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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Learners' satisfaction and persistence are considered critical success factors in online universities where all of the teaching and learning activities are carried out online. This study aims to investigate the structural relationships among perceived level of presence, perceived usefulness and ease of use of the online learning tools, learner…

Community colleges are increasing their enrollment faster than four-year universities and have also had the highest growth rate in online learning enrollments in higher education. This increase in community college enrollment and specifically in online and developmental courses, leads to a need for research with this population; sadly, very little…

The problem of attrition in online learning has drawn attention from distance education administrators and chief academic officers of higher education institutions. Many studies have addressed factors related to student attrition, persistence and retention in online courses. However, few studies have examined how student expectations influence…

This qualitative study utilized a meta-ethnographic approach to synthesize findings of five dissertations that focused on distance learning support services. The history of ethnographical studies stemmed from an anthropological background. Researchers have applied ethnographical approaches to examine and document various phenomena. This…

Variation in policies virtual schools use to calculate course completion and retention rates impacts the comparability of these quality metrics. This study surveyed 159 U.S. virtual schools examining the variability in trial period and course completion policies--two policies that affect course completion rates. Of the 86 respondents, almost 70%…

Pressure exists to attract and retain students in higher education. Online educational programs have the potential to increase the number of students who can enroll in degree-bearing institutions. Explored in the qualitative study using a modified three-round Delphi technique was the phenomenon of consistently lower student retention rates in…

The rapid growth of information technologies has influenced the way in which education is delivered and experienced. Little is currently known about the impact of distance education experience at the secondary level of the educational system on subsequent educational pursuits in the post-secondary education system. This research utilized archival…

Online services and resources have become increasingly more prevalent over the past decade, and included in this group of services is the delivery of online education; the use of online education by individuals living with mental health disorders has not been studied extensively to this point. This study examined reasons for choosing online…