Study Examines Online Education Retention Rates
Study Examines Online Education Retention Rates
At Kennesaw State University, Assistant Professor Stacy Campbell and her colleagues noticed a disturbing (but not uncommon) trend - the dropout rates in their online courses were significantly higher than dropout rates in their traditional, face-to-face courses. "We found the dropout rates to be 15-20 percent higher in the online courses," Campbell said. "We thought...what can we do to stop it? There are lots of strategies suggested to increase retention, so we thought we would test several to see if they were effective."
To conduct the study, Campbell and her colleagues tested the impact of several commonly suggested retention strategies in a Business Information Systems and Communications course during the spring 2009 semester. Strategies they tested related to student engagement, learning communities, student services and learner-centered environments. After the semester was over, the retention rates of the tested class was compared to a control group of students.
What they found, was that after implementing the suggested strategies, there wasn't a noticeable difference in the student retention rate. "The dropout rates didn't decrease," Campbell said.
The results of Campbell's study, titled,The Impact of Student Retention Strategies: An Empirical Study, will appear in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Management in Education. Campbell believes that the survey results point to the fact that classroom-based retention strategies, such as calling students at home, having them sign contracts and facilitating online discussions, simply aren't that effective.
"Online classes offer a lot of flexibility, but there is also no one taking attendance each day. Students must be self motivated to keep up with their work."
What she will test in the future, she said, are strategies focused on individual student characteristics and the importance of setting expectations.
"Some of the issues we will look at include whether students are attending school full-time, whether they have taken an online course before and whether they have the motivation to take an online course," Campbell said. "Online classes offer a lot of flexibility, but there is also no one taking attendance each day. Students must be self motivated to keep up with their work."
Professor Keith Tyler-Smith of the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology in New Zealand agreed. "Where the online option is adopted because this mode best serves the needs of the learner and their context and circumstances, then there are strategies, techniques and ways of dealing with learner motivation and stick-ability," he said.
Tyler-Smith also pointed out that because many online learners have other obligations they are juggling along with school, that sometimes - despite their best intentions - they are forced to drop out of school. "Even with the best will in the world, sometime life happens and there's no real answer," he said.
Even though the strategies tested in Campbell's study weren't found to be effective, Campbell isn't convinced that the situation is hopeless. "What we found is that the logical answers aren't necessarily effective," she said. "We need to be focusing out attention on the students and making some policy changes and expectation setting."
"Not all instructors are well-suited for the online classroom."
"We need to make sure that students fully understand the commitment they are taking on," she said. "Online courses can actually be more time consuming than on-campus courses. You have to motivated and you have to have time management skills...it's not a style of learning that is well suited for everyone."
Another factor Campbell wants to explore is the effectiveness of instructors, and whether their ability to teach online courses has an effect on retention. "Not all instructors are well-suited for the online classroom," Campbell said.
From his experience as an online student, Tyler-Smith found that his motivation and success in the classroom was directly related to the quality of the instruction. "In those courses where [the quality was lacking], not only did my own motivation and performance fall below what I would consider optimal, but the numbers of those who dropped the course was a significant indicator of the issues the course had as a less than satisfactory experience," he said.
"The use of online classrooms just keeps increasing, and the fact is, that online learning is not going away," Campbell said. "It offers a lot of flexibility and there are great things we can do in an online classroom."
One of the benefits of online education, Campbell said, is the ability to create small discussion groups that forces everyone to participate in activities and discussions. "In face-to-face courses, it's easy for some students to squeak by without being noticed," she said. "In an online environment, students who are otherwise shy can speak up and share their thoughts...that's a real benefit to online learning."
"But, it also has its weaknesses - one of which is retention," Campbell said.
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