Three to Get Ready: A Survey Study Identifying Challenges of Student Readiness for Successful Online Learning and How to Remediate Them

Student success in learning online is vitally dependent on their readiness. Online adjunct faculty expressed concerns regarding lack of student online learning readiness in a sequential mixed methods study consisting of interviews and an online rating survey (Dereshiwsky, Babb, & Minarcine, 2022). This follow-up study was conducted with online faculty and administrators at a Pacific Northwestern University to identify more specific concerns about student readiness for online learning. Subjects rated 20 items in the areas of student technology navigation skills, student communication, and student engagement in their online course. Respondents also answered two open-ended survey questions regarding biggest perceived challenges related to student readiness, as well as what can be done to better prepare students for online learning. Benefits of this study include heightened faculty awareness of student readiness concerns so that they can be more quickly remediated to ensure a maximally successful learning experience for students.