Motivating and Retaining Online Students

Research-Based Strategies That Work

Rosemary M. Lehman, Simone C. O. Conceição

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118642283
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Finally, the first research-based book of sound strategies and best practices to help instructors motivate students to complete their online courses. Although studies support the effectiveness of learning online, students often fail to complete online courses. Some studies have found that as many as 50–70% drop out of their online courses or programs. Retention is not only a growing expectation and imperative, but it is also as opportunity for faculty members to take the lead in innovating, researching, and implementing new strategies while demonstrating their effectiveness. Designed for instructors and instructional designers, Motivating and Retaining Online Students is filled with empirical research from the authors' study of motivation and retention strategies that can reduce online learner dropout.Focusing on the most important issues instructors face, such as course design; student engagement and motivation; and institutional, instructional, and informal student support strategies, the bookprovides effective online strategies that help minimize student dropout, increase student retention, and support student learning. While helping toimprove the overall retention rates for educational institutions, the strategies outlined in the book alsoallow for student diversity and individual learner differences. Lehman and Conceição's proven model gives instructors an effective approach to help students persist in online courses and succeed as learners.

Chapter 1

Concerns and Opportunities for Online Student Retention

Higher education is undergoing major changes because of increased demands for flexible learning. To meet these demands, online education is developing as an essential mode of delivery and is transforming the educational landscape. This higher education transformation presents us with institutional and instructional challenges (Conceição & Lehman, 2011). These challenges bring into question the concepts of presence, communication, and interaction; redefine the characteristics of the higher education learner; and bring into play new ways of learning.

EVOLVING CONCEPTS OF PRESENCE, COMMUNICATION, AND INTERACTION

To help the reader become aware of the challenges and better understand the evolution of the higher education landscape due to technological advances, we suggest three institutional classifications that illustrate these changes: brick-and-mortar, brick-and-click, and click-link-and-connect. These institutional classifications explain the changing concepts of presence, communication, and interaction in higher education.

Brick-and-mortar is the traditional higher education environment, where learners live on campus and are present to others in a specific location; walk to classes; attend regular courses during normal working hours; participate in campus activities; and communicate, socialize, and interact with other students and instructors within the confines of the campus area (Conceição & Lehman, 2011).

Brick-and-click is the traditional higher education campus environment, where learners reside in campus housing or near campus, or commute with the advantages of the innovative use of technology (Carroll-Barefield, Smith, Prince, & Campbell, 2005). In this environment, learners communicate with others mostly via technology but also have the advantage of being able to interact with others face-to-face.

In this book, we are introducing the term click-link-and-connect, which describes a virtual campus environment composed solely of technology, where presence is elusive, communication is electronic, and interactions take place in cyberspace.

REDEFINING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION LEARNER

Whereas the majority of brick-and-mortar students are traditional college-age students attending classes immediately after high school, some brick-and-click students may still live on or near campus or travel to campus but also take advantage of technology, giving them opportunities to better meet their learning and working needs. The click-link-and-connect students are those who do not live on campus but learn at a distance through a virtual campus. In this group, many of the students are nontraditional, older, place-bound, goal-oriented, and intrinsically motivated and have full-time jobs and family obligations (Dabbagh, 2007).

NEW WAYS OF LEARNING

Changes in the higher education environment and in learner characteristics call for new ways of learning. Modern technologies have provided the opportunity to learn anytime, anywhere, and at any pace, both informally and formally. Learning is no longer a part of a single formal setting—rather, it is everywhere. Think of a mobile device that provides access to e-mail, the Internet, games, files, library resources, videos, music, blogs, social networking, and so on. Learning could take place through any of these applications in any location the user chooses. In this type of technology environment, the boundaries between informal and formal learning tend to blur, and students can lose focus.

Although it is more comfortable for students to interact in the informal environment, in the formal environment there is a need for purpose and guidance. With so many available applications, students can easily become distracted and overwhelmed and may lack motivation to accomplish course tasks. With proper direction on how to manage these ubiquitous technologies and focus on learning, students can be successful.

One of the major issues in online education has been students’ lack of motivation to persist in their courses or programs. This chapter addresses this issue, as well as the causes for increased enrollment and the state of higher education and online learning. The chapter describes concerns related to online student dropout or retention and persistence in higher education and opportunities pertaining to these concerns. The chapter also identifies new learner behaviors and skills in the 21st century. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the study we conducted to fill the gap in knowledge about motivation and support strategies that could reduce online learner dropout in higher education. The study served as the basis for our writing this book.

CAUSES FOR INCREASED ENROLLMENT

According to Allen and Seaman (2010), institutions of higher education can have a positive influence on overall enrollments and on the increased need for online learning in the United States. At least three causes are generating increased enrollment in institutions of higher education: the economic downturn, market demands, and the exponential rate of emergence of new technologies.

In times of economic downturn, people tend to return to school. This tendency generates higher enrollments, with an impact on institutions’ financial situations. Market demands can initiate competition, requiring institutions to reexamine their brick-and-mortar infrastructure and consider the brick-and-click option to increase enrollments and reach out to a wider population through online learning.

Another positive influence on overall enrollments is the rapidly changing development and use of technologies. The life of a technology today is very short and demands constant change and adaptation from users, who must learn new skills. Some advantages of emerging technologies in online education are the capability of creating presence, enhancing communication, and providing opportunities for interaction (Lehman & Conceição, 2010). People highly value these qualities in the face-to-face setting, and these concepts should be the basis for designing brick-and-click and click-link-and-connect environments. In these environments, higher education institutions are finding a new source of revenue without having to build additional physical facilities, recognizing increasing competition, and using emerging technologies to reach out to new audiences (Allen & Seaman, 2010; Maguire, 2005). One example related to this change is the advent of flexible degree programs that integrate MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) into their offerings (Ward, 2013).

THE STATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND ONLINE LEARNING

A 2009 report by Allen and Seaman (2010) shows that 66% of higher education institutions in the United States reported growing requests for new online courses and programs and 73% reported increasing demand for existing online courses and programs. This compares to 54% of growing requests for existing face-to-face courses and programs.

In an updated report, Allen and Seaman (2011) explain that in 2010 there were more than six million students (or 31% of students) in public, private, and for-profit institutions in the United States taking at least one online course. Participation in online courses has grown by 358% since 2003. Though the growth in online learning enrollments has been outstanding, there is still a misperception by academic leaders and faculty that learning outcomes for online education are inferior to those of face-to-face instruction. However, academic leaders at institutions with online offerings have a much more favorable opinion of the learning outcomes for online courses than do those at institutions with no online courses or programs (Allen & Seaman, 2011).

It is evident that online education still suffers from lack of knowledge of its potential by many leaders. In 2010, there was a small increase (2% over 2009) in the number of U.S. institutions of higher education reporting that online education is a critical part of their long-term strategy. In this instance, for-profit institutions are more likely to include online learning in their strategic plans (Allen & Seaman, 2011). Based on the 2011 report by Allen and Seaman, distance education continues to show growth. As a result, concerns and opportunities for online student retention must be considered.

CONCERNS FOR ONLINE STUDENT RETENTION

Online student retention has been a major topic of discussion in higher education for more than a decade. This discussion has focused on student dropout (or attrition) and persistence. Most articles have provided anecdotal information or individual studies carried out by universities (Angelino, Williams, & Natvig, 2007). In the past decade, there have been a few national reports on student enrollment, but none has focused specifically on dropout or persistence. What has been widely addressed in the literature is the comparison between the effectiveness of online learning and traditional learning.

Although studies support the effectiveness of learning online compared to learning in the traditional classroom (Hobbs, 2004; Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006), students often fail to complete online courses. In some studies, it is noted that as many as 50–70% drop out of their online courses or programs (Carr, 2000; Roblyer, 2006; Rovai & Wighting, 2005; Simpson, 2004). Among the reasons for student dropout are feelings of isolation, frustration, and disconnection; technology disruption; student failure to make contact with faculty; inadequate contact with students by faculty; lack of student and technology support; lack of instructor participation during class discussion; lack of clarity in instructional direction or expectation; and lack of social interaction. Another way to view the dropout problem is to look at the factors for student persistence in online education. These factors can help us determine what strategies are needed to retain students, reduce dropout rates, and help students persist in online courses or programs.

Reasons Online Students Drop Out

A review of the literature reveals many reasons for online student dropout. For example, Hara and Kling (2001) and Palloff and Pratt (1999, 2005) address the physical separation of individual students in online education as a reason for their feeling isolated and a major cause of student confusion and anxiety, leading to problems with course retention. The findings of Motteram and Forrester (2005) and Abel (2005) reveal that technology failure and lack of instructor feedback are also reasons for online student dropout. In the online environment, students tend to become frustrated when technology does not function well and lose confidence in their work when they do not receive instructor feedback. For these reasons, technology and student support are essential.

One way for providing support for students is through contact. Motteram and Forrester (2005) say that students rate contact with faculty as more important than contact with other students. Contact can be either proactive or reactive (Simpson, 2004). While proactive contact or intervention means “taking the initiative to contact students either in a teaching or an advisory environment” (p. 80), reactive contact involves responding to student-initiated communication. Proactive contact with a student or interventions from the institution can have an impact on the retention of online learners. Although both proactive contact and reactive contact are important, proactive contact is gaining more attention because students who do not make contact with available systems may be more likely to drop out (Simpson, 2004).

Another way to support students is related to instructor assistance. Chyung and Vachon (2005) found that lack of instructor participation during class discussion and lack of clarity in instructional direction or expectations can cause confusion and frustration and are reasons that students drop out. Inadequate assistance from instructors can also create student dissatisfaction in the online environment and has implications for student retention.

Other reasons that online students drop out were described by Muilenburg and Berge (2005), who identified eight barriers to online learning. We grouped the eight barriers into three categories: skill level, motivation, and support. In Muilenburg and Berge’s study, students identified the barriers to their skill level as academic and technical. In the academic area they lacked skills in reading, writing, or communication. In the area of technical skills they feared the use of new tools and software and their unfamiliarity wi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• List of Tables, Exhibits, and Figure
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Concerns and Opportunities for Online Student Retention
• Chapter 2: Design Strategies for Retaining Online Students
• Chapter 3: Student Strategies for Staying Motivated Online
• Chapter 4: Support Strategies for Helping Online Students Persist
• Chapter 5: Pulling the Strategies Together
• Glossary
• References
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Index