proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING

Summing up the results of carried out studies the following list of the subjects, tutorials on which
were taken by secondary school leavers or those applying to universities, has been made up. The results are
given in Table 4.
Table 4: Rating of subjects, tutorials on which were most often taken by secondary school leavers
or those applying to universities (respondents’ opinion).
Subject
1. Mathematics 5. Biology
2. Foreign language 6. Chemistry
3. Lithuanian language 7. Physics
4. History
Summing up data in Table 4 we see that tutorials were most often taken on the following subjects:
Mathematics, Foreign language, Lithuanian language and History. Thus of-line and on-line preparatory
courses might be organized on the same subjects. Less popular tutorials were on Biology, Chemistry and
Physics.
Conclusions
Many higher schools are not succeeding in preparing large numbers of young people for lasting
success in further education and careers, most of them need preparatory courses, so we analyzed the
indicators of a need for preparatory courses, which were emphasized in scientific literature: 1) lack of
academic performance; 2) lack of professional motivation; 3) lack of career counseling; 4) differences in
learning cultures if they leave secondary school; 5) differences in national cultures if they go abroad;
6) differences in a social status if there is a change in family support. All these indicators lead to the
reduction of drop-out rates in higher education.
Drop-out of higher education institutions is determined by various predictors. The main predictors,
which have been highlighted by majority of scientists, are: academic performance, low motivation,
effectiveness of study habits and strategies, adequacy of study skills on entry, etc. In fact, low grades and
inability to study difficult subjects are one of the revealed factors; therefore, preparatory learning might be
useful and needful. Statistical information on higher school drop-outs shows that highest drop-out rates are
in science study programs: mathematics, physics, technical sciences, chemistry, followed by humanities
sciences.
Study of various documents on admission requirements to Lithuanian undergraduate consecutive
studies in the context of teaching subjects, description and analysis of research on the most popular study
subjects, tutorials on which were taken by school children or those seeking for admission to higher
university institutions allow identify these study subjects, on which of-line and on-line preparatory courses
might be offered: Mathematics, Foreign language, Lithuanian language, History, Biology, Chemistry and
Physics.
References
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Conference proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING overcome barriers of Life-Long learning?” 92