Using a qualitative survey, this study explores the perceptions of university culture and community held by graduate-level online adjunct instructors in two different schools of education. The intention of the research was to determine how the online adjuncts perceived their position within the university community and to solicit recommendations…

This researcher investigated academic resiliency in first-year, online adult learners, and gathered their perspectives about which interactions mattered most for their college persistence. A problem with college persistence for adult learners is that interventions intended to increase academic resiliency are created from the perspective of college…

The first-year experience for students enrolled in an online degree program, particularly the orientation and the first course experience, is critical to success and completion. The experience of one online university in improving persistence through enhancing orientation and the first academic course is presented. Factors impacting persistence…

New media communication tools used in health science education may help enhance student engagement and sense of community, improve retention and persistence, and provide a richer academic experience, but the research is limited on non-traditional online learners. The studies described here therefore, focus on fully online, undergraduate health…

A study was conducted at a community college in northeast Alabama to determine how the format of developmental English courses impacted student withdrawal rates and final grades. The two course formats examined were online/hybrid and face-to-face courses. Data were obtained from a 4-semester time frame: fall 2012, spring 2013, summer 2013, and…

In a time of flat enrollments in traditional higher education, online learning is booming. This article describes how one university evolved its programs to be on the forefront of the fastest-growing segment of online programs, hybrid learning. With a relatively minor investment in infrastructure, classes are delivered simultaneously to students…

This dissertation presents a qualitative case study of students enrolled in online courses and how they perceived the orientation program they completed before starting these courses. The study was based on the perspectives of students enrolled in a fully online program at a small community college in western Maine. They were interviewed…

An important development in higher education is the increased learning possibilities brought by ICT. Many academics seem reluctant to embrace technology. An online teacher training program was followed by 73 academics from nine higher educational institutions. Data were gathered using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model…

Statistics are often used to reveal significant differences between online and campus-based education. The existence of online courses with low completion rates is often used to justify the inherent inferiority of online education compared to traditional classroom teaching. Our study revealed that this type of conclusion has little substance. We…

In their initial study, authors Boston, Ice, and Gibson (2011) explored the relationship between student demographics and interactions, and retention at a large online university. Participants in the preliminary study (n = 20,569) included degree-seeking undergraduate students who completed at least one course at the American Public University…

This case study discusses factors impacting the attrition and persistence rates of 60 Indonesian educators in an online programme in 2010. Course designers developed three variations of a web-based programme--a fully online, hybrid and web-facilitated model--and placed 20 learners, all with similar technology skills, in the three different models.…

Developing and maintaining a "completion mindset" is a necessary mental condition for online educational doctorate (EdD) and educational specialist (EdS) students to obtain their advanced degrees. The purpose of this research study was to examine the effect of a neuroeducational intervention on a volunteer convenience sample of EdD and…

Although online learning is expanding in availability and popularity, the high dropout rates remain a challenging problem. In this paper, we reviewed the existing empirical studies on online course dropouts in post-secondary education that were published during the last 10 years. We identified 69 factors that influence students' decisions to…

This qualitative study was designed to investigate the stressors and support systems of women enrolled in an online master's degree program in education. Participants were women with multiple personal, career, and family responsibilities. Survey data and demographic data were used to identify women with the highest level of stress who were…

Student retention and progression has exercised the HE sector for some time now, and there has been much research into the reasons why students drop out of Higher Education courses. (Allen, 2006; Buglear, 2009;). More recently the Higher Education Academy Grants Programme Briefing (HEFCE, 2010), outlined a number of areas that emergent project…