Many colleges are pursuing innovative alternative approaches for the development of education that aims to accelerate students' progress in gaining important academic competencies. Summer bridge programs are one such approach. These bridge programs offer underprepared and at-risk students the opportunity to advance toward college-level coursework…

Nowadays, the virtual learning environment has become an ideal tool for professional self-development and bringing courses for various learner audiences across the world. There is currently an increasing interest in researching the topic of learner dropout and low completion in distance learning, with one of the main concerns being elevated rates…

In an era of increasingly hyped Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that seem to evoke feelings of both promise and peril for higher education, many institutions are struggling to find their niche among top-tier Ivy League schools offering courses to thousands of participants for free. While the effectiveness of MOOCs in terms of learning outcomes…

This research is part of a larger study of the factors affecting part-time adult learners. It covers a literature review dealing with three areas of factors that might affect adult learners: (i) social and environmental, (ii) traumatic and (iii) intrinsic factors. This produced 36 factors and was followed by a qualitative study to validate and…

Terms such as retention and persistence reflect the interests of different parties. Much of the empirical and theoretical literature deals with retention from a "supply-side" perspective. This article has three main sections. The first consists of a summary of recent empirical findings from surveys of students who left their on-campus programmes…