Catch-Up Mondays: Changing Timetables to Support Learners

Supporting learners, Supporting staff, Workplace learning, Teaching strategies

Completed

Completed: 1 December 2008

A project in 2008, undertaken by Samala Robinson Academy (SRA), to develop a good practice guide describing how allocating one day a week – Catch-Up Monday – to self-directed study and catch-up work enhanced learner outcomes.

Aims:

The main aims of the project were to:

implement a new timetable where one day each week, called Catch-up Monday, was allocated to self-directed study/catch-up work.
enable students to use Catch-up Monday to work on their paper-based assignments at home or at SRA and catch up on their outstanding work/practical assignments.
enable tutors to make use of this day to devote to their administration, meetings, and professional development.

Methodology:

The project used a mixed methods approach involving both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Marjolein Wesseling

Samala Robinson Academy

Completed

$4,500.00 (excl GST)

$4,500.00 Good Practice Publication Grant

Next section: Insights and Impacts

Key Findings

The key findings from the project included:

The implementation of Catch-Up Monday was very successful and was easily implemented. SRA is now considering extending the “Catch-Up Monday” to their part-time students.
Course completion rates and retention rates did not change after implementation of Catch-Up Monday. For several years SRA has had a retention rate of 91% and a completion rate of 98%. These numbers did not increase after implementation. For SRA the benefits were more subjective, as tutors and management felt that was easier to keep up with student progress, to monitor their catch-up times, and to create catch-up schedules.
During the process of changing the timetables it became apparent that extending the day by only one hour had more impact than anticipated. Because there was more time available in the afternoon, the time could be used differently. Previously students were able to do one assignment in the morning and one in the afternoon. After the change, with some rescheduling, they were able to do two assignments in the afternoon. As a result, class time was able to be used more efficiently.
Students could use Catch-Up Monday to work at their own pace on assignments. Catch-Up Mondays also provided an opportunity for learners to catch up on any work missed so they remained up to date with their assignments. Tutors also found this day helpful as it provided extra time for marking, lesson plans, administrative duties, and professional-development.

Key Recommendations

The key recommendations from the project included:

Recommend the implementation of a Catch-Up Day | The implementation of the Catch-Up Monday was a success at SRA. We can thoroughly recommend the implementation of a similar structure for any other tertiary training institute.
Completion and retention rates | While the project didn’t lead to an improvement in completion and retention rates for SRA, it is still possible that implementation of the Catch-Up Monday with other tertiary providers will have a measurable positive impact on important aspects like course completion and retention rates. Further research could be done in order to investigate its impact in the wider world of tertiary education.

Next section: Outputs