Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Tom Worthington points to Kelly Linden's report Is the problem us? Helping part-time students succeed in a full-time world (90 page PDF) which asserts (probably correctly) that "part-time students on average have lower rates of success and retention, and are more likely to belong to an equity group than full-time students." While Linden makes a number of progressive recommendations making exceptions for part-time students, Worthington argues this misses the point. "Programs should be designed for this mode of learning. This is not difficult or expensive to do, and ultimately simpler than designing for full time face to face students, then have to make special arrangements when it turns out most students are not." It's hard to imagine universities moving away from the full-time residential (or commuter) student model, but if they want to be more central and responsive to the needs of the community, they should be thinking this way.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Aug 07, 2026 12:23 p.m.

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