SmarterServices has released the 2011 Student Readiness Report.

Distance learning continues to grow at an incredible rate. As more students begin to learn online, it becomes obvious that distance learning is a better fit for some students than others. Individuals considering distance learning desire to know if studying online will be a good choice for them. Schools which invest heavily in attracting new online students want to retain the students across their degree program. Both schools and students benefit when a student’s level of readiness for learning online is measured.

The 2011 Student Readiness Report (SRR) uses data from 240,386 unique students from 258 colleges and universities during the time frame of July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Data from each of these students was analyzed in aggregate, and the findings are now being reported in the SRR. Among these students, 71% were female, only 30% were of traditional age (18-22 years old), 22% had “social” as their dominant learning style, 37% exhibited between 70%-79% of mastery in technical knowledge, and 53% scored 100% on technical competency skills. Statistically significant differences were found among the demographic factors of gender, ethnicity, age, institution type, and the number of prior online courses taken. For example, females were found to have statistically significant higher means on the constructs of individual attributes, typing accuracy, and life factors. Males were found to have statistically significant higher means on the constructs of reading rate and technical knowledge.

According to Sloan-C, over 5.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2009 term – a 21% increase over the number reported the previous year. This 21% growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 2% growth of the overall higher education student population. When asked about how the SRR data could help with the growth of the online student population, Dr. Mac Adkins, President of SmarterServices said, “The Student Readiness Report is of substantial interest to distance learning leaders as they plan to continue to scale and improve their programs. For example, the aggregate data included in the report is useful to instructional designers as they craft their courses to be intuitive for learners of various learning styles and technical abilities, while the information about learners’ life factors and their abilities is useful to student services personnel”.

To download a free copy of the report, go to http://www.smartermeasure.com/documents/2011_Online_Student_Readiness_Report.pdf.

The student data came from the SmarterMeasure learning readiness indicator. SmarterMeasure is a web-based, diagnostic tool that measures students’ strengths and opportunities for improvement in six areas related to online learning and technology rich courses. Those include life factors, learning styles, individual attributes (such as procrastination, motivation, etc), technical competency & knowledge, typing speed & accuracy, and on-screen reading rate & recall.

2011 Student Readiness Report is Now Available!

(PRWEB) October 19, 2010 -- Distance learning continues to grow at an incredible rate. As more students begin to learn online, it becomes obvious that distance learning is a better fit for some students than others. Individuals considering distance learning desire to know if studying online will be a good choice for them. Schools which invest heavily in attracting new online students want to retain the students across their degree program. Both schools and students benefit when a student’s level of readiness for learning online is measured.

From July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 a total of 209,025 students from 271 colleges and universities took the SmarterMeasure learning readiness indicator. Data from each of these students was analyzed in aggregate, and the findings are now being reported in the 2010 Student Readiness Report (SRR). Among these students 72% were female, only 28% were of traditional age (18-22 years old), 28% had “social” as their dominant learning style, 33% exhibited between 70%-79% of mastery in technical knowledge, and 45% scored 100% on technical competency skills. Statistically significant differences were found among the demographic factors of gender, ethnicity, age, institution type, and the number of prior online courses taken. For example, females were found to have statistically significant higher means on the constructs of individual attributes and typing accuracy. Males were found to have statistically significant higher means on the constructs of reading rate and technical knowledge.

The SRR will be presented publicly at the upcoming Sloan-C conference in Orlando, FL. According to Sloan-C over 4.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2008 term – a 17 percent increase over the number reported the previous year. This 17% growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.2% growth of the overall higher education student population. When asked about how the SRR data could help with the growth of the online student population, Dr. Mac Adkins, President of SmarterServices said, “The Student Readiness Report is of substantial interest to distance learning leaders as they plan to continue to scale and improve their programs. For example, the aggregate data included in the report is useful to instructional designers as they craft their courses to be intuitive for learners of various learning styles and technical abilities, while the information about learners’ life factors and their abilities is useful to student services personnel”.

To download a free copy of the report go to http://www.smartermeasure.com/documents/2010_Online_Student_Readiness_Report.pdf.
SmarterMeasure is a web-based, diagnostic tool that measures students’ strengths and opportunities for improvement in six areas related to online learning and technology rich courses. Those include life factors, learning styles, individual attributes (such as procrastination, motivation, etc), technical competency & knowledge, typing speed & accuracy, and on-screen reading rate & recall. Serving over 300 institutions, SmarterMeasure is the premier readiness tool delivered in a custom user interface, complete with an administrative panel that includes access to student data, data export, communication tools, and custom features.

SmarterServices LLC provides research-based, data-driven services that empower schools and organizations to make smarter decisions.

For more information/interview contact: Dr. Mac Adkins 334 543 4026 or visit www.SmarterServices.com.

Student Readiness Report 2010 - Press Release

One of our newest READI clients, American Sentinel University, has just launched a press release announcing their implementation of READI.  ASU recognized the need to implement a tool that would help students gauge their skills, measure technical proficiencies, and provide resources for support.  Dr. Richard Oliver, CEO of American Sentinel University said, "succeeding in an online university environment requires a different set of skills than in a traditional campus-based setting".  To read the complete article click here.

American Sentinel University Launches READI

Just released from PRWeb

The 2009 Online Student Readiness Report (OSRR) has been released and is now available! The report was officially released at the recent DLA conference in St. Simons Island, Georgia.  Presented by eLearningToolBox.com, OSRR makes observations from data taken from 150,065 unique students from 272 higher education institutions who took the READI assessment from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009.

Highlights in the report include the following statistically significant differences between the means of the variables of gender, ethnicity, institution type, age range and number of prior online courses taken as they relate to student readiness for online learning:

Gender – Females scored higher on the constructs of individual attributes, learning styles, typing speed, typing accuracy, and reading recall.  Males scored higher on technical competency and technical knowledge.

Ethnicity – Caucasian/White reported higher means for learning styles, technical competency, and reading recall.  African American scored the highest on individual attributes.  Asian or Pacific Islander had the highest means for technical knowledge, typing speed and typing accuracy.

Age Range – For constructs related to personal maturity, older students had the highest means.  For constructs related to technical matters younger students had the highest means.

Institution Type - Doctorate GrantingUniversities reporting the highest means for learning styles, technical competency, technical knowledge,and typing speed. Special Focus Institutions (schools preparing students for specific careers) reportedthe highest means for typing accuracy and reading recall. Baccalaureate Colleges reported the highestmeans for individual attributes.

Number of Prior Online Courses – The results strongly demonstrated that with online learning experience matters.  The greatest difference in means from students with no prior online course experience and those who had taken five or more courses was in the area of technical knowledge. This indicates that with experience students can learn to use the technology required for online courses.

A full copy of the report is available at http://www.readi.info/documents/2009_Online_Student_Readiness_Report.pdf

READI – Readiness for Education At a Distance Indicator is a web-based, diagnostic tool that measures student’s strengths and opportunities for improvement in five areas related to distance learning.  Those include learning styles, individual attributes (such as procrastination, motivation, etc), technical competency & knowledge, typing speed & accuracy, and on-screen reading rate & recall.  Serving over 300 institutions, READI is the premier readiness tool delivered in a custom user interface, complete with an administrative panel that includes access to student data, data export, communication tools, and custom features.

eLearningToolBox is owned and operated by the parent company DECADE Consulting (http://decadeconsulting.com).  eLearningToolBox.com provides tools that make eLearning better.

2009 Online Student Readiness Report