Using data from 11 institutions, the authors investigate enrollments in intermediate microeconomics to determine characteristics of successful and unsuccessful students and follow the retake behavior of unsuccessful students. Successful students are significantly different from unsuccessful ones, and unsuccessful students differ by type…

An abundance of literature exists that explores the potential applications of grit in predicting several academic outcomes. Regardless, the concept of grit has been heavily criticised due to the number of inconsistencies among current research. Fully understanding the usefulness of grit in an educational context is a worthwhile pursuit and could…

Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning had become a fundamental part of post-secondary education. At the same time, empirical evidence from the last decade documents higher dropout online in comparison to face-to-face courses for some students. Thus, while online learning may provide students access to post-secondary education,…

Research evaluating holistic admission practices in social work doctoral programs is nascent. This systematic literature review aims to answer two questions: What holistic admissions practices exist in U.S. graduate education? and Are these practices effective in increasing racial and ethnic diversity? In September 2019 we conducted searches of…

Online doctoral students may be at especially high risk for not completing their program. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize and critically analyze the body of research examining factors associated with persistence among online doctoral students, a relatively understudied population. Consistent with the notion that integration and…

Persistence in learning processes is perceived as a central value; therefore, dropouts from studies are a prime concern for educators. This study focuses on the quantitative analysis of data accumulated on 362 students in three academic course website log files in the disciplines of mathematics and statistics, in order to examine whether student…

Despite a surge of empirical work on student participation in online learning environments, the causal links between the learning-related factors and processes with the desired learning outcomes remain unexplored. This study presents a systematic literature review of approaches to model learning in Massive Open Online Courses offering an analysis…

During the last decade, there have been numerous reports detailing the importance of increasing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors in the United States. Simultaneously, an increasing number of studies are being developed to predict a student's success and completion of a STEM degree, recognizing that retention is a…

Conventional wisdom suggests attending the first day of class matters with regard to student course completion and final course grade. However, relatively little quantitative research exists on the effects of attending or not attending the first day of class. Qualitative research on student perceptions of the value and importance of the first day…

The purpose of this article is to trace the development of the Tinto framework for student integration and to critically analyze the application of the framework with nontraditional student populations. Specifically, the terms "academic" and "social integration" have become synonymous with student retention and, by extension,…

High school dropout is commonly seen as the result of a long-term process of failure and disengagement. As useful as it is, this view has obscured the heterogeneity of pathways leading to dropout. Research suggests, for instance, that some students leave school not as a result of protracted difficulties but in response to situations that emerge…

A plethora of research spanning several decades has attempted to understand predictors of retention and graduation in undergraduate bachelor's degree programs. The topic is no less important today, as larger and larger swaths of the American population attend college each year. Studies have demonstrated that key demographic variables, indicators…

Learning analytics and digital badges are emerging research fields in educational science. They both show promise for enhancing student retention in higher education, where withdrawals prior to degree completion remain at about 30% in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries. This integrative review provides an…

This integrated literature review examined factors associated with the ability of students to persist in an online course. Lack of persistence in online education and its' consequence of attrition, is an identified problem within the United States and internationally. Terminology has wavered between persistence and success, where each has been…

This paper presents a meta-analytic review (k = 237, N = 44,668) of the adjustment to college literature. The review, based on studies using the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire, is organized around three primary themes: (1) the structure of students' adjustment to college, (2) the relationship of adjustment to college constructs with…