Influence of Technical Support Services on the Retention of Open Distance Learners: A Case of Selected Universities in Kenya

Abstract

COVID 19 Disruption: The emerging trends in education have sparked an exponential increase in the number of learners using technology and signing up for e-learning. • Evolution of ICT in education: ICT has tremendously evolved; however, the provision of learner support services has not kept pace with the student needs in the technologymediated mode of ODL. • Paradigm Shift in Learner Support: Student support services have remained fairly similar (Dlamini, Rugube, Kunene, & Cosmas, 2021). Yet surprisingly, the new ODL mode requires completely new approaches to respond to the diverse pedagogical needs of the ODL students,(Zuhairi, Karthikeyan, & Priyadarshana, 2020) • The purpose of learner support services is to enable learners to access education and achieve good learning outcomes. However, due to many factors, ODL students experience challenges which make them decide to drop out. • Studies indicate high dropout rates among students taking open distance learning programmes (Aminudin, Navaratnasamy, & Saman, 2019)