Efficacy of the Learning Skills Workshop on New Learners' Academic Performance and Persistence In Open University Malaysia (OUM)

• Main Author: Latifah Abdol Latif
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: LC5201 Education extension. Adult education. Continuing education; LB2300 Higher Education
• Online Access: http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/95/1/Efficacy_of_LSW2007.pdf; http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/95/
• Institution: Open University Malaysia

Improving the first semester learners' experience has been part of a broader set of initiatives to increase learner retention and achievement in Open University Malaysia (OUM). One set of challenges faced by OUM in this respect is to help learners develop appropriate expectations initially and then to ensure that the quality of learners' experience, once they are already in is as positive as it can possibly be. In meeting the challenges, the Centre for Student Affairs (CSA) at OUM has carefully crafted and designed several programmes which prepares them to be effective ODL learners.. This paper examines the efficacy of a Learning Skill Workshop (an orientation programme) on the new learners' academic performance, measured in terms of Grade Point Average (GPA) as well as their persistence in the programme, i.e. whether they go through the whole semester workload up to sitting for the final examination and followed through to the reregistration process and become an active learner in the subsequent semester. The study involves the collection of data of new learners who attend the Learning Skill Workshop, labeled as the �treatment� group and the remaining new learners who do not attend as the �control� group. The results indicate that the learning skill workshop has a positive impact on both learner performance as well as learner persistence. When the likelihood of success of the new learners is increased, so will their chances of completing their undergraduate education.