Socialising postgraduate students to success in an open and distance learning environment

Abstract

The aim of this study was to understand the socialisation of master's and doctoral students towards success in an open and distance learning (ODL) environment. The investigation focused on identifying the people, processes and artefacts that the students believed most contributed to their success. Six doctoral students who had completed their research within three years and five master's degree students who had obtained their degrees with distinction participated in the research. The data were collected by means of graphic elicitation interviews following on the completion of a relational map to give an indication of the strength of the influence. The sociocultural and the social capital theories were used as a lens to interpret the data. The findings indicated what the participants believed mediated their learning and development, increased their zone of proximal development (ZPD) and enabled them to be successful. The study contributes to the debate on the socialisation of postgraduate students towards success without compromising their autonomy. Keywords: throughput rate of postgraduate students, open and distance learning, the sociocultural theory, social capital, student autonomy, the University of South Africa.