https://iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEP/article/view/61354

Abstract

Can virtual support be effective in helping adult students focus on their educational goals? The answer to this question is broadly addressed in this paper with specific reference to adult students qualifying to enter into the Real Estate profession in Florida. The present investigation, in fact, is directed on ways to provide virtual support to adult learners, such as the ones seeking to earn a real estate license. In Florida the process of earning a real estate license is quite intense and require filing an application for licensure and paying the relative fee, getting fingerprinted and passing a criminal background check, and taking a qualifying education class and passing a state test. During the last step of this process about 50% of the pool of qualified candidates fails. It is unknown what percentage of the initial pool of aspirants drops during the application process, but an estimate developed during the course of the present study indicates that the possible pathways for failure are more numerous than the possible pathways leading to the learners' success. In a quasi-experimental retrospective study, a cohort of one hundred forty students was divided into two groups an experiment group receiving virtual support and a control group not receiving virtual support. The difference in the performance of the two groups was analyzed by calculating the licensure time and comparing the differences between the two with the t-student test. The results of this analysis show that virtual support provided by WhatsApp or text messages may improve students' licensure rate and help them reaching their educational and professional goals.