The Effect of a Multifactor Orientation on Student Performance: Organizational Skills, Goal setting, Orientation to Classroom, and Academic Support
Online classes have significantly increased over the last 20 years. From a simple asynchronous model to a complex, interactive, live system, they challenge many online students. Based on Knowles’ Andragogy theoretical framework, researchers sought to explore the qualities students need to complete a first term undergraduate online course. Researchers conducted a quantitative exploratory study to identify the effects of offering a multifactor orientation; this was an extra seminar online, focused on organizational skills, goal setting, orientation to the online classroom, and academic support for successfully completing a first term class. Participants at an online university in a first term course agreed to attend a faculty- led, one-hour presentation; this was an extra seminar focusing on organizational skills, goal setting, orientation to the online classroom, and academic support. A total of 25 students volunteered and attended the extra seminar, provided by three faculty members who were experienced in teaching first-term students in a school of business at a large online university.
