Institutional support to provide freshmen with flexible learning paths at course and semester level in open higher education

Abstract

As an open university, at UOC there are nearly no enrolment requirements and, furthermore, students freely choose the courses they want to take each semester. But most of the students that choose UOC to combine their daily live with university studies are not really aware about the effort and workload implied. Therefore, there is a significant dropout rate after finalizing their first semester. In this paper we describe an institutional project named ESPRIA that combines the use of institutional learning analytics and the work with teachers at course design level, in order to provide students with some personalized support during their first enrolment. This guidance may help them to avoid an excessive burden due to a wrong course election, to gauge and meet their expectations by achieving their goals at the end of their first semester, and to be motivated to re-enroll in the following ones.