Tutoring in (Online) Higher Education: Experimental Evidence

Can peer mentoring improve online teaching effectiveness? An RCT during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Our strongest effects are for already well-performing students, indicating that peer mentoring in online education may increase inequality in outcomes. This is very different from tutoring, where we find a reduction in inequality in a follow-on project in a similar setting ( Hardt et al., 2022 ). Despite the nearly universal shift towards online teaching in higher education due to the pandemic, evidence on improving the effectiveness of online teaching in this context remains scarce.…”

“…This part of the survey shows an average standardized effect of around 0.16 standard deviations ( -value = 0.048). 22 We believe that it is unlikely that these results merely reflect impacts on students’ mental health since in a more intensive tutoring intervention in later terms, we find no impacts on any of several dimensions of student mental health ( Hardt et al., 2022 ). Thus, the treatment seems to have worked through affecting study motivation and study behavior.…”

Advancing Digital Maturity in Croatia’s Higher Education System

“…Sources: Council of the European Union (2021 [29]), Council Implementing Decision on the approval of the assessment of the recovery and resilience plan for Croatia, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021PC0401; Eurydice (2021 [30]), National Reforms in Vocational Education and Training and Adult Learning, https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/nationalreforms-vocational-education-and-training-and-adult-learning-11_en; Government of the Republic of Croatia (2020 [31]), National Reform Programme 2020, https://vlada.gov.hr/UserDocsImages/Europski%20semestar%202020/National%20reform%20programme%202020.pdf…”

“…Some national standards for online or blended higher education are provided on an optional basis, although public authorities may offer incentives to institutions to undergo external review using the standards. For example, the Estonian Quality Assurance Agency for Higher and Vocational Education (HAKA) offers instructors the opportunity to apply for an external review of their digital courses and to obtain an "E-Course Quality Label" (HAKA, 2022 [30]). Take up of such incentives may vary depending on the attractiveness of the award and/or the administrative burden on the institution.…”

“…Other countries have opted for a middle ground, centralising a limited range of digital services that are subject to less personalisation and have an overarching impact on the security of the system. In Norway for instance, the Norwegian Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education & Research (now merged into Sikt, a new service provider for the knowledge sector) offers a common ICT architecture to centralise, harmonise and standardise services related to security and access (UNIT, 2021 [30]). At the same time, it gives institutions the freedom to choose services that can be tailored to their needs, such as virtual learning environments (OECD, 2021 [26]).…”