ELearning/Course design/Supporting strategies
Student retention, progress, and graduation have become big concerns on college campuses as critics have questioned the value of a college degree, low retention and graduation rates. Online course drop rates are commonly reported to be 10-20% higher than the traditional classroom and hybrid settings (Nistor & Neubauer, 2010; Patterson & McFadden, 2009; Aragon & Johnson, 2008; Tyler-Smith, 2006; Carr, 2000). Year to year retention hovers around 72% for first-year full-time online learners but only 48% for part-time students (Department of Education, 2011). After six years, 82% of full-time students graduate but only 22 percent of part-time students do; 68 percent drop out (National Student Clearinghouse, 2014). Overall graduation rate for all students was 59% in 2013 (Digest of Education Statistics, 2015).
The reasons for these unwanted student outcomes are complex and multifaceted. Student characteristics and personal circumstances are the most common causes of dropping out, failing courses, and failing to graduate. However, this fact begs the question of what institutions and individual instructors, especially working together, can do to increase student success.
This module discusses three student support categories. These issues and strategies are highly relevant to the design and teaching ends of instruction, and so this section is located within both the Course design and Teaching online modules.
Student retention issues
As an introduction to the articles, we summarize here those individual characteristics and circumstances associated with student retention and dropping out, progress and stalling out, and graduation. The authors cited below include extensive literature reviews.
Cognitive support
We can consider cognitive support as any action or piece of information that assists users as they execute the cognitive aspects of learning tasks and planning for future tasks.
Motivational support
Motivation is a complicated human phenomenon, and is difficult to encapsulate into a coherent whole. Keller (2010) created a four-part model to deal with the problem of student motivation, called the ARCS model, discussed here.
Technical support
While technical support is not a design or teaching issue, we know that technical issues do impact the student experience and thus learning and teaching. This article addresses important issues designers and instructors need to consider.
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