Abstract:

Since the appearance of the web, universities have changed the way education is designed and provided. Nowadays, most brick-and-mortar universities offer online programmes and subjects. Furthermore, there are fully online open/distance universities with limited or even no face-to-face interaction. These online universities provide students with a higher degree of flexibility, allowing them to choose among an endless list of subjects for completing their career.

But this flexibility can be misunderstood by some students. For instance, several thousands of different enrollment patterns are generated each semester, but most of them are just taken by only one student. Although this can be seen as a success of the enrollment flexibility measures, it may be also the source of the most well-known problem in open education: high dropout rates, partly caused by inadequate enrollment.

As their main source of information, students access university enrollment information through web pages, which are still an exact online replica of those used in the past. In most cases, information is still displayed in static pages containing text, lists and tables. Students may face an overwhelming amount of information they are not able to sort, and they may find it insufficient to plan and select subjects strategically. On the other hand, students' enrollment data and academic performance is recorded and stored in institutional learning record stores every semester, but this information does not show insights regarding their real motivations and needs when selecting subjects.

Therefore, understanding students’ habits when enrolling is important to improve their learning experience. In order to do so, a questionnaire was sent to students taking a Computer Engineering degree in their first or second semester. The questionnaire was based in previous works related to self-efficacy for learning and performance, motivation to learn and student goals. Concretely, the questionnaire asked about how students decide the total number of subjects, and which subjects in particular, what information sources they have consulted, and how important those sources were when making their final decision. At the end of the questionnaire, we asked students to rate their enrollment experience and to add any other information that they think might be relevant to the enrollment process.

Results show that, although the majority of students are quite satisfied with the enrollment process, there is still room for improvement in order to make better decisions and solve the previously described issues. Surprisingly, tutors’ recommendations are not as relevant as institutional web pages as an information source. An Exploratory Factor Analysis has shown some evidence that the most important factor for students to determine their enrollment is the time they have to study, followed by their experience in previous semesters. They were also interested in subjects' calendars and delivery dates within the semester. Information about former students’ experience such as satisfaction and academic performance for each subject was also esteemed.

The questionnaire was the first step of a user centered design process that aims to create a learning dashboard tool for providing students with additional support when enrolling. Responses to the questionnaire were used to design a preliminary sketch of an interactive web application that addresses students’ needs and habits.

Keywords:

Enrollment, higher education, learning analytics, learning dashboards, data visualisation.