What do first-year students need? Digital badges for academic support to enhance student retention

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse data on first-year students’ needs regarding academic support services and reasons for their intention to leave the institution prior to degree completion. On the basis of the findings, a digital badge outline is proposed which could contribute to improved communication of academic requirements in order to help students to better adapt to higher education demands. Digital badges might also serve as an indicator for students’ needing additional academic support services. Design/methodology/approach: An online-questionnaire was conducted with 730 first-year students at a German university. Participants’ responses to open-ended questions were coded and categorised. On the basis on these findings, an outline for a digital badge programme is proposed. Findings: Participants seek the most institutional support regarding research skills and organisational aspects. Main reasons for participants’ intention to withdraw from the institution include difficulties with their programme choice. Practical implications: These findings may enable higher education institutions to provide targeted support services that meet first-year students’ needs. On the basis of the findings, higher education institutions can create digital badge programmes, which may improve communication of academic requirements and may also serve as a platform for a staff-student conversation about expectations and demands for a successful first-year experience. Besides, further research and discussion may address using digital badges for learning analytics algorithms to even better identify students’ strengths and needs for targeted academic support services and enhanced student success in higher education. Originality/value: Little is known about first-year students’ needs for institutional support and reasons for thinking about dropout in Germany. Understanding the student perspective is crucial for enhancing student retention. Digital badges are an emerging educational technology in higher education and they have the potential to target academic requirements, which may guide first-year students and help them to better adjust to universities’ demands.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of applied research in higher education
Volume12
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)86-96
Number of pages11
ISSN1758-1184
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17.01.2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

    Research areas

  • First-year students, Higher education, Learning analytics, Retention
  • Educational science

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Nachhaltigkeit als Treiber des Unternehmenserfolgs
  2. Running off the road
  3. Labrets in Africa and Amazonia
  4. Konfliktlösung durch Verhandlung
  5. Mehrsprachigkeit und Interkulturalität in Fremdsprachenportfolios
  6. The romanian grassland database (RGD)
  7. Forming-induced damage and its effects on product properties
  8. ASE
  9. Recent Capital Market Regulatory Developments in Germany and the EU
  10. Opening Minds
  11. Stratification of stakeholders for participation in the governance of coastal social-ecological systems
  12. Assistenz
  13. An Arab Predecessor to Western (Trans-)Secular Thought
  14. Beyond the Market
  15. Multiple
  16. Productivity and the Product Scope of Multi-Product Firms: A Test of Feenstra-Ma
  17. Socioecological Interactions amid Global Change
  18. "Thinking about the unthinkable"
  19. MännerWeltWald
  20. Die Aufgabe der Erinnerung in der Pädagogik
  21. Schreibfähigkeit
  22. Strom aus der Wüste
  23. Monster und Freaks
  24. Armut und Reichtum
  25. Lernumgebungen
  26. Abstimmen wie Zuhause.
  27. Die unsichtbaren Geister des Zuhauses
  28. Maschine
  29. Acs, Zoltan J. and Audretsch, David B. (eds.): Small Firms and Entrepreneurship: An East-West Perspective, Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.240 pp. E 30.00. ISBN 0-52143115-8.
  30. Organizational Context and Collaboration on International Projects
  31. Militainment als "banaler" Militarismus
  32. Commodity Chains, Rural Development and the Global Agri-food System
  33. Article 3 Universal Application
  34. When You Share, You Should Care
  35. Schwerpunktbereich - Einführung in das Planfeststellungsrecht [Part 1]
  36. Public Value - Gesellschaftliche Wertschöpfung als unternehmerische Pflicht
  37. Unobtrusive Respiratory Rate Detection within Homecare Scenarios
  38. Sustainability Balanced Scorecards and their Architectures
  39. Exports and Productivity
  40. "Wir wissen nicht, was wir tun sollen" - Expertisierte Raumaneignung und -konstruktion