Part-time Programs’ Boundary Crossing Support in Higher Education

Abstract

Today’s learning society prioritizes the necessity of continuous education and universities offer a growing number of part-time programs where students are required to connect learning from multiple contexts. This research focused on improving the understanding of boundary crossing support – support for learning across contexts – in higher education, with the purpose of helping programs to support students in combining learning from different contexts. This study was designed with an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. A large-scale study, consisting of quantitative data analysis of the National Student Survey, confirmed that part-time programs differ in perceived boundary crossing, F (729) = 7.92, p < .001, with a large effect size of η2 = .15 and that boundary crossing ways are related to perceived boundary crossing support. An in-depth cross-case analysis of the boundary crossing support of four part-time higher education programs that either had a high or low degree of boundary crossing indicated that boundary crosser, boundary object, hybrid practice, boundary interaction, degrees of freedom and degrees of clarity are ways to support boundary crossing. The findings provide actionable ways for part-time higher education programs to help students learn across contexts.