Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 172, October 2021, 104265
Computers & Education

Preparing first-year college students’ academic transition: What is the value of complementary web-based learning?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104265Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Academic transition for first-year college students is challenging.

  • Web-based learning can be complementary to in-class teaching.

  • Students' academic transition can be facilitated through web-based learning.

Abstract

This study focused on the complementary use of web-based learning in relation to first-semester college students' academic transition at a Chinese university. Through qualitative analyses it revealed that the technological affordances of web-based learning reified themselves in diverse forms and in a spatial-temporally unconstrained manner. Against its technological affordances, web-based learning offered students additional knowledge that complemented or enhanced their knowledge repertoires constructed in the classroom. This helped them make the academic transition, which may have been hindered by limited in-class time to meet individual needs and college-level standards. Meanwhile, mediated assistance, especially the instructor's constant adjustment of the instructional design to address the students' learning issues, interacted with the learning outcomes perceived by the students through web-based learning, which further buttressed their academic transition.

Introduction

The academic transition to college is an indispensable yet challenging part of newly enrolled college students' educational journeys (De Clercq, Galand, & Frenay, 2017). At this juncture, first-year college students start to adjust to academic demands that are much more challenging than those encountered in high school (Sheridan & Dunne, 2012; Terenzini et al., 1994). The clash between academic demands and what first-year college students are able to navigate may undermine their confidence in learning and affect the shaping of their identities as well as their motivation to study in the following college years (Meehan & Howells, 2018; Terenzini et al., 1994). Obviously, relying on knowledge accumulated through in-class learning may be insufficient for a desirable outcome, since college-level instructional content tends to be challenging and students' needs vary (Zhang, 2021). This highlights the importance of complementary learning that could further enhance or complement first-year students’ in-class learning (Zhang, 2021), better assisting their academic transition (Terenzini et al., 1994).

Web-based learning, involving the use of the Internet for knowledge construction (e.g., Google Docs-based learning), has been widely used by educators to complement traditional classroom learning (Papastergiou, 2006). Without spatial-temporal constraints, web-based learning, either before or after class, could provide learning resources to meet students' academic demands as well as their individual needs; through their interactions with peers and instructors, students gain the knowledge needed in the mediated online space (Klein & Godinet, 2000; Woo & Reeves, 2007). In doing so, it could complement students’ in-class learning (e.g., knowledge gap or individual needs) that takes place in the traditional classroom environment but is limited by course time (Lee, 2017). In other words, web-based learning may help first-year college students with the academic transition, where they are faced with college-level academic demands that may be hampered by time-constrained learning.

Taken together, given the importance of preparing college students for the transition as well as the role of web-based learning in enhancing their academic performance, the potential of combining web-based learning with first-year college in-class teaching merits our attention. Nevertheless, this line of research still seems limited. As such, the current study focuses on how the complementary use of web-based learning interacts with first-year college students’ academic transition. By doing so, the study attempts to shed light on the pedagogical role of web-based learning in transitioning first-semester college students at the academic level.

Transition is defined as “any event, or non-event, that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles” (Goodman, Schlossberg, & Anderson, 2006, p. 33), such as an academic transition to a new setting with new academic demands (De Clercq et al., 2017). The transition from high school to the first year of college is a process whereby students are adapting to a changed and more demanding knowledge system (Sheridan & Dunne, 2012). Attending to this phase of academic transition is important, as a poor transition, in which students’ confidence and motivation are thwarted, would affect their motivation to study in the following college years (Terenzini et al., 1994).

First-year college students' academic transition is not isolated but a “complex multifactorial process” (De Clercq et al., 2017, p. 40), in which diverse concomitant contextual factors interact, such as the learning styles students accumulated in high school, and their learning motivation at college (Sheridan & Dunne, 2012; Terenzini et al., 1994). Among them, the amount of academic knowledge constructed in a mediated context (e.g., learning through peer and especially teacher assistance) seems to be a prominent construct that plays out in the process of their academic transition (Terenzini et al., 1994, Zhang, 2018). Understandably, mediation-based knowledge construction helps first-year college students gain knowledge by attending to their learning needs and knowledge backgrounds, with the ultimate purpose of assisting them with meeting academic demands (Meehan & Howells, 2018). It can help offset other factors (e.g., demotivation resulting from a knowledge gap or their previous learning styles) that hinder students from accumulating knowledge necessary for the academic transition (De Clercq, Roland, Brunelle, Galand, & Frenay, 2018). However, the amount of time first-year college students spend with their instructor and peers is generally limited to classroom learning (Lee, 2017). As Harklau (2001) noted, the purpose of in-class learning mainly lies in constructing knowledge “in as compact a way as possible, with the assumption that most of students' literate activity would take place outside the classroom” (p.54). As such, De Clercq et al. (2018) suggested that educators should attend to the “importance of preparation in managing the shock of the new context” (p. 75). In other words, given the limited classroom learning but the important role of mediated knowledge construction in balancing the complexities of academic transition, mediated construction of academic knowledge outside the classroom should become crucial endeavors (Zhang, 2018), complementing students’ in-class learning and better preparing them for their academic transition.

Almost no research has been conducted on how mediated knowledge construction outside the classroom can prepare students for their academic transition. Existing research tends to focus on the variables associated with students' academic transition, which include students' previous knowledge repertoires, learning styles, and their emotional state (e.g., De Clercq et al., 2017; Sheridan & Dunne, 2012). For example, De Clercq et al. (2018) focused on first-year biology students at Belgian University. Through qualitative analyses of student interviews conducted at the beginning of the first semester and the end of their first year, their study showed that first-year students' academic transition was a complex process conditioned by diverse factors (e.g., their previous knowledge).

Taken together, mediating students' knowledge construction is important for their academic transition, but it is constrained by limited in-class time (Lee, 2017). In contrast, without time constraints, mediated learning outside the classroom can help further build up students' academic knowledge and meet their individual needs (e.g., Zhang, 2021). Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore how students’ academic transition to their first year of college could be buttressed through mediated knowledge building outside the classroom.

Web-based learning is the use of the Internet to access knowledge learning, such as discussion boards, web pages, and Internet-based audio-visual teaching and learning (Liu & Lan, 2016; McKimm, Jollie, & Cantillon, 2003). While web-based learning may present students with challenges in navigating the technology, such as Internet glitches or unfamiliarity with its use (McKimm et al., 2003), it is generally considered a useful tool for enhancing and supplementing college students' knowledge (Yadav, Tiruwa, & Suri, 2017), suggesting its potential for preparing first-year college students' academic transition. (Yick, Yip, Au, Lai, & Yu, 2019). First, web-based learning is flexible and unconstrained by time or place, thus providing students with a supplementary platform where their knowledge construction can transcend spatial-temporal constraints and can occur during either the students' or the instructor's spare time (Hill, Song, & West, 2009).

More importantly, web-based learning allows the instructor to build learning modules on web-based platforms (e.g., Google Docs-based learning) and adjust the instructional design, such as knowledge supplementation, and encouraging peer or and teacher-student interactions (Lee, 2017; Liu & Lan, 2016; Woodrich & Fan, 2017). Through web-based mediated learning, teachers could provide additional knowledge that may fail to be included or solved in class due to time constraints, meeting the expected demands of a curriculum (Hill et al., 2009; Lee, 2017; Zhang, 2021). Students could also use the web-based platform to meet their individual needs for academic demands (e.g., posing questions), which they may also fail to achieve in class due to the limited time available for each student (Papastergiou, 2006). The students can maintain the knowledge constructed among peers or teacher–student mediation for their later independent learning (Liu & Lan, 2016). In other words, given the spatial-temporal flexibility of web-based learning and its role in supporting students' knowledge development (including individual needs) on a mediating basis, it would be a potentially useful platform for preparing first-year college students’ academic transition.

Much research has been conducted on the relationship between web-based platforms (like Google Docs) and students' academic learning (e.g., Liu & Lan, 2016). This line of research has shown that the platforms can benefit the improvement of students' academic learning in diverse ways because of their technological affordances (Hill et al., 2009; see Yadav et al., 2017 for a review). In terms of the relationship between audio-visual resources provided by the platforms and students' learning, Shadiev, Hwang and Huang‘s (2017) literature review showed that the audio-visual resources engaged students' interest in learning and enabled them to gain knowledge flexibly without the constraints of time and space. In regard to the web-based platform (e.g., a specific use of a web page, which is also related to the current research) and the effect of mediated learning, Liu and Lan (2016) conducted a quantitative study of Chinese English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) college students in a department of tourism and transportation. Through peer mediation during their 8-week reading of English texts, along with mediating questions posted on Google Docs, the students felt motivated to engage in learning (i.e., vocabulary use and learning in this study) in a collaborative and mediating manner on the web. In terms of web-based learning and meeting students' individual needs, in Yick et al.‘s (2019) quantitative research on first-year college students' learning outcomes, they pointed out that learning through web-based learning may be no substitute for the traditional classroom because of diverse constraining factors (e.g., students' time spent on independent learning). However, web-based learning could be a good addition to fortify or complement students' classroom learning and “encourage individual students' success” (Yick et al., 2019, p. 186), depending on the teacher's mediation efforts in designing the module based on curriculum demand and individual needs. In all, these studies showed the usefulness of web-based learning for supporting college students' knowledge development, through using multimodal resources to galvanize students' learning motivation while without the constraints of time and space, providing mediated assistance, and meeting their individual needs.

As seen above, these studies in relation to web-based learning did not integrate themselves specifically with first-year college students' academic transition. Given the potential of a web-based platform as a venue for an extended and flexible learning mode, students' academic transition to their first year of college merits attention, especially in terms of how to use web-based learning as supplementary learning resources to increase their knowledge repertoires (including their individual needs) and meet academic demands. As such, this study is guided by the following question: How does web-based learning interact with first-year college students’ academic transition?

Section snippets

Methodology

The research aims to gain an in-depth understanding of college students’ academic transition in relation to the use of a web-based platform. Echoing such research purpose, a qualitative approach in tandem with an interpretative paradigm was suitable, as it focuses on a contextually embedded understanding of the complexity of a phenomenon (Ormston, Spencer, Barnard, & Snape, 2014).

Findings

Overall, the study shows that students’ academic transition to their first-semester learning in the college reading classroom was complex but manageable when exposed to complementary web-based learning. Their academic transition mainly involved a battle between their knowledge gap and high academic demands at the college level, which was also conditioned by other concomitant factors (e.g., out-of-class time investment). Their academic transition was gradually facilitated through web-based

Conclusion and discussions

The qualitative study has yielded the following findings pertinent to the research question. First, in the process of interacting with web-based learning, the students were able to align themselves gradually with curriculum standards as expected in the local context. On the one hand, it aligns with previous studies that emphasized the role of web-based learning in enhancing students' academic outcomes (e.g., Liu & Lan, 2016; Woodrich & Fan, 2017; Yick et al., 2019). On the other hand, as an

Credit author statement

The author, Xiaodong Zhang, who is also the only author of the paper, is responsible for everything of the paper, constituting 100% contribution of the paper.

Xiaodong Zhang is an associate professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. His research interests include teacher education, educational equity and educational technology. His work has appeared in some international journals, such as Linguistics and Education, Applied Linguistics Review, and Teaching in Higher Education.

References (24)

  • Y. Woo et al.

    Meaningful interaction in web-based learning: A social constructivist interpretation

    Internet and Higher Education

    (2007)
  • X. Zhang

    After-class academic support: does course-embedded faculty tutoring matter to student writers?

    Teaching in Higher Education

    (2021)
  • M. De Clercq et al.

    Transition from high school to university: A person-centered approach to academic achievement

    European Journal of Psychology of Education

    (2017)
  • M. De Clercq et al.

    The delicate balance to adjustment: A qualitative approach of student's transition to the first year at university

    Psychologica Belgica

    (2018)
  • J. Goodman et al.

    Counseling adults in transition: Linking practice with theory

    (2006)
  • L. Harklau

    From high school to college: Student perspectives on literacy practices

    Journal of Literacy Research

    (2001)
  • J.R. Hill et al.

    Social learning theory and web-based learning environments: A review of research and discussion of implications

    American Journal of Distance Education

    (2009)
  • A. Klein et al.

    The teacher as a mediator in a networked society

  • B.N. Lee

    Computer-based learning: E-Learning

    Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology

    (2017)
  • S.H.J. Liu et al.

    Social constructivist approach to web-based EFL learning: Collaboration, motivation, and perception on the use of Google docs

    Journal of Educational Technology & Society

    (2016)
  • J. McKimm et al.

    ABC of learning and teaching: Web based learning

    BMJ

    (2003)
  • C. Meehan et al.

    In search of the feeling of ‘belonging’in higher education: Undergraduate students transition into higher education

    Journal of Further and Higher Education

    (2019)
  • Xiaodong Zhang is an associate professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. His research interests include teacher education, educational equity and educational technology. His work has appeared in some international journals, such as Linguistics and Education, Applied Linguistics Review, and Teaching in Higher Education.

    View full text