Between the lines: an exploration of online academic
help-seeking and outsourced support in higher education:
who seeks help and why?
Delaney, LorraineORCID: 0000-0003-2422-903X, Brown, MarkORCID: 0000-0002-7927-6717 and Costello, EamonORCID: 0000-0002-2775-6006
(2023)
Between the lines: an exploration of online academic
help-seeking and outsourced support in higher education:
who seeks help and why?
Education Sciences, 13
(11).
ISSN 2227-7102
The growth in online higher education has seen the ‘unbundling’ of some services as
universities have partnered with private companies in an effort to enhance their services. This
paper explores university students’ use and perceptions of the third-party online learning support
platform, Studiosity, at Dublin City University. Studiosity was engaged to support undergraduate
and postgraduate distance students, by offering support beyond existing campus-based services.
This research employs a primarily inductive research design drawing on data collected through the
third-party provider (2018–2020), supplemented by an in-house online survey (2019). Students were
overwhelmingly positive about Studiosity. Postgraduate students, arguably students with good
academic skills, used the service more than first-year undergraduate students. However, first-year
undergraduates, a group the literature suggests are reluctant users of institutional support, were
also strong users. Questions emanating from postgraduate students demonstrated expedient help seeking. First-year undergraduate students were more concerned with explanations to help their
understanding in order to persist with their studies. This paper posits that all other things being
equal, those who already have strong academic capital will be the greatest users of academic support
services. Proactive, less formal academic support strategies to encourage use by those who need help
most, remain critical