to a learning
situation because of their wider experience - and can take
more away, and
 They require learning "to make sense" - they will not
perform a learning activity just because the instructor said
to do it.
Adapted from CSU Global “Characteristics of CSU Global Students”

16. Now That We Know
More About Them
What Can We Do to Help Our
Students Succeed?

17. Best Practices for Our Learners
 Consider applying principles of andragogy along with
your other practices
 Create a more “social classroom”
 Through use of blogs, wikis, social networks, synchronous
chat sessions
 Create a clear agenda
 Organize your course shell in a user-centric way

18. Conclusions
How to Begin Implementing These
Strategies for Success

19. Faculty Role to Ensure
Continuous Improvement
 Attend professional development regularly.
 Rely on your support network.
 Read current research.
 Revise curriculum as needed (with approval of
supervising administrator).
 Select new approaches as needed.
 Mentor other teachers!
Drawn from “Reform versus Traditional Pedagogy” by Cathy Jones

20. A Final Thought…
 Adults have increased variation in learning styles. The individual
differences among people increase with age. Using a variety of
teaching materials and methods will assist in catering to the
differences in style, time, types, and pace of learning. In
addition to text-based focus, Palloff and Pratt (2003)
noted, "We need to pay attention to ways to facilitate the other
dimensions of learning or we risk losing our students," which is
something to consider in learning styles in the module reading
this week (p. 35). Once acclimated to the online
environment, adult learners are typically self-directed and self-
motivated, necessary in online learning.