Advising college students with dis/abilities in online learning

Abstract

Most distance universities have adopted advising practices traditionally employed in on-campus institutions. Nonetheless, little is known about the role of academic advisers while guiding students with dis/abilities to engage and achieve success in online higher education. This study aimed to explore and analyze advisers’ perspectives related to supporting the diversity of these students in a fully online university. We followed the methodology of a case study based on semi-structured interviews in which 14 advisers participated. Our findings show that even though advisers face challenges when advising online students with dis/abilities, they attempt to support them proactively by offering personalized tracking. A paradigm shift from a reactive to a proactive approach by adopting inclusive practices would greatly improve the inclusion of all learners. Online institutions could better support learners with dis/abilities by framing all processes in the universal design principles and promoting collaborative and coordinated work among advisers, faculty, and staff.

Keywords:

• online learning
• academic advising
• students with dis/abilities
• inclusion
• universal design

Acknowledgments

We thank Sílvia Mata for helping us to access the participants, the participants for sharing their experiences for the study, and Efrem Melián for helping us to proofread the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Geolocation information

This study was conducted at the Open University of Catalonia’s 22@ building, Barcelona, Spain: 41.406719323451824°N, 2.1945476797315604°W.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Notes on contributors

José Israel Reyes

José Israel Reyes is a doctoral candidate at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. His research interests include the analysis of students with dis/abilities’ experiences in online higher education in terms of socialization, collaboration, and interaction, as well as the improvement of the academic support to promote their academic success.

Julio Meneses

Julio Meneses is an associate professor of research methods at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, head of the Learning Analytics Unit (eLearning Innovation Center), and an Internet Interdisciplinary Institute researcher. Academic website: https://femrecerca.cat/meneses