The Survey Research Of Non-academic Support By Part-time Counsellors For Distance Students In PUMDE

With the development of China modern distance educations,in recent years,many online higher education institutes began to be aware of the importance of Student Support Services(SSS).They focus on providing perfect student support during learning process..Many experts believe that SSS can be divided into academic support services and non-academic support services.The study showed that non-academic support services can effectively promote the academic study,in 2004,Peking University of Medical Distance Education(PUMDE) took up part-time counsellors to commit non-academic support services,and that have achieved good results and won the strong support of students.So this study was to study non-academic support services of part-time counsellors in PUMDE,.The researcher hope to fundamentally promote the the practice of PUMDE,and provide meaningful Reference for other online higher education institutes.This study's question is:The Non-academic Support by Part-time Counsellors for Distance Students in Peking University of Medical Distance Education(PUMDE).It can research with three sub-issues:how did part-time counsellors work according their duties;what are the difficulties and confusion during their working process;how did PUMDE and students evaluate these counselors.This study used the method of document analysis,surveys,interviews,classroom observation and so on to research the working conditions of 47 part-time counsellors and students 'satisfaction.The study outcomes are that:(1) part-time counsellors have effectively solved the students' many difficulties in the learning process:●The counsellors supervised students learning and reminded very timely,comprehensive and targeted;●The counsellors' learning guidance has already played a useful role;●Iimproving teacher-student ratio is the key to ensure the quality of non-academic support services;●There has established a mutual trust relationship between counselors and students.(2) However,the requirements and responsibilities of the counsellors and related job training are simple,the most important of non-academic support such as guiding motives, learning methods guidance,psychological counseling,can not be completed;(3) Part-time counselors in the working process have many difficulties and confusion,.Their understanding of job prospects were ambiguous,counselors contingent were instability.