Realistic Job Preview as an Alternative Tool to Improve Student Readiness for Online Learning

Abstract

Readiness for online learning has been established as a key component of student success in online classes. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how vital being prepared for online can be. This paper highlights an orientation technique widely used in the business field, namely Realistic Job Preview (RJP), as a method to prepare students for what online learning might be like. Our research proposes an RJP would help students adapt to their new role as online learners. For the purposes of this study, we developed a video providing a realistic preview of online learning following recommendations from RJP research. We then conducted a mixed methods study to examine student perceptions of our realistic preview video and an online readiness self-assessment. Overall, our findings provide strong evidence for the use of RJP as a strategy to improve student readiness for online learning.

Investigation of Pre-service Teachers’ Readiness Levels for Online Learning and Engagement Levels in the Online Environment

“…In the literature, there are studies showing that online learning readiness and student participation are important in creating positive learning outcomes or achieving academic success in online learning environments (Carini et al, 2006;Çakır & Horzum, 2015;Demir & Horzum, 2013;Demiralay et al, 2016;Hung, 2016;Junco, 2012;Junco et al, 2011;Kuh, 2009;Latheef et al, 2021;McKeithan et al, 2021;Vayre & Vonthron, 2018).…”

An Investigation on Students’ Level of Adjustment to Online Education with C5.0 Decision Tree Algorithm

“…Online education has advantages such as interaction (Leszczyński et al, 2018;Wagner et al, 2008), flexibility (Smedley, 2010), and self-pace (Amer, 2007). Also, it can be used to eliminate educational inequalities between age groups, expand educational access geographically, provide education to large audiences, combine education with work or family life, improve students' self-motivation, selfdiscipline and critical thinking skills, allowing students to progress at their own rate, and improve student's technical skills (Buselic, 2012) Studies on online education can be found in the literature under the categories of efficacy, advantages, and difficulties (Afrouz & Crisp, 2020), feedback gathered from LMS courses (Cavalcanti et al, 2019), improvement of the online education model (Wiliam, 2008), examination of course content on online and digital platforms (Ciolacu et al, 2017), estimation of student passing rates in online education (Ma et al, 2018), reduction of dropout rate in online education or e-learning courses (Tan & Shao, 2015), students' readiness for online learning (Latheef et al, 2021), strategies to encourage student participation in online environments (McKeithan et al, 2021), and student success in online courses (Vayre & Vonthron, 2019). However, no study has been found to assess the independent variables that have a significant effect on students' adaptation to online education and their order of importance.…”

Exploring Students’ Readiness in context of Transformation from Traditional to Online Teaching Practices at Higher Education Institutions

“…In addition, Warden et al (2022) stated that in technology-mediated education, students must feel competent and confident in their abilities. Moreover, Latheef (2021) identified readiness as a critical factor for determining the success of students in online classrooms. Following this, described readiness for new technologies is critical for a higher education institution to achieve the intended results and benefits (Machado, 2007).…”