Fostering support
A program that helps parents inspire their children to enroll in tertiary education and to pursue thehir career aspirations
A school that offers classes to undocumented students who cannot otherwise attend university
A program in which online doctoral candidates receive payment and training to mentor peers
Supportive technology
A tool that utilizes AI to predict when a student might fail and to prompt actions that could prevent these failures
An electronics kit that, like a mobile laboratory, enables students to design, assemble, and test circuits during online classes.
A program that helps parents inspire their children to enroll in
tertiary education and to pursue their career aspirations
The behavior and attitudes of parents greatly affect the likelihood their children will enroll in tertiary education. The Brotherhood of St Laurence, an organization established to stem poverty in Australia, developed the Parents as Career Transitions Support to help parents inspire their children to pursue their education. Parents attend group workshops to learn and to discuss how to support the career aspirations of their children. These parents learn about various pathways to achieve these aspirations—such as job centers, apprenticeships, and vocational courses—and develop skills in engaging their children in these conversations. To illustrate
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parents learn that career pathways are often convoluted—and that perhaps they should enable children to embrace this journey of discovery
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the facilitators challenge the assumption that children should follow one preferred pathway to fulfill their career aspirations—addressing the anxiety about misguided or inappropriate decisions
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parents learn to explore the motivations that inspire their children to explore a specific job or pathway—and can use this information to suggest avenues that might fulfill these motivations.
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parents learn abo
More recently, another community organization, Youth Connect has updated the program to accommodate more diverse children, such as children who report a disability.
Further reading
A school that offers classes to undocumented students
who cannot otherwise attend university
Freedom University, in Atlanta, is a school that presents college classes, at no cost, to undocumented youth—that is, youth who have not been granted a legal immigration status or citizenship. Because these individuals are undocumented, they would not otherwise be able to access higher education in the state of Georgia. Four professors from the University of Georgia founded the school in 2011 in response to the policy that prohibited undocumented students from public universities in the state. Since the advent and advocacy of this school, other universities now admit and even financially support undocumented students.
When the school first commenced, classes were arranged on Sundays. Because of threats from the KKK and other concerns, the locations in which students attended classes was not disclosed to the public—a policy that persists today. Many individuals, primarily from the local community and University of Georgia, raised money to purchase textbooks and arranged transportation to the classes. Over time, the curriculum broadened. The school employs two undocumented staff members.
Further reading
Connell, R. (2019). The good university: What universities actually do and why it’s time for radical change. London, UK, Zed Books.
A program in which online doctoral candidates
receive payment and training to mentor peers
Online doctoral candidates often feel isolated from the institution. To support these candidates, a center, called the Academic Skills Centre at Walden University, pay and train doctoral candidates in help online peers foster social connections as well as develop personal, research, and career skills. The center advertises these peer mentoring roles on the online job board. All peer mentors must have completed one or more years of their doctoral course, have accrued some experience in mentoring, coaching, or teaching, and be willing to commit 10 hours a week to this role. If selected, peer mentors watch online training modules about the role and receive other training—especially about the resources and services that are available to candidates. The also attend regular virtual meetings with the program coordinator to discuss best practices, share insights, and ask questions.
Soon after they are admitted, each online doctoral candidate can be allocated a peer mentor. The mentor and candidate usually share the same academic discipline or cultural background. Peer mentors will meet individually with each candidate as well as
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distribute weekly emails that include recommendations and relevant resources on various topics, such as how to manage imposter syndrome or diminish procrastination
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host live virtual events in which they share their experiences, present some recommendations, or answer questions that are posted before the session or during the session; the feedback that is garnered from these sessions—from polls and surveys—informs future sessions.
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facilitate a Facebook group to encourage further discussion
Evaluations of this program suggest that peer mentoring was successful. Over 70% of the candidates agreed or strongly agreed they felt connected to Walden University and supported by their peer mentor. In surveys, participants often indicated they felt their mentor was supportive and helpful, especially when problems in the research unfolded.
Further reading
Fraenza, C., & Rye, T. (2021). Supporting the social integration of online doctoral students through peer mentoring. Learning Assistance Review, 26(1), 133-161.
A tool that utilizes AI to predict when a student might
fail and to prompt actions that could prevent these failures
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya has developed a tool that identifies students who might fail a course or class. In particular, the tool utilizes past data to predict the likelihood of failure from grades on the assessments, number of classes in which the student is enrolled, grade point average, and other information. A dashboard is displayed that presents a green, amber, or red signal, depending on the likelihood the student might fail.
If students are informed they might fail, they receive information and personalized messages to address this problem. To enhance their learning, they might receive advice on the goals they should set and the activities they should attempt each day or each week. They might receive some reminders about forthcoming deadlines as well. Each message depends on past data, such as their marks on past assignments.
As research shows, the tool does tend to diminish the likelihood that students will fail. Students tend to evaluate the tool favorably, unless their initial expectations were unrealistically high.
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Further reading
Bañeres, D., Rodríguez, M. E., Guerrero-Roldán, A. E., & Karadeniz, A. (2020). An early warning system to detect at-risk students in online higher education. Applied Sciences, 10(13), 4427.
Raffaghelli, J. E., Rodríguez, M. E., Guerrero-Roldán, A. E., & Bañeres, D. (2022). Applying the UTAUT model to explain the students' acceptance of an early warning system in Higher Education. Computers & Education
An electronics kit that, like a mobile laboratory, enables students
to design, assemble, and test circuits during online classes.
An electronics kit that, like a mobile laboratory, enables students to design, assemble, and test circuits during online classes.
In many classes, students learn about the design, assembly, and testing of electronic circuits in person. However, if students cannot attend classes but want to learn remotely, they cannot manipulate these circuits, compromising the learning experience and impeding their development.
St. Louis Community College have developed a method to overcome this problem. Specifically, the team developed an electronics lab kit that can be sent to all students who study remotely. The students can then manipulate the circuits at home while they participate in online classes. In essence, these kits can be equated to mobile labs. These circuits are relevant to a range of courses, such as digital logic, micro controllers, and electronic devices.
Initially, these kits were developed to accommodate COVID-19 and funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. Nevertheless, these kits may enable more students to study remotely, increasing enrolments and improving the learning experience.
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Further reading
This webpage in which the developers earned an award