FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE STUDENTS’ DECISION TO DROPOUT OF ONLINE COURSES

By P. Willging, Scott D. Johnson. Online Learning, 2019

368 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Although there are many reasons why students dropout of college courses, those reasons may be unique for students who are enrolled in an online program. Issues of isolation, disconnectedness, and technological problems may be factors that influence a student to leave a course. To understand these factors, an online survey was developed to collect data from students who dropped out of an online program. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare various factors between those who persist in the program and those who dropout. The results, based on the dropouts from three cohorts in an online graduate program, show that demographic variables do not predict likelihood of dropping from a program. Instead, the students’ reasons for dropping out of an online program are varied and unique to each individual. Recommendations for further study are incorporated in the conclusions.

Subfields: Computer Science Applications, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/31dc587bcb764dc09bdfd63bcf3e2d537306536a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Computer Science Applications

1. Jennifer C. Richardson
2. Karen P. Swan
3. Philip Ice
4. D. Randy Garrison
5. Zehra Akyol
6. David Annand
7. Gráinne Conole

In Education

1. Jennifer C. Richardson
2. Chang Zhu
3. Edmond Kagambe
4. Mugenyi Justice Kintu
5. Karen P. Swan
6. Philip Ice
7. Angela M. Gibson
8. Sebastian R. Diaz

Citations in the corpus

• Blended learning effectiveness: the relationship between student characteristics, design features and outcomes (2017, background): “Research shows that absence of learner interaction causes failure and eventual drop-out in online courses (Willging & Johnson, 2009) and the lack of learner connectedness was noted as an internal factor leading to learner drop-out in online courses (Zielinski, 2000). It was also noted that learners ”
• AN EXPLORATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDICATORS OF THE COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY FRAMEWORK AND RETENTION IN ONLINE PROGRAMS (2019, background): “68 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 [3, 4, 5, 6].”