This is the blog I have been wanting to research, to think about and to write for some time..frankly this one just seemed too tough to tackle in many respects and that is how to address retention in online education.   There are just too many factors to consider and given that where does one even start?

I suppose a definition of retention would be fundamental as a starting point.    It is important to undertand that distance education via the web and using mobile technology is still a relatively new initiative in education.  The schools I have worked at or attended as a student did not start implementing online classes until the late 1990′s early 2000′s, given that it is still in the early stages of development.

Back in those early days of web based course you would hear about or experience courses that were not developed, faculty who failed to communicate with students and experience a confusion on how to access support services.  Much has changed today as educators and institutions understand that only fully developed courses should be put on line, that distance education students need access to support services, and that integration of media can enhance the content of an online course.

However in  spite of that there are several trends which have contributed to the phenomenal growth of distance education via the Internet.  This includes an increased demand for courses and program by those students who would not otherwise have access to educational opportunities via other means.

Retention can mean one thing to students, another to faculty, another to administrators and quite another to those who are responsible for funding programs and providing student financial aid. What this means is that the solutions, research, and even those we survey regarding the issue of retention may have different outcomes all coming from different perspectives.

Without any substantive research to back this I would propose that retention means, to students, successful educational goal completion.  Now what this means to student could be entirely different than what we  assume it to mean. This could mean the he/she accessed some components of a course for informational purposes, career purposes, or personal reasons and did not even feel it necessary to complete the course. It could mean course completion but no reason to continue enrolling in courses, or taking more than one course but not advancing to a degree, and finally degree completion.  For faculty this could mean successful completion of a course, successful advancement to the next level of the course, and/or successful degree completion.   For administration and funders this means successful completion of a course or degree advancement. In addition to this funders want to see and loans paid back ie) a low default rate on financial aid.    All have in mind that this course, courses or program will provide the student with personal fulfillment and/or the tools necessary to be a contributing member of society, having meaning work, and make a living wage.

With all of these differing perspectives on retention how does one measure it and determine what strategies should be in place to achieve the aim of improving retention of students distance education programs and courses.

There are several strategies that have been identified in the research.   The study conducted by Finnegan, Lee and Morris (2008) indicates that those students who successfully completed their courses spent more time on task (as indicated by the US DOE meta-analysis of distance education) more time interacting with others, and participated in online discussions more frequently,  (Lawler, 2007Sutton, Nora, 2008; Tello, 2008). While this time on task is critical it is also important to note that students would also withdraw or drop if they felt the work required of them in an online course exceeded that of the face to face course or required more reading. (Lawlor,2008)   These findings indicate the delicate balance that needs to take place in evaluating content for an online course, not enough does not engage the student or contributes towards achieving the outcomes, too much and the student feels that he/she is in a correspondence course and “reading” too much. (Lawler,2008)

The faculty can access Web 2.0 tools at little or no cost to supplant the text based content of a course.  He/she can use voice threads, Youtube, or some of these video related tools from Web2Go20 .   I will provide a brief overview of these sites, however I cannot vouch for their reliability or safety of use this is for informational purposes only.  I suggest you review the Terms of Service before using and give a few trial runs to ensure that they will meet your needs.

If, for whatever reason you choose to not use your Learning Management System to warehouse your videos I am providing the following here:

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Online education is susceptible to those factors that contribute to dropping out in face to face or traditional education as well as additional factors such as discomfort with the technology, not having a solid technical infrastructure to support online education and falling victim to the assumption that because it is on line it will be easier than a face to face class.  Online education is not easier than face to face, however it should be just as hard, with consideration for the fact that much of it is written and therefore requires the time necessary to read and absorb content.  Online education also requires a very structured approach on the part of the faculty, it does not provide the faculty who designs and teaches the course with “free time, ” because it is  online.

Faculty who are intent  upon doing an outstanding job will recognize that he/she almost needs to log into the course daily, to be consistently present in the course.  The course will be designed from start to finish and will allow for little variance from that structure throughout the semester.  However the course will be designed with few deadlines for the student so that it will meet his/her needs for flexibility which is probably one of the primary reasons why he/she enrolled in the course in the first place.

The research demonstrates that student to faculty communication is a key factor in student retention.  This means that the faculty has set office hours, defines timeliness when he or she will respond to emails (sometimes 24 hours which means logging in to the course and checking email on the weekend), and timely feedback on assignment within 3 days, (quite a challenge if the course has 100 students or more)(Drouin,  2008; Tello, 2008; Lawlor, D, 2007; Finnegan, Morris, Lee 2008).

The research also reveals those student related factors that institutions may or may not be able to address.  These include work related demands, time management,  and technical issues. (Lawlor, D 2007; Finnegan, Morris, Lee, 2007; Disalvio, P., 2008; Lorenzetti, P 2005)

This is the first in a series of reviews of research and literature I intend to do in order to aggregate the recent findings, compile best practices and design strategies that can be implemented to improve student success.