To be successful academically in an online learning environment, you need to do much more than simply go to class and turn in your assignments on time. Students are under more academic pressure than ever before, taking more difficult courses, having higher expectations placed upon their grades, and balancing work and family with their education. As a result of these factors, academic support services have become essential tools for helping students improve their academic performance, reduce their stressors, and achieve their long-term educational goals.
Academic support services consist of tutoring, academic advising, editing assistance, research assistance, writing assistance, dissertation advising, and time management assistance. Each of these services is designed to assist students in overcoming academic challenges while developing skills that will benefit them in the future, both educationally and professionally.
Academic advising is one of the best methods of providing academic assistance. Students often experience difficulty comprehending those functions that are part of their degree requirements, course sequences, and what is expected of them by their university. Academic advisors assist students in developing structured educational plans that will help facilitate students’ success over time. Academic advisors also support students with scheduling courses, developing goals, monitoring progress, utilizing competency-based techniques to learn, and providing guidance that promotes student focus and motivation during their academic experience.
Tutoring services also provide significant benefits to students by enhancing academics in a number of ways. Online learning scenarios require students to complete assignments individually and may create obstacles for students in terms of understanding complex ideas without additional education from other personnel (ie, tutors). By receiving individualized assistance from tutors, students are able to obtain clarification by asking questions, find solutions for difficult materials, and enhance their understanding of course content, including, but not limited to, nursing, health care, psychology, leadership, and business (and/or research methods). Additionally, personalized tutoring improves a student’s understanding of course content and results in higher levels of confidence and critical thinking skills related to that course content.
Another service frequently available for students studying online is academic writing assistance. For most university programs, students must produce research papers, discussion postings, case studies, literature reviews, and evidence-based assignments in accordance with established professional-level academic writing standards. Therefore, students lacking sufficient command of writing skills may face difficulty in organizing their ideas coherently, conducting adequate levels of scholarly research, or properly adhering to APA formatting conventions. Academic writing assistance provides them with a resource to better construct their work through improvements to structure, grammar, clarity, citation, and overall professionalism.
Editing and proofreading assistance also helps students to achieve higher standards of academic quality. Even students who possess deep content knowledge might still submit work with grammatical errors, incorrect formatting, or a lack of clarity in their written language. Editing assistance enables students to elevate the quality of their work prior to submission, making it easier for faculty members to read, review, grade, and award marks to assignments based upon the university’s grading rubrics. As such, the overall improvement of a student’s submitted work resulting from editing could have a substantial impact on a student’s final grade and academic success.
Finally, Doctoral-level students typically utilize dissertation and research project assistance. Completion of a dissertation (doctoral thesis) typically requires a high degree of complexity and proficiency relating to the following: advanced research capabilities, understanding of methodological principles, data analysis and evaluation skills, academic writing proficiency, and organizational skills. Dissertation and research project assistance provides students with assistance in selecting a dissertation topic, developing a dissertation proposal, conducting the literature review, creating the final product in accordance with APA guidelines, editing/tightening the final dissertation, and preparing the final dissertation for submission. Dissertation and research project assistance helps provide support for managing the overwhelming number of tasks associated with conducting research in pursuit of a doctoral degree.