Student retention in higher education has become a critical focus in recent years. This paper describes the efforts of Lone Star College-Online and its Online Student Support Services unit to build and implement a comprehensive suite of services for online students with the intention of enhancing the online student experience and ultimately,…

In 2013, the Student Centre at The University of Tasmania began researching the development of distance learning support. A survey was designed as part of this endeavour, which attracted 1002 responses. The survey's broad context focused on the primary drawbacks and benefits of distance education in general and sought to identify emergent themes…

The intent of this study was to investigate 93 doctoral candidates' perceptions and use of an online collaboration workspace and content management server, Microsoft Office SharePoint, for dissertation process. All candidates were enrolled in an Ed.D. programme in the United States. Descriptive statistics demonstrate that candidates frequently use…

For several years, the government of the western Canadian province of Alberta has drafted policies and conducted research on the problem of populations under-represented in adult education. This Alberta-North and Athabasca University study, funded by the Alberta government's Innovation Fund, uses the advice and educational experiences of northern…

Adults seek out learning experiences in order to adapt to specific life-changing events such as marriage, divorce, a new job, a promotion, being laid off, retiring, losing a loved one, or moving to a new city (Yopp, 2007; Zemke & Zemke, 1984). It has been suggested that student retention is one of the greatest weaknesses of online education (Allen…

The purpose of this research is to identify student-specific characteristics that are related to students' preference for distance education courses. Since distance education courses provide students with more convenient and flexible class schedules, they should be preferred by students who have a greater number of competing demands, such as work…

This study examined the influence of some predictors in the enhancement of persistence and students success in distance education in the two most recognised and respected distance learning institutions in Nigeria--the Distance Learning Institute (DLI) of University of Lagos and Distance Learning Centre of University of Ibadan. The need for this…

"Alabama Education News" is published monthly except for June, July, and December by the Alabama Department of Education. This publication, authorized by Section 16-2-4 of the "Code of Alabama", as recompiled in 1975, is a public service of the Alabama Department of Education designed to inform citizens and educators about…

Previous studies conducted on dropouts within online courses have found inconsistent factors affecting attrition. A literature review was performed, focusing on eight main studies. These studies were performed at both national and international universities. The methodology, participants, research question, and results varied by study. Overall,…

Using data to track and manage student enrollment is steadily becoming a standard practice on both two-year and four-year campuses. Data mining enables colleges to create predictive models for identifying behaviors that put students at risk for dropping out, flag students who engage in these behaviors, and help identify practices that work in…

This study evaluated students' sense of community, satisfaction, achievement, and retention in 3 sections of the same online undergraduate psychology course. Use of asynchronous discussion threads and students' perceived interaction with fellow students and the instructor were all correlated with students' perceived sense of community (SOC). When…

Four research studies of students and faculty engaged in fully online undergraduate courses are analyzed to generate best practices for teaching and learning online. These studies investigated the relationship of student background variables and online behaviors to student persistence and achievement in the online environment. Over 500 students…

Although research on computer-assisted and online instruction abounds, researchers have expressed concern about the lack of theoretical frameworks for these studies. While ample research documents learning outcomes in individual courses, few attempts have been made to link computer-assisted or fully computer-mediated instruction with philosophical…

The purpose of this study was to examine existing data to determine if a significant difference existed between student evaluations from an online asynchronous and an online synchronous learning environment, as well as their impact on retaining students. The data available were from a national online university that serves students across the…

This study identified pre-entry variables related to course completion and noncompletion in university online distance education courses. Four hundred and sixty-four students who were enrolled in online distance education courses participated in the study. Discriminant analysis revealed six pre-entry variables were related to retention, including…