Advancing Student Support for ODL: Experiences from the EMPOWER Project

European universities face great challenges dealing with XXI century world changes. Deep transformations are required to the extent that a wide range of life-long learning scenarios is progressively replacing the traditional scope of university studies, also giving access to a larger number of students all over the world in more flexible ways. Therefore, the modernisation of university modes of teaching and learning is being requested by the European Commission, also stating that technologies, in general, and online and open education, in particular, are relevant contributors to the feasibility and effectiveness of the educational revolution. Aiming at giving support in the transition of European higher education institutions to those new modes that implement digital, open and online learning, the EMPOWER project was launched in 2015, looking to share the long expertise of Distance Education Universities in the field. The EMPOWER is organised in 12 main areas. One of them refers to Student Support, being considered as the central field for students’ success. Its final goal is to empower students to become life-long self-directed learners in open, online and blended-learning environments, increasing students’ retention and enhancing their academic performance, integration and satisfaction. In the present communication, the experts of the EMPOWER Student Support group summarise the work been done during the past two years. Our main objective has been to offer different tools and resources (e.g. webinars, reports, etc.) that could help institutions and academics in their understanding of what underlies student’s engagement and motivation vs. Students’ drop out. Also, we aim at sharing expertise about how to develop innovative, advanced and quality student support services mediated by technologies to large and small groups of students.