Improving Academic Proficiency in Open Distance Learning through Contact Interventions

Abstract

The aim of the article is to describe a pilot study designed to determine the extent to which contact interventions improve the academic proficiency of tertiary-level students in a distance education institution. A group of ‘at risk’ students, identified by the University of South Africa Unisa Mercantile Law Department, served as the pilot target group for the interventions described. Writing intervention: this involved the active teaching of coherence, cohesion, and the academic essay as a discourse type. Reading intervention: Explicit instruction in the answering of multiple-choice questions was given as this form of evaluation accounts for an increasingly high percentage of testing critical reading at Unisa Reading and writing centre intervention: Essay structuring and argumentation were works hopped. Particular attention was paid to cohesion and coherence. Pre- and post-testing was used to determine the effectiveness of the interventions.