This article provides evidence of critical factors of student retention in Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs). The study used multiple sources: tracked retention data (n=43,000), survey data in correlation with tracking data (n=400), and qualitative data (174 informants) from a survey (Friðriksdóttir, 2018, 2021a, 2021b). The data came…

In this article, the developers of seven Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs), Icelandic Online (IOL, https://icelandiconline.com/), describe the technological and pedagogical principles that have contributed to the program's longevity. Development began in 2001 with a courseware system later upgraded to a multiplatform app. Over 80,000…

Additional to the lack of gender and ethnic diversity, the attrition rate among Physics and Engineering undergraduates is as high as 40%. Considering the impact of STEM gateway course on students' choice of major, we investigated the association between students' Expectancy-Value beliefs at the beginning of the class with their intent to persist…

This paper is a preliminary investigation into first year undergraduate students' progress in academic numeracy studies across six Australian regional universities. The paper analyses a survey of university teachers, follow-up interviews and secondary academic numeracy data. Initial findings are presented in terms of the nature of academic…

Each year, roughly 30% of first-year students at US baccalaureate institutions do not return for their second year and billions of dollars are spent educating these students. Yet, little quantitative research has analyzed the causes and possible remedies for student attrition. What's more, most of the previous attempts to model attrition at…

Despite the passage of laws aimed at increasing access and equitable opportunities for students with disabilities in postsecondary education, issues related to disability continue to be rarely discussed in topics related to diversity, inclusion, and educational reform. Disability represents not only an immensely diverse section of the general…

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influenced African American doctoral students at HBCUs to persist toward degree completion. Despite the minimal gains experienced in the success of attracting minority students to graduate programs, problems graduating African American doctoral students still linger (Council of Graduate…

Almost universally, residential doctoral programs have reported attrition rates of up to 50% for face-to-face programs and 50-70% for online doctoral programs. The purpose of this critical review was to explore current literature for doctoral attrition and persistence to explore reasons and attributes for improved persistence to completion. We…

Improving student retention is an important and challenging problem for universities. This paper reports on the development of a student attrition model for predicting which first year students are most at-risk of leaving at various points in time during their first semester of study. The objective of developing such a model is to assist…

A substantial percentage of college students who enrol in Calculus I intending to take more calculus decide at the end of the semester not to continue with calculus. This represents a huge loss in terms of the need for more students to pursue a major in one of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In this report…

This virtual conference was the eleventh in a series of moderator-driven discussions introduced by UNESCO-UNEVOC in 2011. Conducted on the UNEVOC e-Forum--a global online community of over 4,000 members--and guided by an expert, these discussions provide a platform for sharing of experiences, expertise and feedback and wish to inspire people to…

This study was designed to investigate the factors that affect master's student persistence in the United States. More specifically, this study explored whether the following factors: students' background, institution's, academic, environmental and psychological influences, had a significant effect on whether a master's student persisted and/or…

Student retention is the field of institutional research that has (deservedly) had the most attention. Besides the models proposed by Tinto (1975, 1993), there have been many theoretical and applied papers on many aspects of student retention. These include demographic characteristics, scholastic scores, financial and residential considerations,…

The purpose of this study is to identify the many challenges currently faced by traditional teacher education programs and to identify what they can do to survive and succeed. This phenomenological study is the result of the Investigator's journey as the longest serving member of a state's teacher education association and his involvement in state…

Back-and-forth enrollment at different institutions--student swirl--and concurrent enrollment at two or more institutions--double-dipping--have become common experiences for students in the United States. However, empirical studies explaining student mobility are rather rare. This study examines how student departures from and returns to a single…